Daily Human – Indra Nooyi and Girish Mathrubootham – 26/9/21

My LinkedIn feed is only showing two things these days.

Stories of Freshworks’ Nasdaq IPO and Indra’s new autobiography.

I don’t have to explain why both of them are so awesome.

I have an extra affinity for Girish and Freshworks because building a global Indian consumer brand is one of my life’s greatest desires. Also because he sat on the CaratLane board for a long time.

There is a wonderful symmetry in these two stories.

Incidentally both of them come from Chennai.

We have a woman and a man.

Both of them won in America.

One is a product of IIM Kolkata, one of the oldest and finest educational Institutions in India. The other is a product of Zoho – a completely different kind but equally remarkable educational institution. The former is elite. The letter is as empowering and egalitarian as it gets.

Indra overcame the glass ceiling for women and the prejudice against Indians. Girish challenged the belief that Indians could not build a world class tech product company.

She conquered an established giant. He built a new one from scratch.

We are so proud of both of them.