Rathna Girish Mathrubootham is the founder of Freshworks and served as the company's Chief Executive Officer (its principal executive officer) from 2010 until May 2024.
He launched the business as Freshdesk on October 13, 2010 in Chennai, India, co-founding it with Shan Krishnasamy (CTO) after spending roughly nine years at Zoho Corporation, where he had risen to VP of Product Management in the ManageEngine division; the idea was sparked by a Hacker News thread about a Zendesk price increase.
He transitioned to Executive Chairman effective May 1, 2024 and retired from that role, along with his positions as Chairman and a Class III member of the board of directors, effective December 1, 2025, in order to devote his full-time efforts to Together Fund, a venture fund he co-founded.
As of the company's most recent proxy statement, he controlled approximately 18.3% of the voting power of Freshworks' outstanding common stock.