When global SaaS success stories are told, the spotlight often falls on Silicon Valley darlings fueled by billions in venture funding. But quietly, from a suburb in Chennai and later villages in Tamil Nadu, Zoho built a billion-dollar empire without taking a single dollar of venture capital. Today, with over 100 million users, 45+ products, and $1.1 billion in revenue (FY23), Zoho stands as proof that world-class software can be built outside metros, by engineers who valued ownership over pedigree.

At Intervue, we help companies make critical engineering hires. And when we study companies that scaled sustainably, Zoho’s story is an inspiring reminder of what happens when you bet on people, not just credentials.

Zoho began life as AdventNet in 1996, founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in California. Its early focus was telecom and network management software. Meanwhile, in East Tambaram, Chennai, Sridhar’s brothers Kumar and Sekar, along with a few engineers, were coding from their home. It was frugal, bootstrapped, and far from glamorous but it was the crucible where Zoho’s culture of craftsmanship was born.

As the web took off in the early 2000s, AdventNet pivoted toward business software. The big moment came in 2005 with the launch of Zoho CRM, followed by Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show. By 2009, AdventNet rebranded as Zoho Corporation, aligning its identity with the product suite that would define it.

The early engineers at Zoho weren’t from IIT or Stanford. Many came from regional colleges, some even trained at Zoho Schools of Learning, a program Sridhar Vembu started to groom students straight out of high school. Instead of chasing pedigrees, Zoho looked for curiosity, grit, and a willingness to take ownership.

That philosophy shaped its culture. Engineers weren’t just writing code for narrow tasks; they were responsible for testing, fixing, deploying, and responding to customer feedback. In other words, small, autonomous teams owned products end-to-end.

This level of accountability, combined with the discipline of bootstrapping, created software that was lean, stable, and designed for the long haul. Every dollar spent was their own, so every engineering decision had to make business sense.

At Intervue, we often tell founders: your first few engineering hires will define your culture. Zoho’s story is living proof of that.

Zoho didn’t just defy convention by staying bootstrapped, it also redefined where world-class software could be built. Instead of clustering in Chennai or Bengaluru, Zoho opened offices in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, where its flagship helpdesk product Zoho Desk was developed. Later came Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur in Maharashtra, and other non-metro hubs.

For Sridhar Vembu, who moved to a village in Tenkasi himself, this was philosophical as much as strategic. He believed talent existed everywhere, and that creating local opportunities would stop the brain drain from rural India. Engineers could build global products while staying close to their roots.

It’s a bold lesson for companies scaling engineering teams today: geography should not limit ambition. With distributed work and digital infrastructure, your next great engineer could be anywhere.

Zoho’s journey also intertwines with India’s broader digital ambitions. Over the years, Zoho has collaborated with the Indian government and public sector institutions to power digital transformation. From cloud-based tools supporting Digital India initiatives to Zoho Workplace being adopted by state governments and enterprises, the company has positioned itself as a homegrown SaaS champion aligned with national priorities.

In fact, Sridhar Vembu has often emphasized the importance of technology sovereignty, why India needs to build its own digital backbone instead of depending entirely on foreign platforms. This alignment with government policy has not only expanded Zoho’s reach but also reinforced its identity as a truly Indian tech powerhouse with global standards.

Even as its SaaS suite expands, Zoho continues to experiment boldly. One of its most talked-about ventures has been Arattai, a secure messaging app positioned as an Indian alternative to WhatsApp.

What makes Arattai stand out isn’t just its feature set, but the philosophy of data sovereignty behind it. Amid debates around privacy and encryption, Sridhar Vembu clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that Indian customer data is hosted entirely within India in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and soon Odisha. Crucially, Arattai’s data isn’t stored on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. While Zoho may use them for regional traffic switching, the storage remains under its own control.

Vembu’s statement, “We are proudly Made in India, Made for the World, and we mean it,” resonated widely. The app’s adoption skyrocketed after endorsements from Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Dharmendra Pradhan, briefly making Arattai the top downloaded app on the App Store and pushing it toward the Top 100 on Google Play.

This emphasis on privacy, sovereignty, and homegrown infrastructure mirrors what we at Intervue often stress in the hiring process: trust is non-negotiable. Just as Zoho ensures Indian data stays in India, companies hiring engineers must ensure they are building teams that respect compliance, ethics, and transparency from the ground up. It’s not just about shipping code; it’s about building trust into the very DNA of your product.

Zoho’s philosophy might sound idealistic, but the results are staggering. By 2008, it had crossed one million users. Fifteen years later, it serves over 100 million global users across 45 integrated products. In FY23 alone, it clocked ₹8,703 crore (approx $1.1 billion) in revenue and ₹2,800 crore in profit, a level of profitability rare even among venture-backed peers.

This growth has been entirely funded by customers, not investors. As a result, Zoho retains full ownership, long-term vision, and the flexibility to invest in bets like Arattai or even (briefly) chipmaking, without answering to external shareholders.

For us at Intervue, Zoho’s story reinforces why the first 10 engineering hires matter so much. They shape not just your codebase but your culture, values, and velocity. Zoho’s engineers proved that small teams with full ownership, nurtured from unconventional backgrounds, can outperform larger, more pedigreed groups.

It also proves that constraints can be creative fuel. Bootstrapped discipline meant engineers avoided waste, focused on essentials, and delivered sustainable innovation.

And perhaps most importantly, it shows that where you build is less important than how you build. Whether in a Chennai suburb, a Tenkasi village, or a global remote team, great engineers thrive when given autonomy, purpose, and the right tools.

That’s where Intervue comes in. By helping companies evaluate engineers on real skills, not just resumes, and giving them structured interview processes that mirror what companies like Zoho practiced internally, we enable founders to find their own “Zoho-style” first hires, the kind who can build empires, not just write code.

Zoho didn’t ride venture funding waves, didn’t chase vanity valuations, and didn’t conform to Silicon Valley templates. Instead, it built patiently, sustainably, and with deep conviction in its engineers. From bootstrapped beginnings in Chennai to powering government collaborations, from building a billion-dollar SaaS suite to experimenting with Arattai, Zoho’s journey is a testament to what happens when you trust people and focus on long-term value.

For today’s founders and talent leaders, the takeaway is clear: your engineers are your culture. Hire wisely, empower deeply, and remember that the next Zoho-like story might just be built not in a metro, but in a place no one expects.