Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Labels DocuSign as Bloated Company, Calls Software Overpriced

Zoho co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu in an X post on Saturday, expressed his discontentment against digital signature software start-up DocuSign’s business model. He labeled the company as supremely bloated that “sells super over-priced enterprise software.”

Vembu’s remarks came as a reaction to Andrew Wilkinson’s X post. The co-founder of investment firm Tiny expressed his amazement at how much he was paying for DocuSign and sought an alternative. He said, “I just found out how much we pay for DocuSign, and my jaw dropped. What's the best alternative? Is there something free or stupid cheap?”

Also Read: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu Steps Down, Takes Role as Chief Scientist

Vembu pitched his start-up’s software as an alternative to Docusign, claiming they don't require 6705 employees to produce digital signature software. He called out the majority of the enterprise SaaS (Software as a Service) by saying that almost all of them fit the bloated company label that sells overpriced software. He also claimed that as soon as the enterprise SaaS bubble deflates, the customer will have the same reaction as Andrew had.

Vembu advised the customers of these enterprise SaaS companies to keep a note of their expenses. According to him, if any company spends more on selling and marketing their software to the customer than on research and development of the software, it needs to be replaced.

Also Read: Bootstrapped Unicorn Zoho Crosses Rs 1 Lakh Crore in Valuation

Zoho’s Valuation

Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that provides cloud-based software solutions for businesses. It was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas as AdventNet and later rebranded as Zoho in 2009.

The corporation has been valued at Rs 1,03,760 crore by Axis Bank’s Burgundy Private and Hurun India as per their fourth edition of ‘500 Most Valuable Non-State Run Companies in India.’ This is a 58% increase from Zoho’s previous valuation of Rs 65,700 crore.

The report ranks Zoho corporation at second position in the top 10 bootstrapped companies in 2024 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500. The company was placed right after Serum Institute of India which is valued at Rs 2,11,610 crore. It is one of the few tech companies to be featured in the list and most of the Bootstrapped companies are dominated by traditional, non-tech industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Construction & Engineering. Zoho was ranked third in the 2023 report and fourth in the one before that.

Zoho offers a wide range of SaaS products, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Mail, Zoho Books, Zoho Workplace, and Zoho One, catering to business operations such as customer relationship management, email, accounting, collaboration, and enterprise resource planning. Zoho is known for its focus on privacy, bootstrapped growth, and commitment to innovation.