About This Episode:

Today I’m joined by Gautham Viswanathan, Founder and CPO of Workato. With its industry-leading enterprise automation, Workato helps organizations work faster and smarter without compromising security and governance. As a serial entrepreneur, Gautham has founded and led multiple companies including Blink Interactive and iProfile.

In this episode, you’ll hear the founding story of Workato, how Gautham and his co-founders met and built ‘fusion teams’ that were pivotal to creating a community of over 500,000 shared automations with their product-let approach, and some advice for first-time founders thinking of building a new venture.

Startup Growth Stories is hosted by Don Muir, CEO and Co-Founder of Arc Technologies. In each weekly episode of this podcast, you'll hear from first-time, bootstrapped, and unicorn founders about how they secured their first customers, convinced their first employees to join, and grew their business. Founders and industry insiders share their greatest successes (and failures) and the things they learned along the way. In the final minutes of each episode, guests get vulnerable - they share very personal stories about the impact of their work on their well-being, their relationships, and their families.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

[1:19] Gautham describes himself 

[01:40] Biggest inspiration: filmmakers, sports figures, family, Workato colleagues

[02:43] Workato = “work automation”

[03:43] Founding story, where everyone met, TIBCO

[07:35] The founders knew this was an enormous TAM (Total Addressable Market)

[09:15] Workato’s approach to the market - fusion teams

[11:25] Community- 500K shared automations

[13:30] Customer feedback - magic, joyful, and game-changing

[14:55] Workato, a product-led approach

[16:40] Focusing on the end-to-end experience for Workato customers

[17:35] Advice to first-time founders in today’s economic climate - pick something that moves you, that can make an impact. Co-founders are great to have, not going it alone.

[19:45] Building a team - go with your gut

[21:18] Gautham’s pivotal moments in his career - joining Technicron/TIBCO even though it was not a well-known brand 

[22:40] Personal challenges - Family, exercise, and working from home all helped 

[25:20] Would you do it all again? In a heartbeat, even just for the people, it’s been really fun

About Workato:

As the leader in enterprise automation, Workato helps organizations work faster and smarter without compromising security and governance. Built for Business and IT users, Workato is trusted by over 11,000 of the world's top brands like Broadcom, Intuit, Box, Autodesk, and HubSpot. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Workato is backed by Altimeter Capital, Battery Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, visit www.workato.com or connect with us on social media.

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