The results for the latest quarter for Freshworks are out and the US-based Saas company has beaten Wall Street estimates. It posted a revenue of nearly $600 million for FY 2023. Its losses, meanwhile, have narrowed by over 40%. Just a year ago, the story was slightly different. In the same quarter in 2023, the company saw a decline in its net dollar retention rate. Even though the free cash flow was healthy and the revenue climbed 20%, it looked like the comapny was struggling to retain its customers. 
Now of course, things have changed and this turnaround is all thanks to the rising demand for FreshWorks' AI-powered customer support and IT services products. But there’s more to it. And it has to do with the company’s employee-first approach. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

Freshworks is shedding its employee-first DNA to reach its $1 billion dream

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It has been a tough couple of years for India’s Chartered accountants.  
 This was and to some extent still is one of the most sought after jobs in the country.  But lately, the amount of risk involved in their work has been amped up considerably.  And as a result, CAs have been resigning left, right and centre.  
 The reason this is happening is because the auditing industry has been undergoing a major shake-up.  
 And behind this shakeup is a relatively new, independent audit regulator called the NFRA, or the National Finance Reporting Authority.  
 The NFRA has set all sorts of records in the last two years. Since 2022, it has debarred 78 auditors and imposed close to Rs 20 crore in penalties.  
Tune in. 

What is suddenly sending shivers down the spines of 350,000 CAs?

According to a survey by S&P;, more than 75% of Indian adults do not understand basic financial concepts. The gap is 5% more when it comes to women. So the rise of financial influencers who simplify complex financial jargon and provide investment advice is not really surprising. But often, they underplay risks  and overplay returns, and try to ride the market waves. In fact, SEBI, the market capital regulator, has been receiving many complaints and is working on creating a framework of strict guidelines to bring them under its control. But reining these ‘finfluencers’ in is a bit of a catch-22 situation. Tune in. 


Why reining in financial influencers is a Catch-22 problem

Since 2021, Toyota and Maruti have been engaged in somewhat of a marriage of convenience.  
 The terms were pretty simple. Toyota would share its hybrid technology with Maruti Suzuki. In exchange, Toyota would get to re-enter the pocket-friendly segment.  
 So what this meant was that the non-premium Toyota cars sold were actually built by Maruti. And the fully hybrid cars sold under the Maruti label were built by Toyota.  This arrangement has worked well for both companies for multiple reasons. The biggest of which is the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles in India in the recent past.  But in the process, EV makers seem to be losing big time.  
 Tune in. P.S. While you are here, why don't you check out the latest episode of The First Two Years, The Ken's early careers podcast. It's a good one! Akshaya talks about how to network without seeming desperate. Check it out here.  Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories. 


EVs aren’t everybody's cup of tea. Maruti-Toyota are making the most of it.

Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, airport lounges saw of footfall of over 8 million people in 2022. What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers. Now, one after the other, major banks are revising their lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Why free airport lounge access is not so free anymore

In today’s special Friday episode, The Ken’s Praveen Gopal Krishnan (aka PGK) joins hosts Snigdha and Rahel to talk about India’s complicated relationship with 10 minute delivery apps. They talk about how these apps are shaping our economy and society at large, and more importantly how we, as users, are shaping them. Why do we pick a particular app, what makes us switch to another one and what makes us abandon them all together? PGK asked his readers just that in a recent survey he carried out in his weekly newsletter, The Nutgraf. You can check it out here. You can also check out the Bangalore floods edition Snigdha mentioned, here. Listen to Kabir Biswas talk about Dunzo and the quick delivery business on First Principles. If you're curious about the time everyone except Zepto assumed quick commerce was dying, click here. P.S Tell us what you thought of this episode. 
a) Was the subject interesting enough for you? 
b) Did you enjoy the conversation? 
You can write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Freshworks is shedding its employee-first DNA to reach its $1 billion dream

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