Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu steps back from public engagements: Here's why

Sridhar Vembu, the founder and chief scientist of Zoho Corporation, recently announced his decision to temporarily step back from public engagements. On October 15, he revealed that this break is necessary for him to concentrate on a coding project he had previously committed to. In a candid update on his official X account, Vembu expressed that he has "fallen behind" on the project, stating, "I have to ship some code I had committed to ship and I have fallen behind." He emphasized the need to prioritize technical work over public speaking, noting that he will pause external engagements after the current week. Vembu, a staunch advocate for deep technology development, reflected on the importance of aligning his actions with his beliefs. He explained, "I cannot do both deep tech work (which I am preaching constantly about in my external engagements) and then only do the preaching and not practicing it myself. That would contradict my dictum 'do not preach what you do not practice.'" This self-imposed restriction highlights his commitment to the coding work he values. In a separate note of recognition, Vembu praised MapMyIndia’s navigation platform, Mappls, calling it “very nice” and acknowledging the extensive research and development behind it, which he believes surpasses that of Google Maps. On October 12, he congratulated Rohan Verma and the MapMyIndia team on their success through a post on X, sharing a video from India’s Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw. In the video, Vaishnaw encouraged the use of the indigenous “Swadeshi Mappls” app, highlighting its innovative features like 3D visualization of infrastructure and the ability to identify locations within multi-level buildings. He described Mappls as equipped with “useful features” and urged users to explore its capabilities.