Taking a Break At 40, This Entrepreneur Went On To Produce First Unicorn In Spa & Salon Space

At present, Zenoti powers more than 12,000 businesses in 50 countries ranging from the largest enterprise level brands such as Toni&Guy and CorePower Yoga to small, single-center businesses

- Debarghya Sil

Sudheer Koneru

Co-founder and chief executive officer of Zenoti

Two decades ago, if anyone would have told you that to get a haircut you have to fix an appointment through a software, you would have scoffed. However, come 2021, most of the things are happening over the Internet now. In fact if you are not on the Internet and using tailored cut software for the industry, you are inadvertently losing millions of dollars! Ten years back, the Internet has already spread its wings. From improving social life to acquiring more customers for business was happening over the Internet. However, niche markets such as the salon and spa wellness industry were still staring at platforms which could support the entire ecosystem under one roof, thus streamline the process and helping the brands grow and acquire more customers. This is what led to the start of Zenoti, a customer relationship management solution provider for salons in 2010. The Bellevue and Hyderabad-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup also is one of the newest entrants in the prestigious Unicorn club. In an interaction with Entrepreneur India, Sudheer Koneru, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zenoti, shared the story of Zenoti, its early days and what made it raise funds almost after a decade.

Technology calling

Prior to co-founding Zenoti, Koneru had a long eight-year stint at Microsoft as a product unit manager. He leftMicrosoftonly to take an entrepreneurial plunge and founded two startups in the US. He exited his last startup, SumTotal, an enterprise software company, when the company was clocking a revenue of $100 million in 2007. He was 40 then.