If you haven’t heard of FreshWorks Studio, listen up. The Victoria-based company, founded in 2014 by two immigrant entrepreneurs from India, provides their customers with end-to-end services in strategy, design, and development of software and digital solutions. They’ve been steadily growing to become a household name, winning last year’s B.C. Technology Impact Award for Company of the Year – Growth Success.
Recently, they’ve redirected their efforts to assisting the province in its response to COVID-19. One of their projects is Enhanced Traveller Screening — a platform that guides residents on how to effectively self-isolate when returning to B.C. from abroad. FreshWorks is also working on solutions in the Digital Health sector, including a secure live video application that allows seniors to keep in touch with friends and family, as well as a handful of other virtual care apps to increase access to medical care for those most vulnerable.
During this challenging time, FreshWorks has continued to add talent to their team. With support from our Tech Co-op Grants Program (TCGP), they’ve hired a co-op student from the University of Victoria and one from Thompson Rivers University to help push these new projects forward. We sat down with Sam Mod, Co-Founder and CEO of FreshWorks, to find out more about their new projects and what hiring has been like during lockdown.
Q: Where did the inspiration for these COVID-19 solutions come from?
Sam: We’ve always sought out and participated in projects that are not only innovative and ground-breaking, but have a social impact as well. It wasn’t a question for us whether we wanted to be involved, it’s our duty as British Columbians to work together and help the province using technology in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.
Q: Why did you choose to hire a co-op student? How has the hiring experience been during COVID-19?
Sam: When FreshWorks started out, we were given a lot of opportunities by people already established in the tech industry. As we were starting FreshWorks, my business partner Rohit did a co-op at Blackberry and one at Limespot. It in part paid for our expenses back then. Now that we are in a position to pass those opportunities along, hiring co-op students was a natural step for us. We have seen the immense drive of a co-op student and the value they add to an organization.
As far as the actual hiring goes, nothing really changed for us during the pandemic. Some of our existing team started out as remote hires, so our hiring team is very well versed in the challenges and opportunities that come with remote recruiting.
Q: How has the TCGP helped FreshWorks in the long run?
Sam: All of our co-op students so far have brought fantastic ideas and such a diverse outlook on life with them. It is programs like the TCGP that has allowed us to further foster and grow our company culture while delivering extraordinary projects with a social impact.
Would your company benefit from our Tech Co-op Grants Program? We’ve increased the funding amount, so your company could receive up to $20K a year – just for hiring co-op students.
