Be that as it may - it wasn't started in Palo Alto or Pleasanton. Their about page[1] mentions the predecessor company was founded in New Jersey (1996), before moving to San Jose (1998), then Pleasanton (2000)
"In the 1990s, in a small apartment located in the suburbs of Chennai in southern India, a simple, yet revolutionary idea was born: "Build smart technology to help businesses work better." This idea evolved to become the world-class technology company we're known as today."
According to Wikipedia:
"From 1996 to 2011, the company was known as AdventNet, Inc. and initially provided network management software.[8][9]
AdventNet expanded operations into Japan in 2001 and shifted focus to small and medium businesses (SMBs).[9]
Zoho CRM was released in 2005, along with Zoho Writer, the company's first Office suite product.[9] Zoho Projects, Creator, Sheet, and Show were released in 2006.[9] Zoho expanded into the collaboration space with the release of Zoho Docs and Zoho Meeting in 2007. In 2008, the company added invoicing and mail applications, reaching one million users by August of that year."
So they were not providing SMB office software until 2005.
It's weird to me that there are these two narratives. Are we talking about the same Zoho, or is there more to it to either of these stories? Was it a case of shifting origin stories? One of the 2009 articles announcing the change in name from AdventNet to Zoho included mentioning the corporate HQ in Pleasanton.
I may have been overzealous is removing what I thought were tracking parameters. If you click on "about us" in the footer and scroll all the way to the bottom or click on 1996 - you'll find the text about AdventNet, which I suppose is the source for Wikipedia
1. https://www.zoho.com/aboutus.html