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I was at Salesforce for 4 years, and during those years the company made a massive deal about: 2020: the first AI craze, introducing “Einstein” as their name f
by didgeoridoo 2y ago
I was at Salesforce for 4 years, and during those years the company made a massive deal about:
2020: the first AI craze, introducing “Einstein” as their name for their analytics platform, and officially changing the corporate vision to being the “No. 1 AI CRM company”.
2021: Now it’s all about “Customer 360”, i.e. account-based marketing, i.e. what basically everyone else does without such a memeable name. You wouldn’t believe the number of slide decks I had to sit through with all our little product logos orbiting this stock art character straight out of Women Laughing While Eating Salad.
2022: Never mind, now we’re betting the company on a real-time unified database called Genie, which was neither real-time nor unified (and eventually not called Genie either). Got sued for that one.
2024: AGENTS. AGENTS EVERYWHERE. WE ARE AN AGENT COMPANY NOW.
So, let’s see how this holds up in the face of the next hot thing.
- paxys 2y agoLet's not forget pre-2020 when the company released "Salesforce Blockchain", "NFT Cloud" and "Salesforce Web3 Platform". This is how they operate. Just one marketing hype moment after another. The actual product doesn't really matter (and in a lot of cases doesn't even launch). They just need to keep making pretty slide decks filled with meaningless buzzwords so their customers get distracted from the fact that they are paying $500+ per user per month for a shitty web UI on top of 4 database tables.
- donw 2y agoThat's why the Irish pronounce it "Salesfarce"
- hx8 2y agoSalesmen selling to other salesmen.
- kibibu 2y agoI presume it works to have the new shiny thing that execs have vaguely heard about. It only has to exist while the hype cycle is at its peak. I'm surprised there hasn't been a Salesforce AR/VR.
- juped 2y agoNot even Salesforce was deranged enough to buy into "Metaverse"?
- Eumenes 2y agoYou're just mad you didn't invent it first!
- mlinksva 2y agoI wasn't sure whether "NFT Cloud" was real or parody so had to look it up. 2022 but it's in the official history https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/the-history-of-salesforce/ https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/the-history-of-sales... noted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31666887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31666887
- jcytong 2y agodang, I knew I shouldn't be drinking water while checking out the link. Almost caused water damage to my laptop
- lazystar 2y ago> Sustainable Blockchains > Choose from sustainable blockchains and estimate carbon usage prior to deployment lol. lmao, even.
- hedora 2y agoAccording to the numbers in that link, their nominal revenue per employee flattened out shortly after IPO up until it stops listing them in 2020. I imagine getting that ratio up is important, especially with recent inflation.
- RainyDayTmrw 2y agoPoe's Law being what it is, I had to double check, and Salesforce indeed has official marketing/landing pages for these.
- arwhatever 2y ago… on top of circa 1997 Java syntax …
- paradox242 2y ago> so their customers get distracted from the fact that they are paying $500+ per user per month for a shitty web UI on top of 4 database tables. Oof, I felt that cut in my bones and I was only a customer.
- lazide 2y agoslow database tables too.
- rawgabbit 2y agoA minor nitpick. SF doesn’t have tables. It is not a relational database. It is slow because it is an enterprise application. The link details the steps that are triggered every time a record is updated. https://www.salesforceben.com/learn-salesforce-order-of-execution/ https://www.salesforceben.com/learn-salesforce-order-of-exec...
- layman51 2y agoSalesforce’s product is technically is a relational database. Maybe it doesn’t perfectly fit the relational model that Edgar Codd theorized, but I don’t think any widely used database product does. A crucial aspect of the relational database is that the tables have columns which refer to another table (e.g. AccountId) and this what they call “lookup relationships” or “master-detail relationships” in Salesforce. Also, I recently learned that SQL has triggers too in case you want the same procedure to take place after an INSERT, UPDATE, etc.
- rawgabbit 2y agoIn Salesforce everything is an API call with hard limits eg you can only return 200 records unless you hit the bulk api. JOINS do not exist in Salesforce. Instead you have to create bridge tables. Even then you can only traverse a max of three objects at a time. Please do not try to use Salesforce as a general database, you are only putting yourself in a world of hurt.
- salmonet 2y agoI'm old enough to remember when Dreamforce was "The Largest Internet of Things Conference".
- chasd00 2y agoDon’t forget IOT Cloud back when IOT was a thing. I think I was one of the first 10 people holding that certification. I really liked the architecture but the product sort of went nowhere. After learning about data cloud I feel like a lot of that architecture (iirc it was called Thunder) wound up in data cloud.
- thecloudmanny 2y agoI think silicon labs uses salesforce for their iot cloud. The iot cloud - globally - is gigantic, and a requirement for any embedded iot device with a radio.
- 6510 2y agoI never dare say that part out loud but isn't that all we do? Move things into db tables and back. Like packing mules to go to market.
- namaria 2y agoDressed up dbs. That's what 90% of the saas economy is. I feel like I'm going mad. How can such a gigantic part of the software economy be just dressing up dbs and making them hard to interoperate? I can't make sense of it. Any business can run using email and vanilla spreadsheets. Everything else just feels like a surreal dance while I can't hear the music.
- piva00 2y agoErgonomics have value in itself, dressing up DBs in good ergonomics around some applied use-cases has quite some value for companies to not have to deal with edge cases that email + spreadsheets will suffer from at scale, that's also why I do not understand Salesforce. The products are clunky, difficult to integrate/use/deploy, a lot of times they simply don't work or require an immense amount of effort to be barely workable. It's really hard to understand the value proposition, I guess they might have very good salespeople reaching out to the right clueless people to pitch.
- rawgabbit 2y agoYeah. I got the evil eye when I told my company Genie aka Data Cloud is nothing more than a ETL and data warehouse for the different SF clouds. The SF director at my company went on a rant on how stupid I was. It was a déjà vu moment for me. I had SF and Microsoft account reps go ballistic when I informed my bosses of my opinion of their shitty products. https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.c360_a_data_mapping.htm https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.c360_a_data_...
- fraserharris 2y agoThis is exactly correct. This is Salesforce's 3rd or 4th rebranding of Customer Data Platform, which has never taken off. This latest positioning is targeting Snowflake.
- sureglymop 2y ago"Einstein" references are always incredibly ironic considering how much of a socialist the guy was.
- nitwit005 2y agoThey apparently paid $20 million for the use of Einstein's image: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/salesforce-paid-20-million-to-license-einstein-for-ai https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/salesforc...
- chuckwfinley 2y agoTIL that the likeness of Einstein was licensed. Proceeds go to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is fitting considering his support and investment: "Albert Einstein is one of the founders of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. To him, the university represented a combination of the commitment to his Jewish identity and his belief in the universal values of the pursuit of truth and respect for every human being." No paywall link: https://archive.is/2024.03.27-141124/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/salesforce-paid-20-million-to-license-einstein-for-ai https://archive.is/2024.03.27-141124/https://www.bloomberg.c...
- hedora 2y agoIt’s sad they are so far off mission these days. On the one hand, about 8% of their students are from Palestine. On the other, they’ve repeatedly retaliated against students and faculty members for protesting and making anti-genocide statements, and the university is on Boycott Divest Sanction lists.
- fc417fc802 2y agoI had no idea. That his likeness is still protected IP so long after he died really drives home just how utterly broken the current IP law is.
- alfalfasprout 2y agoyep salesforce has quite the track record of making bold marketing claims until the next hot thing shows up.
- epolanski 2y agoBig orgs have plenty of people that need to justify their salaries, I mean it, I'm 100% convinced you could fire half the staff of a big organization, going heavy with the management roles and lighter on operational ones and the company would become more productive and efficient. And the higher the people in the pyramid are the better they are at selling their ideas in their neverending quest for recognition, fat bonuses and promotions. And once they get them, more often than not by doing pointless and even harmful work, they can then leverage it by jumping to another company. Gervais' principle at its finest.
- somanyphotons 2y agoTwitter as an example, showed us that the staff really do matter
- herval 2y agoTo be fair, they became a lot more efficient if the goal was to streamline propaganda and bot adoption
- spamizbad 2y agoI feel like Twitter is a bit of a Rorschach test. If you want to “keep the lights on” you can get away with mass layoffs, but your revenues and product development sure do suffer. I think you’re going to see a lot of tech companies adopt a less acute version of this strategy unfortunately
- sleight42 2y agoIt's another form taken by enshittification to squeeze more money from the business. Employees are the largest cost center. If a business can get away with less innovation then they will get rid of and hire less staff to maintain their margin. Realistically, this is a delicate balancing act. As others have noted, the Sales and PR game then (and always) drives the new and existing monies that come in.
- misiek08 2y ago
- herval 2y agoThe little github-styled Einstein was unforgettably cringe
- jongjong 2y agoIt sounds like one of those big companies that's just very well hooked up to the institutional money printers and the main challenge for them is making up narratives to justify the money that's flowing into their coffers unconditionally. It's telling that Benioff used to work at Oracle.
- datavirtue 2y agoInteresting. This little stunt very much reminded me of Oracle.
- informal007 2y agoThere isn't a better topic for tech CEOs to focus on, it's pathetic for the world.
- pyromaker 2y agoBut this IS the strategy. One thing after another, giving perception that SF is "leading" the way and enterprise customers continue to listen to the SF sales reps who just need to tell the story, so on and on it goes. :)
- bhouston 2y agoThis is the most accurate comment. This is how Salesforce works. That said there revenue continues to grow and they continue to pivot to the new trend in their marketing. The underlying business and most of the software they are actually selling remains the same just wrapped up in different and new marketing each year. It works well as a strategy.
- zamalek 2y agoThe AI trough of trough of disillusionment is coming, and these hype-driven execs are going to feel it. There are relatively few techs that have a genuine use-case for it (copilot being an obvious example).
- bhouston 2y agoSalesforce will just pivot in its marketing again. They latch on to the latest trend and drop it as soon as it isn't hot any more. They have constantly done this, it is their operating procedure. Saleforce did not really suffer when NFTs died or blockchain become uncool because by then they had a new trend to promote.
- aranchelk 2y agoHow is this not the top comment?
- capkutay 2y agosalesforce is a sales and marketing company first, tech company second. it's in their interest to create a ton of buzz and hype on whatever the current thing is and how they are that thing. Then they go on to sell a basic CRUD app that has to be customized by consultants.