In what can solely be characterised as a shocking flip of occasions, Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor introduced his resignation yesterday, claiming he needed to return to his entrepreneurial roots. Whatever his causes, it was a shock to all who cowl this firm, and it’s protected to say that few if any noticed this coming — even his mentor, Salesforce co-founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff.
Taylor is a Silicon Valley mover and a shaker. He’s labored at huge firms like Google and Facebook. Until just lately, he was board chair at Twitter, serving to lead the social media large by this turbulent 12 months of Musk-induced insanity till its new proprietor dissolved its board final month.
He additionally has small-company expertise as former CEO at FriendFeed, an early social networking outfit, and Quip, which Salesforce purchased in 2016 for a hefty $750 million.
Taylor and Benioff appeared to hit it off instantly after Quip joined Salesforce, and the connection was (and apparently stays) deep and heartfelt. As a end result, Taylor raced by the ranks on the CRM large to co-chairman and co-CEO in simply 4 years.
When Jeff Bezos stepped again as CEO at Amazon final 12 months after main the corporate since its founding in 1994, we speculated that Benioff may very well be the following government to take that step. The logical selection, the inheritor obvious, seemed to be Taylor, who was poised to take over every time Benioff determined to spend extra time in Hawaii.
Instead, now we have Taylor strolling away and Benioff in cost for the foreseeable future.