Marc Benioff to SaaS CEOs upset about AI hurting their valuations: Grow up, wipe your tears, focus on the customer
Chamath:
“ Let's say you were running a software company that was before the AI wave and you're private.
There's a bunch of these companies that were supposed to go public, (but) didn't go public.
What should they do? What do those boards do?”
Marc
@Benioff:
“Here's some Kleenex for them for all their tears.
I mean, I talk to these CEOs, they're crying, "Look at my market cap, I'm not getting paid for my work."
Guys, grow up.
That's what I love about the public markets, they rationalize everything all the time. So great, be in the public markets.
You want to be in a private market? Your valuation is fantasyland until somebody's actually going to pay you.
So I just tell them, focus on your revenue, focus on your customers, focus on your cash flow, focus on your profitability, focus on your innovation.
How are you going to add value to your customers?
That's what's really, truly important.”