It’s not usually you see a longtime firm burn by three CEOs in lower than a yr. However by circumstances past its management, that’s what has occurred at Slack, the corporate Salesforce acquired in 2020 for $28 billion. In November, Slack launched Denise Dresser as the most recent individual to occupy the nook workplace.

Dresser acknowledges it wasn’t straightforward to step into the function below these circumstances, however she is settling in. “You recognize, like something, it’s at all times onerous to step into any new firm and do it in a method that’s swish, however I feel the group gave me loads of teaching, and we actually noticed the imaginative and prescient collectively,” Dresser advised TechCrunch.

She grew up within the suburbs exterior of Boston, was educated on the College of Massachusetts at Amherst the place she studied accounting and labored at Salesforce for the final dozen years in varied government roles.

Her predecessor, Lidiane Jones, was simply 10 months into the job when she introduced she was leaving to be CEO at Bumble, pushed by the attract of working a stand-alone public firm. Jones herself had changed firm co-founder Stewart Butterfield when he introduced that he was leaving on the finish of 2022.

It’s troublesome changing a founder-CEO as Jones did. It might be much more difficult to take over simply 10 months later for his successor, however some government turnover is anticipated within the years following an acquisition, says Arjun Bhatia, a William Blair analyst who follows Salesforce. “You need a steady management group, after all, and also you need somebody who’s specializing in it, however the CEO turnover we’ve seen just isn’t regarding at this level,” Bhatia advised TechCrunch. “If that turns into extra recurring, actually that view would possibly change, however I feel it’s a pure course after an acquisition like this for an organization like Slack to search out its place contained in the Salesforce ecosystem.”

Dresser says that she’s merely constructing on what her predecessors did earlier than she obtained there, whereas bringing her personal character to the job. “I ask a variety of questions, and I positively am an accountant at coronary heart,” she stated. “So I prefer to be organized and I’ll proceed that on, however it’s not prefer it’s a giant pull. I feel the inspiration is already there, and it’s an extremely well-run group.”

How has Slack fared at Massive CRM?

If you have a look at the value that Salesforce paid to personal Slack, even giving some leeway for 2020 inventory costs and the over-exuberance of the interval, it nonetheless looks like a attain. The assumption on the time was that Slack might be the communication layer on high of all of the enterprise software program that Salesforce sells. It’s nonetheless the hope, in truth, however income development has slowed dramatically at Slack since its acquisition.

We don’t have precise income numbers as a result of Salesforce stopped reporting them final spring, however it does share the share of development from the prior yr. Development has slowed considerably from 46% YoY in Q32023 to simply 16% in Q42024. For essentially the most half, the pattern has been down — and it’s as much as Dresser to show that round.

Picture Credit: Salesforce

Slack might change this pattern by discovering new enterprise alternatives and preserving current prospects completely happy whereas on the similar time not being so intently tied to Salesforce that it loses prospects who aren’t Salesforce-centric.

Dresser could also be caught between these seemingly conflicting necessities, says Brent Leary, principal analyst at CRM Necessities. He, too, has been monitoring Salesforce since its earliest days. “She’s obtained to have the ability to determine what the appropriate steadiness is between Slack as a standalone model that continues to draw non-Salesforce prospects, whereas enabling Salesforce prospects to make use of Slack in all places inside the platform they should collaborate,” Leary stated.

However Dresser doesn’t assume it’s all that sophisticated. “I don’t know if I feel it’s that powerful. I feel it was the unique imaginative and prescient when the 2 firms got here collectively,” she stated. “I feel there’s an actual recognition that there’s one thing very particular right here that we need to nurture and proceed. And I feel that’s been a reasonably constant theme from the very starting.”

The potential of generative AI

One massive change she must handle has been the event of generative AI in software program, in Slack and throughout the Salesforce household of merchandise. Dresser says that AI is a pure match for Slack as a result of as a communications platform with numerous embedded data, it’s going to assist customers harness, perceive and discover data nuggets within the mass of data.

“When you consider it from a higher-level perspective, Slack has a lot of the world’s conversations occurring in unstructured knowledge,” she stated. “After which you consider Salesforce having this unimaginable set of buyer knowledge, a number of the world’s most valued knowledge. The chance to deliver structured and unstructured knowledge into Slack and combine these actually creates this highly effective platform for the long run.”

All of that relies upon, after all, on execution: You possibly can’t simply sprinkle AI fairy mud on a product and hope it’s going to work. However Dresser claims that AI helped her rise up to hurry in her new place rather more rapidly than would have been attainable with out with the ability to entry summaries of lengthy product threads. Summarization is a giant promoting level for generative AI, and utilizing it to avoid wasting time understanding lengthy conversational threads might be a giant use case. However once more, it relies on the standard of the summaries.

One other massive challenge Dresser faces is methods to compete with Microsoft, which brings Groups to the desk mixed with Workplace 365, Dynamics 365, and AI within the type of Microsoft Copilot rolled out throughout the platform, says J. P. Gownder, an analyst at Forrester Analysis. “It’s logical for Slack to attempt to increase its consumer base by integrating Salesforce extra intently, however it should be cautious to not alienate current prospects, who’re tremendously loyal to what’s provided right now. Within the meantime, Microsoft Groups is a behemoth that has an opportunity to seize much more minutes through Copilot,” Gownder advised TechCrunch.

However Bhatia factors out that Microsoft nonetheless works finest contained in the Microsoft ecosystem, and Slack might have a bonus in that regard. “Microsoft doesn’t have that interoperability play as a lot. Their benefit by far is distribution. And two massive benefits that Slack has of their market are interoperability and ease of use,” he stated.

Yet one more diploma of issue for Dresser is that the remaining Slack co-founder, CTO Cal Henderson, left on the starting of March, changed by none aside from Salesforce co-founder and CTO Parker Harris. Regardless that Harris brings an extended historical past of constructing Salesforce, Slack is dropping an individual who has a deep understanding of Slack’s technical underpinnings.

Dresser actually understands that she faces these challenges forward, that she must win over staff and prospects and discover a approach to hold Slack rising and very important contained in the huge Salesforce ecosystem. However she says her function is de facto about making human connections, and the remaining will work itself out.

“I attempt to simply assist folks perceive that I’m right here as a result of I’m deeply, deeply enthusiastic about what we are able to do for the world, for our customers, and our staff as properly at Slack and the broader Salesforce — and I wouldn’t be right here if I wasn’t.”