Clockwise acquired by Salesforce(getclockwise.com) |
Clockwise acquired by Salesforce(getclockwise.com) |
I also applaud them for not selling the data (as promised in the ToS). There was always a strong commitment to that from day 1, but I'm glad to see that wasn't an option when times got harder. Calendar data sometimes has really sensitive stuff in it, and it would have been a massive betrayal to do anything but delete it after a shutdown.
If you are interested in a more detailed piece about a company struggling in this space, I recommend Rise's shutdown announcement last year. We read this at Clockwise and unfortunately felt it in our bones. There is an ironic Clockwise callout in the piece if you can spot it.
https://www.risecalendar.com/blog/sunsetting-rise
I'm obviously not part of the decision, but I'm sorry the shutoff for users is so soon. Also, please don't revoke your Clockwise app authorization before the shutoff, since that will prevent Clockwise from cleaning up your calendar. If you want to cleanly turn off Clockwise before the shutoff, you can go through the normal deactivation process at https://www.getclockwise.com/uninstall.
It's a huge bummer for me too to have worked on something for years and then to have it suddenly vanish one day.
If you are looking to start a new company in this space, I'll gladly offer my services to talk you out of it. If any die-hard users want to make a self-hosted tool, I'm happy to give some tips from my experience. I know at least one large company has an internal tool like Clockwise's autopilot/flexible meetings.
Why is it so rough etc.?
I happened to work for such companies, and the "application owner", and I am really not convinced by the ROI.
The real reason, VIPs didn't want to bother with a computer to manage their calendar, and they (well their assistants) had to organize meetings with 3rd parties.
The number of problems, the type of problems, the scale of the problems. Oof.
I know this is an HN meme but can someone look at https://www.getclockwise.com/overview and explain why an internal team couldn't build this in a couple of weeks? And it's not like Salesforce is lacking engineers - they employ 83,000 (!!) people globally.
There must be a lot of pride and meaning in being run over by Saleforce's money truck.
Continuing to struggle for money isn’t a requirement for building cool stuff.
Projects may not be financially viable but it seems the minimum for a business.
They probably don't have much choice and Salesfore needs people who have built and launched products (I don't have any info, just a guess).
Worst. Isekai. Idea. Ever.
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/controlled-demolition-salesfo...
Or they're burning it to the ground out of spite so Salesforce doesn't get any of it.
Even the Rise calendar link above still is hosted so you can read their incredible journey.
hopefully no one paying for their service decided to take a 1 week vacation starting tomorrow.
These acquihires seem so ineffective to me unless the acquiring company is truly attractive to the acquirees talent.
that would strengthen Man Utd :D
The acquirer usually isn't paying that much in a case like this. Unlike what some other comments in this thread say (I assume from people new to the industry), nobody's getting rich.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-than-other...
Doesn't really sound like it.
The good news is the company is headed into a bright and glorious future of productivity. The CEO has been completely one-shotted, and over last weekend he vibe-coded together a companywide TODO app. The submit button glitches out of existence and it authenticates any company email address without even a password, but its existence means the CEO is a dev now just like you. Token and SLOC count KPIs will be implemented next quarter.
They're also at record revenue [1].
[1] https://investor.salesforce.com/news/news-details/2026/Sales...
In addition people are betting that AI is going to reduce the growth in software stocks. If this is true or not is another thing, but that is the current majority opinion amongst large-scale investors.
I too have revenue of $1 billion but with $2 billion in expenses
It sounds like Clockwise was pretty good at what they did, perhaps even the best in its class. Salesforce presumably sees a need for these advanced scheduling features in it's own products, and they figure they can get them more quickly, more cheaply, and with lower risk by acquiring an already-built technology and team. ie: it's an "acquihire".
But it's not like this is a one off. Salesforce has spent over $10 billion on acquisitions in just the last 6 months!
IMHO, the problem with Clockwise is that there was never a compelling product or a moat they could build with in the space. It was trivial for Google or anyone else to just implement similar enhancements.
Buying the company gives them those customers. They shut it down presumably so they can do something with those customers they bought.
Making software is easy. Don’t kid yourself. If you’re a swe you’re an expense line item. Getting distribution is hard.
"Hey you've been paying for this calendar thing for a while, but won't be able to any longer. Go use one of their competitors instead. BTW have you tried our CRM?"
I suspect it's more of an acquihire.
That’s when I heard the roar of the engine.
> it has been our mission to forever protect our families from any financial misfortune. We hoped we could help the world make time for what matters along the way, but ultimately money comes first.
There's nothing wrong with selling out and getting rich. There's no need to lie about it.
Jokes aside though, many (most?) acquihires are for very little $. Often just founders not being able to continue and just wanting an honorable exit + guaranteed jobs for their teams.
Like, literally bullet pointed.
You have to be very good to get them to even try.
I don't personally care about Salesforce and think they're a low/mediocre company, but having seen acquisitions at my last company we'd shut them down but roll them into our ecosystem.
Obviously there's churn, but that's why you spend MONTHS doing due diligence to figure out if the strategy is sound. For example, most of the customers of one product we acquired were already using our product for other things, or competitor platforms. So, we managed to roll a bunch of enterprise customers onto our platform.
Its not just LOOK AT ME I WROTE SOME CODE :D lol
Or they might just be buying out the team to help them build out something to address gaps in their product.
But it is not just "why can't they just make it themselves"
Rank and file employees who got sub-standard pay for years at Startup get the same comp they would have got coming in the front door at BigCo. It's better than being fired I guess, but it's not some humble, charitable act by the founders. They can always wait a couple years and ride the ride again if they want.