Salesforce Chief Revenue Officer admits the MuleSoft unit is “going through a bit of a rough patch”, amid a wave of high-level departures, sales growth slowdown
- Unit key to company's future ‘Customer 360’ ambitions — Executive says MuleSoft has hit ‘a bit of a rough patch’
Context & Ripple Effects
MuleSoft has been central to Salesforce's platform ambitions since Salesforce Ventures led its $128M raise at a $1.5B valuation in 2015, and Salesforce made it its largest-ever deal with the $6.5B acquisition in 2018. The integration layer was pitched as the connective tissue for 'Customer 360' — which is why the CRO's admission of a rough patch, alongside high-level departures and slowing sales growth, lands harder than a routine unit stumble.
The pattern echoes what analysts later observed with Slack, where customers proved unmoved by the addition and revenue growth fell from 11.7% to 6.9% across 2022. Big-ticket acquisitions meant to anchor the suite are showing deceleration rather than compounding.
First-order effects
- MuleSoft's leadership bench is thinning mid-deceleration, forcing Salesforce to stabilize the unit's go-to-market while it remains the linchpin of Customer 360 positioning.
- The CRO's public framing sets expectations ahead of reporting: investors now read MuleSoft's growth line as a disclosed problem rather than a surprise.
Second-order effects
- Rivals in integration and iPaaS can pitch against MuleSoft's churned leadership and cooling momentum in competitive deals, attacking the very account base Salesforce paid $6.5B to lock in.
- Slack's post-acquisition slowdown shows the playbook risk: if MuleSoft follows the same curve, Salesforce faces pressure to justify future large acquisitions on retention economics, not category expansion.
Third-order effects
- If flagship acquisitions keep decelerating instead of accelerating inside the suite, mega-deals shift from growth engines to accountability tests — boards and investors will demand integration milestones before valuing them into guidance.
The trend: Large SaaS platform acquisitions are being judged less on strategic fit and more on whether they sustain standalone growth after closing, with MuleSoft and Slack as the test cases.