Paul GrahamVerified account

1/ Heroku was a hot company in 2010. But we had yet to deliver out our full product vision: the platform was Ruby-only, lacked background processes and a bunch of other capabilities needed for more substantial apps.

2/ The decision to accept the acquisition was made by me, the two other founders, and the CEO. (With input from our investors, of course.) We saw it as a big funding round: never need to raise money again, and in the meantime get legitimacy for enterprise sales.

3/ But let's be honest: the money mattered. Getting a good outcome for investors, for early employees, and yes for ourselves.

3a/ (I put a bunch of the proceeds from this into the 2014 Colorado campaign to legalize recreational marijuana. So I guess you can partially thank Salesforce for that legal weed you've been enjoying during lockdown)