Bob Wise, the CEO of Heroku, which is Salesforce’s cloud platform as a service (PaaS), has officially left the company. This news was confirmed by a Salesforce spokesperson in an email statement to TechCrunch. The spokesperson expressed gratitude for Wise’s contributions to both Salesforce and Heroku and wished him the best in his future endeavors.
Wise initially joined Heroku as the GM, coming from Amazon Web Services where he held the position of Kubernetes GM and head of the open-source program office. He later advanced to the role of CEO in 2023, as indicated on his LinkedIn profile. His appointment as CEO came more than a decade after Salesforce acquired Heroku for $212 million in cash. Heroku is a platform that enables developers to create, operate, and expand applications using various programming languages such as Java, PHP, and Go.
During Wise’s tenure as CEO, Heroku encountered several challenges, including a security breach that resulted in attackers acquiring an access token for a Heroku account utilized for automation purposes. Additionally, in August 2022, Heroku announced the discontinuation of its free plans due to instances of fraud and abuse. This decision was met with criticism from some users who expressed their dissatisfaction on social media platforms. Despite this, Wise reassured users that the company would continue to offer cost-effective solutions for computing and data resources.
The PaaS sector has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with companies like Porter, Railway, Render, Fly.io, and Clever Cloud striving to capture a portion of Heroku’s market share by offering appealing features and capabilities. Wise actively engaged with the developer community by sharing Heroku’s feature roadmap publicly and seeking input and suggestions.
Wise’s departure is expected to impact Heroku’s efforts to regain market share and navigate the competitive landscape. Furthermore, Heroku is currently without a Chief Product Officer (CPO) following the relocation of its previous CPO, Andy Fawcett, to the U.K. to serve as the VP of developer relations.
As Heroku transitions to a new leadership structure, stakeholders will be watching closely to see how the company adapts to these changes and continues to innovate in the evolving PaaS market. Wise’s legacy at Heroku will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on the company’s trajectory moving forward.
