Zoho has so-so products, but at least their founder has the right philosophy to invest in R&D, to focus on organic growth and to take care of their products, employees & customers vs. Benioff's failed M&A strategy, which is done to sustain more and more expensive growth and their sky high valuation multiples.

Have you ever used Salesforce as a product?

I tried it and cancelled within a week; it's super-clunky & complicated. He's got great marketing, but the product is crap.

Dismissing Zoho's points based on the author's tone is a bit shortsighted don't you think?

Benioff's headcount is ludicrous when you compare the # of staff he has to 37signals on any reasonable metric ($ of sales per employee across any business function).