Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Desai: Investors will stay bearish until AI re-accelerates software growth

CJ Desai · No Priors Live: Is the SaaS "Bear Thesis" Overblown? MongoDB CEO Answers · Jan 22, 2026 · at 14:07

CJ Desai, CEO of MongoDB, explains the criteria public and private market investors use to evaluate incumbent software companies in the generative AI era.

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“That's what if I'm an investor, and you know, we speak to investors all the time, that's what they are looking for, that hey, would this, will AI re-accelerate this company's growth? And unless you show re-acceleration, they are going to say, okay, maybe I'm neutral, Or in some extreme examples, I'm a bear.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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