Episode summary
MongoDB CEO on Concerns About Weak Forecast | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 11 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Chirantan Desai
Summary
MongoDB’s CEO, Chirantan Desai, pushed back on investor fears after the company’s weaker-than-expected fiscal 2027 outlook triggered a sharp stock selloff. He pointed to what he called a strong fourth quarter, with 27% revenue growth, 23% operating margin and Atlas growth of 29%, and said net retention reached 121%, which he framed as evidence that customers are still expanding their usage.
Desai argued that MongoDB remains relevant in AI because it is infrastructure software, not an application-layer product that can be easily replaced by coding agents. He said both large enterprises and AI-native companies are building on MongoDB today, citing JPMorgan Chase and 11 Labs as examples. But he also said broad AI adoption is still early, with agents not yet deployed at scale across most enterprises, so the revenue upside from AI is not yet fully included in guidance.
He also defended the company’s organizational changes, including a new chief customer officer and the search for a chief revenue officer, saying there is no disruption risk and no compensation changes. On guidance, he said MongoDB is being prudent: the midpoint of fiscal 2027 guidance was below consensus, while the high end was roughly in line, and management chose not to bake in future AI scale-up until it is more visible.
Key takeaways
- Desai said MongoDB posted a strong quarter, including 27% revenue growth, 23% operating margin and 29% Atlas growth.
- He argued MongoDB is hard-to-replace infrastructure software, so AI coding tools are not an immediate threat to the business.
- Desai said AI-native companies and large enterprises are already building on MongoDB, but large-scale AI deployments are still early.
- He said fiscal 2027 guidance is intentionally conservative, with AI upside not yet reflected in the forecast.
- Desai said the sales and leadership transition should not disrupt execution, and annual sales plans are already set.
Notable quotes
“So 27% revenue growth, 23% operating margin. Our Atlas which is our cloud business grew 29%”
“I can tell you being speaking to 200 plus customers in last 100 days”
“we are infrastructure software and infrastructure software is an extremely hard thing to build”
“the midpoint of our guidance was below consensus”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio, news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
We've been watching shares of MongoDB uh in a record drop for the stock. The company did report uh its latest results. It gave a weaker than expected forecast for the fullear revenue and first quarter adjusted earnings.
It is a database software company. It's a space that we've been focusing on that has come under some pressure because of the AI scare trade or what people are calling it. Joining us right now to talk about the company is MongoDB's CEO CJ Desai.
He joins us. Uh now um investors are weighing in. They're not happy as we said a record drop for the stock.
What can you tell us about the outlook and the business? So Carol, we had fantastic Q4 and it was two handle across the board from top line and bottom line. So 27% revenue growth, 23% operating margin.
Our Atlas which is our cloud business grew 29%. And so when I think about that and also add net retention rate was 121% as in our customers are expanding with us. So we exceeded top range of our guidance across the top line and the bottom line for Q4 and going into fiscal 27 as in the new fiscal year we are in we feel very good about the business.
The expectations were high and the expectations were high from the buy side. So there was some sort of uh disappointment that is currently being played out uh from the market reaction perspective. But I can tell you being speaking to 200 plus customers in last 100 days.
I'm a CEO for last 100 days and I feel very good about the strength of our business and we always guide prudent uh for the year and that's what we guided and that's how markets are reacting reacting.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- weak revenue guidance
- earnings outlook
- ai impact
- competitive intensity
- customer wallet expansion
Companies and tickers mentioned
- MDB
- MongoDB
Watch the episode
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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