Salesforce – The Journey from “the ant at the picnic” to $10 Billion

1. Salesforce – The Journey from “the ant at the picnic” to $10 Billion

2. Did you know that the CEO of a tiny startup Salesforce, Marc Benioff paid actors to carry “anti-software” signs? Or about his military-themed party where invitees were asked to throw “pieces of software” into garbage??

3. Business Insider published an article on this protest and called Salesforce as - “the ant at the picnic.” No one believed that it could take on giant software companies like Microsoft and Oracle or create a $250 billion global market!

4. How did Marc Benioff achieve his goal? His startup was built around a single theme: “The software should be delivered to people 24/7 over the cloud.” Salesforce was the first company to do this successfully. Let’s dive deeper to know how Salesforce magnificently disrupted the market of on-premise software providers with a revolutionary plan no one had ever thought of before?

5. • Customer relationship management software industry was booming in the late 1990s. • Organizations were using software from companies like Oracle and SAP as they required a centralized system to keep track of both customer and sales data. • All the co-founders of Salesforce had experience working on sales force automation and CRMs. • Salesforce decided to build a product that was easier to use than the bulky products that are already in the market.

6. • In 1999, Salesforce co-founder Benioff left his role as Vice President in Oracle. • He recruited three consultants to work with him on creating a simple CRM - Parker Harris, Frank Dominguez, and Dave Moellenhoff. • They began working in a one-bedroom apartment Benioff rented at 1449 Montgomery, next door to his house. • This team of four created the first version of Salesforce’s CRM.

7. The prototype of Salesforce.com [Image] Image Source: Salesforce

8. • In 2000, Salesforce started with the “End of Software” party and Siebel protests. • Benioff sent some of his employees to protest at the Siebel Conference, which took place at the Moscone Center in February 2000. • This movement attracted television news crew and also garnered a mention in ‘The Wall Street Journal.’ • It turned out as valuable publicity for a company at its early stage.

9. Image Source: Salesforce

10. • In 2003, the company was willing to make some controversial moves in the market to bring their product into the spotlight and develop an active community. • To celebrate 100,000 users, Salesforce released an invitation featuring Dalai Lama. • This invitation received intense criticism which made Benioff apologize later. “We had no right to suggest that either the American Himalayan Foundation or His Holiness support us. We made a mistake.” ~ Mark Benioff, CEO Salesforce

11. Image Source: Salesforce

12. • The company held its first annual Dreamforce user conference in 2003. • It became a tradition to announce new products and ideas at this conference every year. • It was the huge step taken by Salesforce to formally build a community and create interest among the users about the cloud.

13. • In 2004, the company announced its IPO. • It made headlines on the first day itself as their stock gained beyond 55% appreciation. • This successful IPO was evidence of how Salesforce had built a product that people loved. • It grew by keeping the product, marketing, as well as sales strategies firmly aligned. • Compared to the complicated CRMs of other tech giants, Salesforce’s tool was simple and easy-to-use.

14. SaaS Growth Trends Image Source: IDC

15. • In 2005, the company built the AppExchange. • Third-party developers were able to create their apps using this tool and sell it to a community of other Salesforce users. • This logical step by Salesforce nurtured a growing cloud computing space. • It gave both a supportive community and audience to the developers.

16. AppExchange Page of Salesforce [Image] Image Source: Wayback Machine

17. • In 2006, the Salesforce team released Apex. • Apex is an on-demand programming language designed to let third-party programmers write as well as run code on Salesforce’s multi-tenant, shared model. • At the same time, Parker Harris also built Visualforce that let users create any user interface (UI) and build forms, links, buttons, and embed everything. • Also in the same year, the company acquired a small wireless technology company - Sendia for $15 million. • It is the first of 55 companies it bought.

18. Salesforce home page in 2006 Image Source: Wayback Machine

19. • In 2008, the company released Force.com, which is an official platform for developers. • It was the world’s first platform-as-a-service. • This platform allowed third parties to install apps on Salesforce’s architecture. • Also, it paved the way for a new revenue stream, as third parties had to pay per login to use this platform.

20. Force.com demo page in 2008 Image Source: Wayback Machine

21. • Salesforce began acquiring many small firms. • In 2011, Salesforce repurposed one of their acquired crowd-sourced data companies Jigsaw as Data.com. • In 2012, it repurposed one more acquired social customer service solution Assistly as Desk.com. • In 2013, the company repurposed another acquired social media monitoring channel Radian 6 as Social.com. • 2 million apps were downloaded and installed on the AppExchange in the same year, which created a new milestone. • In 2014, the company acquired the relationship intelligence platform RelateIQ and rebranded it as SalesforceIQ.

22. • In 2015, Salesforce released a CRM for small businesses known as SalesforceIQ. • In 2016, it acquired the productivity software company – Quip.

23. • In 2016 again, the company acquired e-commerce platform - Demandware. • It helped them in building Commerce Cloud and offering e-commerce services inside the Salesforce Suite. • The company also released Salesforce Einstein. • This tool allowed them to bring AI technology to their range of products, and also let Force.com users build AI-powered apps. • In 2017, the revenue of Salesforce exceeded $8 billion, and the growth rate was just under 30% YoY.

24. • In 2018, Salesforce acquired MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. • It is the provider of one of the world's leading platforms for building application networks. • Salesforce believes that MuleSoft can be made into a $10B long-term business by capitalizing on the necessity of enterprises to assimilate cloud platforms. “Every company is undergoing a digital transformation and integration has never been more strategic. Now with MuleSoft, Salesforce will enable customers to connect all of the information throughout their enterprise across all public and private clouds and data sources—radically enhancing innovation. I am thrilled to welcome MuleSoft to the SalesforceOhana,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce.

25. • As of FY Q2/19, the company has approximately 1,870 customers spend beyond $1M annually. • Financial Services is leading all the verticals with a 7X jump in customer count in the period of 2015- 2019. • The company revised its FY2022 revenue target to $23B. • It is planning to grow at a 20% CAGR to attain this target. • Also, Salesforce raised its Total Available Market (TAM) from $120B in 2021 to $140B in 2022.

26. Image Source: Salesforce

27. • Salesforce has quite an aggressive set of ambitions. • The company announced that it has even bigger goals. • It is planning to achieve $40 billion by 2028 and $60 billion by 2034. • For Salesforce, their revenue goals are like the chapters in a book.

28. Image Source: @DHenschen

29. From the last 18 years, Salesforce has brought various benefits and success to the users across the globe. If you are a startup and looking for a blueprint to grow as a successful company, Salesforce can be an excellent example to rely on. Twenty years into this segment, the company is still growing and expected to remain as a powerful voice for responsible capitalism of making money and giving back to the communities at the same time.

30. www.thomsondata.com From the last 18 years, Salesforce has brought various benefits and success to the users across the globe. If you are a startup and looking for a blueprint to grow as a successful company, Salesforce can be an excellent example to rely on. Twenty years into this segment, the company is still growing and expected to remain as a powerful voice for responsible capitalism of making money and giving back to the communities at the same time.