Salesforce disrupted the market of on-premise software providers with a revolutionary plan no one had ever thought of before. Learn more about it here. https://www.thomsondata.com/

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 Salesforce Ohana,” 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. 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.
www.thomsondata.com