$8 billion in annual revenue. This is how much money SalesForce generated during the last year.

How did they do it?

1999:

1. Marc Benioff left his role as Vice President of Oracle.

2. Companies like Oracle and SAP were selling bulky and complex CRM
software to businesses that had to be installed and updated on-premise.

So Marc decided to be the first to create the cloud-based simpler and easier to use software (SaaS).

Hint: Want to beat huge competitors? Create a simpler and easier product. 😉

2000-2002:

1. Marc paid to actors to carry “anti-software” signs. They marched in
front of a user conference for Siebel Systems, which sold CRM.

2. Benioff hosted a military-themed party where guests threw “pieces of software” into trash bins.

3. The stunts and the revolutionary product gained attention. As a result: $5.9 million in revenue.

2003:

1. SalesForce gained first 100,000 users

2. Held its first annual Dreamforce user conference.

3. They invented the free trial and later – freemium (first 5 users for
free), which created a powerful viral distribution channel.

4. $50.9 million in revenue.

2004: Salesforce announced their IPO.

2005-2006: They built the AppExchange, where third-party developers
could create their own apps (using a special SalesForce programming
language) and sell them to a community of other Salesforce users.

2008-2016: Salesforce acquired various companies:

+ A crowd-sourced data company

+ A social customer service tool.

+ A social media monitoring platform.

+ A relationship intelligence platform later turned into a CRM for small businesses.

+ A productivity software company.

+ An Artificial Intelligence company.