I was familiar with Salesforce previously, however, my initial exposure to the ecosystem, was a minefield! I can imagine it is for many trailblazers and Salesforce professionals all over the globe. As a leading member of the Steadman Brown team, assisting companies in attracting, retaining, and hiring Salesforce specialists, and building out their Salesforce teams is my priority. I'm looking forward to my journey int the ecosystem, providing knowledgeable content across my platform for those who, like me, were just getting started!
A good place to start would be the timeline of Salesforce's history and milestones, which illustrates their record of success as the global leader in CRM, showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
In a nutshell...
With Salesforce, companies of all sizes and industries can digitally transform around their customers by leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, and real-time data to improve the customer experience. Salesforce is more than a business - it is a platform for change, driven by a global community of shared values.
TimeLine
1999
- In February, Salesforce began with a clear vision to be “A World-Class Internet Company for Sales Force Automation.” On March 8, Salesforce is incorporated, and Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Frank Dominguez, and Dave Moellenhoff begin working on Salesforce's first CRM in a rented one-bedroom apartment on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill.
- As part of the strategic plan, the company develops its first Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures plan, aiming to align the organization around shared goals. - Fun fact: Did you know that this original draft is written on the back of an envelope! As they build their prototype, they also build their startup culture that we know and love today!
- As of the end of its first year, the company has 40 employees and an 8,000-square-foot office.
2000
- The dot-com boom... 20% of Salesforce's workforce got laid off as a result.
- At San Francisco's Regency Theater, salesforce.com officially launches on February 7. The event was themed around "The End of Software." Changing the headquarter location, One Market Street is the new home for the growing company.
- As part of its debut press coverage, Salesforce hires actors to stage a mock protest outside Siebel Systems' conference in March. Signs with anti-software messages are carried by the "protestors" to reinforce Salesforce's "The End of Software" campaign.
- Using its technology, people, and resources, Salesforce.org launches the 1-1-1 model.
- For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2001, revenue hit $5.4 million.
2001
- Salesforce announces a global expansion with offices in Dublin and Tokyo in April. As well as that, Salesforce surpasses 3,000 customers, making it the fastest-growing CRM company -ever!
- Benioff is named CEO and chairman in November.
- Revenue for Salesforce's fiscal year ended January 31, 2002 was $22.4 million.
2002
- 70,000 users across 107 countries access the platform in 8 languages and multiple currencies. By the fiscal year Salesforce delivers $51 million in revenue, year ending January 31, 2003.
2003
- In downtown San Francisco, Dreamforce's first event is held at the Westin St. Francis hotel. There are just over 1,000 registered attendees at this event, here Salesforce launches sForce 2.0, the industry's first on-demand app service. Can you imagine what the mood was like!!
- Salesforce is now establishing a vast global presence, opening offices in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Spain, and the U.K reaching almost $100 million in revenue by year end.
2004
- In June, Salesforce successfully completed its first public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $110 million at $11 per share. The company now has 767 employees and 13,900 customers. Salesforce technologies are being used by over 8,000 developers and 150 independent software vendors.
- According to the company's annual report for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2005, Salesforce earned $176 million in revenue.
- Salesforce now has 12 OFFICES around the world.
2005
- Salesforce announced its AppExchange service in September, offering third-party developers a platform to develop their own applications and make them available to customers.
- With nearly 400,000 unique users, the company will have a customer base of 20,500 by the end of the year.
- The company surpasses 1,300 employees by end of fiscal year, in which it earned $309.98 million in revenue year ending January 31, 2006.
2006
- In 2008, Salesforce bought Sendia, a wireless technology startup, and launched the original Salesforce mobile app, AppExchange Mobile. As a result, The AppExchange ecosystem grows to 575 apps from 250 independent software vendors.
- In conjunction with the launch of Salesforce's partner program 'The Power of Us,' Benioff publishes 'The Business of Changing the World' with 20 other thought leaders.
- With 29,800 customers, Salesforce now has $497 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2007.
2007
- It is announced that IdeaExchange (now known as Trailblazer Community) is now open for customers to submit new feature ideas for future releases.
- During Dreamforce, Salesforce announces plans for the Force.com platform, which will let developers create apps and create user interfaces on demand.
- For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2008, Salesforce had revenue of $748.7 million and users totaled 1.1 million, from 41,000 customers worldwide. With Salesforce employees logging 70,000 volunteer hours.
- AppExchange now has 450 independent software vendors.
2008
- Salesforce is one of the fastest-growing tech companies with 55,400 customers, according to Forbes.
- A new milestone is reached at Dreamforce in San Francisco, with 10,000 attendees. Here Salesforce's Force.com is released, making it easier for customers to build and install apps.
- Salesforce has revenue of just over $1 billion for the fiscal year ending January 31 2009, making it the first cloud computing company to breach the billion-dollar mark in annual revenue.
2009
- Service Cloud brings customer service and support automation to the market.
- Revenues rise by more than 20% to $1.3 billion for the fiscal year, ending January 31, 2010. Salesforce’s global customer base grows to 72,000 customers.
- Apple's App Store has its first enterprise application built on Force.com.
- Nonprofits get $14 million in grants from Salesforce.org.
2010
- Salesforce will acquire Heroku, an application platform-as-a-service, to support the next generation of app developers.
- Salesforce gave $23 million in grants, volunteers volunteered 255,000 hours, and 11,000 nonprofits have access to free Salesforce products over the last ten years.
- There are more than 92,000 customers and 5,000 employees at the end of the fiscal year, with an annual revenue rise to almost $1.66 billion for yera ending, ending January 31, 2011.
- In the list of fastest-growing companies, Salesforce ranks fourth and is named one of the world’s most ethical companies for the fourth consecutive year
2011
- More than 80,000 customers adopt Salesforce Chatter in its first year as a social collaboration tool.
- Through the acquisition of Radian6, Salesforce has extended its social enterprise capabilities to include marketing.
- For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, revenue increased by 37% to almost $2.27 billion. Salesforce employs 7,785 people worldwide at the end of the fiscal year.
2012
- In preparation for an urban campus, Salesforce leases space in the yet-to-be-built tower at 350 Mission Street.
- A total of 90,000 people have registered for Dreamforce 2012. During the keynote address, Salesforce Marketing Cloud will be unveiled.
- During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2013, Salesforce generated revenues of more than $3 billion. The company now has 9,800 employees in 22 offices around the world with more than 100,000 customers.
2013
- In its largest acquisition to date, Salesforce has acquired ExactTarget, enabling the company to supercharge its Marketing Cloud platform. Moreover, The Salesforce1 Platform is launched at the same time, allowing customers to manage their business from their mobile devices.
- There are more than 143,000 registered attendees at Dreamforce. Blondie and Green Day will perform at a benefit concert during the event.
- More than 2,000 apps are available on the AppExchange, and over 2 million installations have been recorded.
- During the fiscal year ending January 31, 2014, revenue exceeded $4 billion. Now Salesforce has more than 13,300 employees worldwide.
2014
- The Salesforce Trailhead program offers anyone - regardless of education level - the opportunity to develop the skills required for top tech positions.
- The company now has 1.5 million registered developers, with $5 billion in annual revenue milestone faster than any other enterprise software company.
- More than 150,000 customers and 16,000 employees are employed by the company.
- Over 840,000 hours of employee volunteerism have been provided by the Salesforce Foundation since its inception.
- Opening of Salesforce Tower London.
2015
- The Salesforce company has entered the Fortune 500 list. Salesforce has also been named one of Fortune's Top 10 Best Companies to Work For and one of the World's Most Admired Software Companies.
- At Dreamforce, Salesforce announced the Lightning Experience, a completely new CRM experience.
- IoT Cloud from Salesforce connects billions of events from IoT devices, sensors, apps, and more.
- The company generates more than $6.66 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2016. It has more than 150,000 customers worldwide and more than 20,000 employees.
2016
- A $3 million salary adjustment results from Salesforce's first equal pay assessment.
- Salesforce Tower opens in New York.
- With the acquisition of Demandware, the company extends its Customer Success Platform to retail.7
- The company acquires productivity software company Quip.
- During the fiscal year ending January 31, 2017, revenue increased by 26% to more than $8.4 billion with more than 25,000 employees across 25 countries.
2017
- The Salesforce Einstein platform is the first comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) solution for CRM, making AI accessible to every company and business user.
- As a result of the company's efforts, it achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and begins delivering a carbon-neutral cloud service.
- With mySalesforce, administrators and business users can quickly and easily build and deploy modern, highly customized mobile apps.
- Revenue grows to $10.548 billion for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2018, up 25% on the previous year. Salesforce now has 29,000 employees around the world and more than 150,000 customers.
2018
- A new platform service called Salesforce Customer 360, which seamlessly manages customer information across clouds through a click-based interface, is being launched at the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco as part of the company's grand opening.
- Salesforce introduces Einstein Voice whilst MuleSoft is acquired to power Salesforce's Integrations.
- The company has more than 36,000 employees and Revenue reaches $13.3 billion for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2019.
2019
- Tableau is acquired by Salesforce, bringing together the world's #1 CRM and #1 analytics platform to power customers' digital transformations.
- Benioff’s book Trailblazer hits the shelves with more than 1.8 million learners are changing their lives on Trailhead. During this period Dreamforce gathers Trailblazers from 120 countries and 50 U.S. states, with more than 171,000 registered attendees and 16 million online viewers.
- Annual revenue grew 29%, surpassing $17 billion for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2020.
2020
- Salesforce launches a number of products and resources to help companies navigate the pandemic including: Salesforce Care, Work.com and Vaccine Cloud !
- In addition to acquiring Vlocity, Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Slack.
- With more than 140 million views, Salesforce hosts a virtual Dreamforce, and Dreamforce To You, bringing a version of Dreamforce tailored to individuals.
2021
- Salesforce has completed the acquisition of Slack and shared its vision for a Slack-driven Digital Headquarters.
- Salesforce+ is introduced, an all-new streaming service with compelling live and on-demand content for every role, industry and line of business.
- Salesforce was ranked #1 in CRM for the 8th consecutive year.
- Salesforce announced that it is a Net Zero company across its entire value chain, and has procured 100% renewable energy equivalent to its electric energy consumption worldwide.
- After widespread racial injustice incidents, Salesforce commits to new equality initiatives and advocates for police reform.
2022
- Salesforce announced Customer Data Cloud, a hyperscale, real-time data platform that powers the entire Salesforce Customer 360 platform, at Dreamforce 20. Also in order to help people get together safely, Salesforce announced Safety Cloud.
- Sustainability has been officially announced as one of Salesforce's core values. Simultaneously, Salesforce was ranked #1 in CRM for the ninth consecutive year.
- As part of its NFT Cloud offering, Salesforce has announced a trusted, sustainable, connected, and NFT commerce solution.
- Salesforce has received multiple notable awards, including Most Sustainable Company, World's Best Workplace, and World's Most Admired Company.
- With the 1-1-1 model, Salesforce has provided more than $240 million in grants, 3.5 million hours of community service, and more than 39,000 nonprofit organizations and educational institutions with product donations.
2023
- Salesforce announced Einstein GPT — the world’s first generative AI for CRM.
- Salesforce Web3 was launched, which helps companies create, manage, and deploy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a trusted, scalable, and sustainable way.
- A $250 million generative AI fund has been launched by Salesforce Ventures, the company's global investment arm.
- JUST 2 DAYS AGO - Salesforce launches AI cloud!
By 2026, Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners will create 9.3 million new jobs and generate $1.6 trillion in new business revenues.
Looking towards the future!
Salesforce's ecosystem is poised to continue its expansion. The company is dedicated to staying at the forefront of technology trends and emerging customer needs.
Overall, the vastness of Salesforce's ecosystem lies in its comprehensive suite of CRM solutions, the expansive AppExchange marketplace, its dedication to innovation and emerging technologies like AI, and its commitment to sustainability and social impact. As the business landscape continues to evolve, Salesforce is well-positioned to adapt and grow, offering businesses a robust platform and ecosystem to drive success in the future.