Marc Benioff

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Marc Benioff took the radical idea of delivering enterprise software over the internet and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar company. They trace the early days of Salesforce — from Benioff's departure from Oracle in 1999 to the creation of the 'no software' mantra that defined an era. The discussion covers the specific bet on cloud computing when the internet was still synonymous with dot-com busts, the controversial marketing that antagonized incumbents like Siebel, and the operational decisions that allowed Salesforce to scale from 0 to over 150,000 customers. Lucas explains how Benioff's showmanship — renting billboards outside Siebel's headquarters, crashing Oracle events — was actually a disciplined go-to-market strategy. Luna questions whether the 'end of software' rhetoric was more hype than substance, and they both consider how the subscription model reshaped the entire enterprise tech landscape. The conversation also touches on the role of the Ohana culture in retaining talent during hypergrowth. A focused look at one CEO's conviction that customers would rather rent than own software. #MarcBenioff #Salesforce #CloudComputing #SaaS #EnterpriseSoftware #SubscriptionModel #NoSoftware #OhanaCulture #Siebel #Oracle #BusinessStrategy #CEOLeadership #TechHistory #DotComBust #CustomerSuccess #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #TheCEODiary Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

¿Por qué el éxito material no es suficiente? En este episodio exploramos la crisis existencial de Marc Benioff en Oracle y cómo su búsqueda de propósito lo llevó a fundar Salesforce , transformando para siempre la industria del Software as a Service (SaaS) y el Cloud Computing . Descubre el "método Benioff" para escalar empresas de 350 mil millones de dólares sin perder el alma. Analizamos la trayectoria de un auténtico Trailblazer : desde sus inicios como programador autodidacta y su pasantía en Apple bajo la bandera pirata de Steve Jobs , hasta convertirse en el protegido de Larry Ellison . Detallamos los momentos clave que definieron a Salesforce: La epifanía en la India con la líder espiritual Amma . El nacimiento del modelo 1-1-1 (filantropía integrada). El consejo secreto de Steve Jobs que salvó a la compañía de la desaparición. ¿Qué es el modelo 1-1-1 de Marc Benioff? Es un sistema donde las empresas donan el 1% de su capital, el 1% de su producto y el 1% del tiempo de sus empleados a causas sociales. ¿Por qué Marc Benioff dejó Oracle? A pesar de su éxito financiero, sufría de agotamiento emocional y falta de propósito, lo que lo llevó a buscar una forma de hacer negocios que impactara al mundo.

In this episode of Icons of Influence , host Hannah Hally explores the leadership journey and global influence of Marc Benioff — founder and CEO of Salesforce, and one of the most prominent advocates of values-led, stakeholder-driven capitalism in modern business. Marc Benioff’s career began inside the traditional enterprise software world, where he worked at Oracle during the rise of on-premise systems and long-term licensing models. It was here that he identified a fundamental shift approaching — not just in technology, but in how organisations would expect to consume software. Ownership would give way to access. Infrastructure would move off-site. Continuous improvement would replace static upgrades. This insight led to the founding of Salesforce, built on a then-radical idea: cloud-based software delivered as a service. The model didn’t just disrupt enterprise IT — it rewired how businesses think about scalability, customer data, and operational agility. Salesforce didn’t merely sell tools; it became an operating layer for customer relationships. What distinguishes Benioff’s influence is his understanding of platforms as ecosystems. Salesforce was designed not as a single product, but as a foundation upon which partners, developers, customers, and communities could build. As the platform expanded, so did its influence — embedding itself into the infrastructure of global business. With that scale came responsibility. Benioff became one of the most vocal proponents of stakeholder capitalism — the belief that companies must serve not only shareholders, but employees, customers, communities, and the environment. At Salesforce, values such as trust, equality, sustainability, and philanthropy were not treated as peripheral initiatives. They were embedded into operating models, governance structures, and leadership expectations. Initiatives like the one-one-one philanthropic framework, ongoing pay equity audits, public commitments to climate responsibility, and outspoken positions on social issues positioned Benioff as a new kind of corporate leader — one willing to use executive influence publicly. This approach has not been without risk. CEO activism exposes organisations to scrutiny, backlash, and the challenge of maintaining consistency across global operations. As platforms scale, so do expectations. Benioff’s leadership highlights a central tension of modern influence: neutrality reduces risk, but values create meaning. Rather than retreating, Benioff leaned in. His influence extends beyond Salesforce itself. Through acquisitions, partnerships, philanthropic investments, and public advocacy, he has helped reshape expectations around the role of business in society — from ethical technology and data trust to employee wellbeing and environmental accountability. Benioff’s leadership is institutional rather than performative. He is not building influence through personality alone, but through norms — redefining what responsible leadership looks like at scale. Marc Benioff’s journey offers powerful lessons for founders, executives, and modern leaders: Platforms create power — and responsibility Ecosystems scale influence faster than products Values can be operationalised, not just communicated Leadership voice carries risk, but also legitimacy Business is a social actor, not just a commercial one This episode is not a celebration of technology alone. It is a strategic exploration of how influence operates inside platforms — and what happens when leadership chooses to normalise responsibility alongside growth. 🎧 Listen now to Icons of Influence: Marc Benioff — Stakeholder Capitalism, Platform Power & Values at Scale . Hosted by Hannah Hally, The Business Book Club brings together three empowerin

AGENDA: 00:03:00 – Harry's Wild Start: Making £1.75M at 19 in 36 Hours 00:06:00 – How Harry Got Marc Benioff on 20VC with Cold Emailing Alone 00:07:30 – Raising $70M on WhatsApp – Relationship Building Secrets 00:12:00 – Decision Framework: What Would Pat Grady (Sequoia) Do? 00:15:00 – Chase Your First Million – It Unlocks Everything 00:16:30 – Advice for 19-Year-Olds Today: Niche Down, Interview Leaders, Publish 00:18:00 – University Is a Waste for Most | Leverage Youth & Risk 00:22:30 – How Getting Kicked Out of School Changed Everything 00:30:00 – Why Should Everyone Be Creating Content Today and How to Start 00:35:30 – 7 Lessons from Billionaires 00:36:00 – #1: Never Accept No (The $12M Turnaround Story) 00:37:30 – #2: Beat Down the Door (53 Emails to Marc Benioff) 00:39:00 – #3: Just Start – 99% Never Do 00:40:30 – #4: Use a Role Model Framework for Hard Decisions 00:42:00 – #5: Chasing Money Won't Make You Happy – Enjoy the Art 00:44:00 – #6: Break Big Visions into Achievable Milestones 00:45:30 – #7: Win Over the Partner (Power of Pillow Talk)

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I review the remarks and insights from CEO Marc Benioff and Salesforce from the recent Q3 earnings call. Highlights 00:20 — After an approximately three-year hiatus, CEO Marc Benioff and Salesforce demonstrated their growth mojo through the Q3 numbers. While some of the numbers aren't quite as robust as they were in Salesforce's earlier days, in the earnings call, Benioff emphasized growth, innovation, and new things coming that are reflective of where the company was in the past. 01:07 — In its first 22 years, Salesforce had unprecedented growth — 20 years of 20% or higher growth. No other publicly traded company has done that. In the last few years, with some pressure from institutional investors, Salesforce had to shift its focus from growth and innovation to margins and profits. During this time, the character of the company has evolved, especially with the AI Revolution and the introduction of Agentforce. 01:55 — Something that struck me was the exuberance of CEO Marc Benioff on the call and his excitement about lots of numbers that indicated things are headed in the right direction. He shared details and commentary about their Q3 numbers as well as the vitality and energy around new products. 02:58 — Benioff was proud of the stats around Agentforce customers moving into production. The number of those was up 70% sequentially quarter to quarter. This demonstrates how quickly Agentforce customers are able to deploy the technology, get it into use, and start getting the essential business outcomes. 03:38 — This is important because the biggest winners are always the customers in the Cloud Wars because they get to benefit from the incredible competition. It further triggers waves of relentless innovation unlike anything the world has ever seen. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

AGENDA: ​​00:00 – Marc Benioff vs Snowflake, Databricks & Palantir: Who Wins the Data Cloud War? 05:10 – Does Benioff Feel The Need to Buy AI Talent Like Zuck Is? 09:00 – What Salesforce has Learned From Palantir on Forward Deployed Engineers? 18:00 – Will SaaS apps disappear in an AI world? Why Satya is Chatting S*** 23:40 – Are SDRs really screwed by AI… or just evolving? 26:10 – Benioff on Who Wins: OpenAI or Anthropic? 30:00 – Nat Friedman reports to Alex Wang: Genius move or career downgrade? 34:00 – Anthropic’s $10B round: Have we hit peak AI hype? 47:00 – Klarna’s wild ride: From $45B to $6B to IPO at $15B 55:00 – Inside a16z’s seed machine: 72 bets vs Sequoia’s 27 57:45 – Martìn Casado: Is consensus investing dangerous—or the only game? 01:05:00 – The big lesson: consensus, contrarian, and why investing is harder than ever

Oliver and Victoria dissect Marc Benioff’s appearance on the Newcomer Podcast. 🔥 Topics we cover: The myth—and marketing—of the "ohana" family at Salesforce How Benioff reframes job cuts as AI-powered “liberation” Philanthropy vs. profit: can a billionaire fix the system he profits from? Agent Force, brain organoids, and the surreal future of digital labor Salesforce’s DEI retreat and the politics of corporate adaptability Why Benioff embodies both the contradictions and the genius of Silicon Valley Spiritual capitalism, calculated ambiguity, and the con of meaning-driven work

How does the AI gold rush look from the helm of a $40-billion software giant? Salesforce co-founder, chair, and CEO Marc Benioff joins Eric Newcomer and Tom Dotan for a tour of the next tech boom cycle. The conversation opens with Benioff’s sweeping vision of “Agent Force 2.0,” where large language models paired with reasoning engines mint whole new classes of digital labor, and brands from Gucci to Disney are already swapping call-center scripts for autonomous agents. The episode closes on politics and philanthropy: Prop C, homelessness, the 2024 electoral tightrope, and how Benioff plans to work with any administration and still sleep at night.

"The Last Generation of Human-Only CEOs: Marc Benioff's Bold Vision for the AI-Augmented Enterprise" Marc Benioff was kind enough to join SaaStr for the first time to do a truly deep dive on what AI means in business software today. From how quickly humans will be replaced in some functions ... to how slow some traditional enterprises will be to change. It's a good one. Top 5 Unexpected Learnings: 1. Human + AI + Executive Teams Are The New Normal Marc Benioff revealed he's been working with AI agents for nearly three years, particularly when creating his V2MOM documents (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures). For these important strategic documents, he now has a three-party approach: himself, a Salesforce executive, and an AI agent working together. The AI asks critical questions about competitive positioning, distribution expansion, and ecosystem impact – often providing insights Benioff hadn't considered. This collaborative approach is delivering superior strategic thinking beyond what either humans or AI could produce independently. 2. The Last Generation of "Humans-Only" Leadership Benioff believes current leaders represent "the last generation of CEOs that only had human employees." This isn't just a catchphrase – Benioff actively works with AI agents daily to improve Salesforce and trains his employees to do the same. He sees the human+agent partnership as consciousness-expanding, providing deeper insights and a form of "enlightenment" for executives. The fundamental concept of agent-augmented executive teams is completely reshaping how decisions are made. 3. AI Budgets Are a Red Flag Where are AI budgets are coming from? Benioff shared a surprising perspective: having a separate "AI budget" might indicate you're heading in the wrong direction. He believes AI investments should come directly from line-of-business budgets, with business unit leaders held accountable for efficiency, productivity, and employee augmentation through AI. Organizations with isolated AI teams and budgets aren't properly integrating AI into core business operations. 4. The Four-Layer Enterprise Stack Benioff vision’s for the enterprise stack of the future: four integrated layers: 1) Apps (still critically important), 2) Data (more important than ever), 3) Agents (the AI layer), and 4) Robotics (the emerging physical manifestation layer). This four-layer vision is becoming the architectural blueprint for Salesforce's entire platform direction, with remarkable convergence in real-world implementation. 5. Agent-First Companies Will Dominate Benioff sees both an entirely new class of "agent-first" companies that will fundamentally differ from today's organizations. And existing leaders being radically remade that will look much different from how they do today. He expresses a hint of envy toward founders who are starting companies today because they can build agent-first organizations from the ground up rather than transforming existing ones. This suggests a profound competitive advantage for new entrants who design their entire business model around AI augmentation from day one. The Practical AI Transformation at Salesforce "Agents can only go so far without the data and apps. And this is where Salesforce wins with AI. The data is more important than ever. Or your agents just can't perform at the level of accuracy We need them to." The Real Impact of Salesforce's Agent Force AI Benioff is particularly excited about Agent Force, which began as a concept a year ago and is now deployed by about 5,000 companies. What's unique is how quickly customers are seeing value – far faster than traditional enterprise software implementation cycles. One standout example is Singapore Airlines, whose CEO is building an agentic layer over the entire airline. This

Is AI about to cause the biggest workplace disruption in 25 years? In this episode of Today in Tech, host Keith Shaw sits down with Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff to explore the rise of AI agents—and how they’re already transforming major companies like Singapore Airlines, Disney, Lennar, and Pandora. Marc shares insights from his recent global travels, real-world use cases of Salesforce AgentForce, and why AI agents go far beyond ChatGPT-style tools. From multi-language support in seconds to revenue-driving personalization, this conversation uncovers how digital agents are reshaping the future of work, healthcare, and customer experience. :mag: Topics Covered: Why AI agents are bigger than generative AI Real-world enterprise use cases (Disney, Lennar, Singapore Airlines, etc.) The economic model behind agentic AI Job loss vs. reskilling debate AI’s future in medicine and customer service What’s next for Salesforce and AI innovation :brain: “Technology isn’t good or bad—it’s what we do with it,” says Benioff, reflecting on 26 years of Salesforce innovation. :tv: Don’t miss this in-depth and honest discussion about the future of AI, enterprise technology, and what it means for businesses and workers alike. :pushpin: Subscribe for more expert interviews, tech insights, and deep dives into transformative innovations. #MarcBenioff #AIagents #Salesforce #TodayInTech #KeithShaw #AgenticAI #EnterpriseAI #AI2025 #DigitalTransformation #TechInterview #GenerativeAI #AIinBusiness #OpenAI #ChatGPT #AgentForce #AIJobs #Reskilling #FutureOfWork

Marc Benioff is the founder and CEO of the cloud-based software company Salesforce. Dylan Lewis caught up with Benioff to discuss: - Why Salesforce doesn’t plan to hire any software engineers this year. - Lessons learned from major acquisitions, like Slack and Tableau. - Where AI goes next. Companies discussed: CRM, MSFT, LEN, DIS Host: Dylan Lewis Guest: Marc Benioff Producer: Mary Long Engineer: Rick Engdahl, Heather Horton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to land a sales job at a fast-growing startup—without industry connections? In this episode of Beyond the Hire , we sit down with Drew Sechrist , former top sales leader at Salesforce and CEO & Co-Founder of Connect The Dots . Drew shares how a cold email to Marc Benioff launched his career, the power of warm introductions in sales, and why building authentic relationships is the future of business development. How Drew went from cold emailing Marc Benioff to becoming Salesforce’s top global producer The evolution of sales from cold calling to strategic networking Why leveraging real connections is the key to breaking into tech & landing top-tier sales roles The flaws of LinkedIn networking and how to build a stronger sales pipeline Join hosts Sandra Polak & Ayse Yasas from Betts Recruiting as they explore startup sales, leadership, and the art of making meaningful connections. Drew Sechrist is the CEO & Co-Founder of Connect The Dots , a platform revolutionizing warm introductions in sales. As an early Salesforce employee, Drew played a pivotal role in scaling the company from a 36-person startup to a global SaaS leader. With decades of experience in sales leadership and entrepreneurship, he’s passionate about helping teams close deals by leveraging real relationships. Follow Drew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewsechrist