Salesforce, Inc.
Company History
Salesforce History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 1999 in San Francisco, California, United States
When was Salesforce founded?
Salesforce was founded in 1999 in San Francisco, California, United States by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez, making it 27 years old.
- Founded
- 1999
- Founding place
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Founders
- Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez
- Headquarters today
- San Francisco, California
- Milestones documented
- 12 (1999–2026)
- Current CEO
- Marc Benioff
- Acquisitions
- 17
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Salesforce is founded |
| 2004 | NYSE IPO |
| 2005 | AppExchange launches |
| 2013 | ExactTarget Acquired |
| 2016 | Acquired Demandware |
| 2018 | Acquired MuleSoft |
| 2019 | Tableau acquisition closes |
| 2020 | Joins Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| 2021 | Slack acquisition closes |
| 2025 | Acquired Informatica |
| 2026 | FY2026 revenue reaches $41.525B |
| 2026 | Q2 fiscal 2027 and raised guidance |
- Where was Salesforce founded?
- Salesforce was founded in San Francisco, California, United States in 1999.
- Who founded Salesforce?
- Salesforce was founded by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez.
- When did Salesforce start?
- Salesforce was founded in 1999.
- How old is Salesforce?
- Salesforce is 27 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Marc Benioff left Oracle, where he had been a senior sales executive, and in March 1999 started Salesforce in a rented apartment on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco with Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez. The pitch was CRM delivered in a web browser for a monthly fee. Its 'No Software' campaign, including staged protests at a Siebel Systems event, made the idea memorable, and the company went public on the NYSE in June 2004.
Founders
Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff is a fiercely visionary American technology entrepreneur, highly aggressive corporate architect, and the profoundly influential CEO and founding patriarch fundamentally responsible for creating the massively dominant Salesforce cloud software empire. Operating as an incredibly talented star executive at Oracle under Larry Ellison, Benioff aggressively recognized the massive, catastrophic friction of forcing businesses to install highly expensive, complex software on local servers. In 1999, he relentlessly launched Salesforce. By fiercely pioneering the incredibly revolutionary 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) model and aggressively executing massive 'No Software' marketing campaigns, his absolutely rigorous strategic leadership completely revolutionized the entire global enterprise software industry. His massive corporate execution permanently established Salesforce as an absolute multi-billion dollar monopoly in customer relationship management. Marc Benioff was born in 1964 in San Francisco. Education: USC Marshall School of Business; Burlingame High School.
Parker Harris
Parker Harris is an absolutely brilliant software engineer, fiercely skilled digital architect, and the profoundly influential technical co-founder fundamentally responsible for programming the incredibly complex infrastructural bedrock of the massive Salesforce cloud platform. Operating as a highly talented technical executive who had previously founded Left Coast Software, Harris aggressively joined forces with Benioff in 1999. He relentlessly spearheaded the incredibly complex backend engineering required to seamlessly host massive, highly secure, multi-tenant databases in the cloud. By fiercely building highly scalable architectures that allowed thousands of massive corporations to instantly access their CRM data via a web browser, his absolutely rigorous technical execution completely guaranteed the technological survival of the SaaS revolution. His massive engineering legacy permanently secured his status as a core titan of cloud computing. Parker Harris was born in 1967.
Dave Moellenhoff
Dave Moellenhoff is a highly astute software engineer, fiercely visionary digital operator, and the profoundly influential technical co-founder fundamentally responsible for architecting the highly critical security and multi-tenant frameworks of the massive Salesforce platform. Operating as an incredibly talented developer alongside Harris and Dominguez at Left Coast Software, Moellenhoff aggressively spearheaded the highly complex early architectural prototyping required to ensure absolute data privacy within a shared cloud environment. By relentlessly building highly secure, incredibly robust infrastructural protocols that completely convinced massive, highly paranoid Fortune 500 companies to trust the cloud with their most sensitive customer data, his absolutely rigorous technical execution completely guaranteed the platform's early commercial viability. His massive engineering legacy permanently established the secure foundation of the multi-billion dollar Salesforce ecosystem. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Frank Dominguez
Frank Dominguez is a fiercely brilliant software engineer, highly strategic digital architect, and the profoundly influential technical co-founder fundamentally responsible for the incredibly robust frontend engineering and early product development of the massive Salesforce cloud platform. Operating as an incredibly talented developer alongside Harris and Moellenhoff in 1999, Dominguez aggressively spearheaded the incredibly complex frontend architecture required to make highly dense CRM data easily accessible through a standard 1999 web browser. By relentlessly building highly responsive, incredibly intuitive user interfaces that actively replicated the speed and power of desktop applications, his absolutely rigorous technical execution completely guaranteed the massive viral adoption of the software. His massive engineering legacy permanently secured his status as a foundational titan of the modern SaaS ecosystem. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Salesforce is founded
Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez founded Salesforce to deliver CRM through a browser.
Source: salesforce.comNYSE IPO
Salesforce completed its initial public offering and gave the SaaS model public-market proof.
Source: salesforce.comAppExchange launches
Salesforce opened the platform to third-party applications, strengthening its ecosystem moat.
Source: salesforce.comExactTarget Acquired
Salesforce bought the marketing-software company ExactTarget in 2013 for about $2.5 billion.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAcquired Demandware
Salesforce acquired Demandware for $2.8 billion. Salesforce acquired Demandware in 2016 for $2.8 billion.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAcquired MuleSoft
Salesforce acquired MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. Salesforce acquired API integration company MuleSoft for about $6.5 billion to connect CRM data with ERP and legacy systems.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgTableau acquisition closes
Salesforce added analytics and visualization through the Tableau acquisition.
Source: investor.salesforce.comJoins Dow Jones Industrial Average
Salesforce was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in August 2020.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSlack acquisition closes
Salesforce acquired Slack to add workplace collaboration as a workflow surface for CRM data.
Source: salesforce.comAcquired Informatica
Salesforce acquired Informatica for $8 billion. Salesforce agreed in May 2025 to buy data management company Informatica for about $8 billion in equity value and closed the deal in November 2025; Informatica added $399 million of fiscal 2026 revenue.
Source: sec.govFY2026 revenue reaches $41.525B
Salesforce reported $41.525 billion in FY2026 revenue, with subscription and support revenue of $39.388 billion.
Source: sec.govQ2 fiscal 2027 and raised guidance
Salesforce reported Q2 fiscal 2027 revenue of $11.345 billion, up 11%, Agentforce and Data 360 ARR of nearly $3.9 billion, and raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $46.1-46.4 billion.
Source: finance.yahoo.comMajor Acquisitions
Sendia
2006Salesforce acquired Sendia in 2006 for $15 million.
Dimdim
2011Salesforce acquired Dimdim in 2011 for $31 million.
Buddy Media
2012Salesforce acquired Buddy Media in 2012 for $689 million.
ExactTarget
2013Salesforce acquired ExactTarget in 2013 for $2.5 billion.
RelateIQ
2014Salesforce acquired RelateIQ in 2014 for $390 million.
Demandware
2016Salesforce acquired Demandware in 2016 for $2.8 billion.
Sequence
2017Salesforce acquired Sequence in 2017.
MuleSoft
2018Salesforce acquired API integration company MuleSoft for about $6.5 billion to connect CRM data with ERP and legacy systems.
Tableau
2019Salesforce bought Tableau in an all-stock deal valued at about $15.7 billion to add self-service analytics and compete with Microsoft Power BI.
ClickSoftware
2019Salesforce acquired ClickSoftware in 2019 for $1.35 billion.
Slack
2021Salesforce acquired Slack for about $27.7 billion in cash and stock to counter Microsoft Teams and give its CRM a collaboration interface.
Troops.ai
2022Salesforce acquired Troops.ai in 2022.
Airkit.ai
2023Salesforce acquired Airkit.ai in 2023.
Spiff
2023Salesforce acquired Spiff in 2023.
Own
2024Salesforce acquired Own in 2024 for $1.9 billion.
PredictSpring and Tenyx
2024Salesforce acquired PredictSpring and Tenyx in 2024.
Informatica
2025Salesforce agreed in May 2025 to buy data management company Informatica for about $8 billion in equity value and closed the deal in November 2025; Informatica added $399 million of fiscal 2026 revenue.
Keep researching Salesforce
Salesforce Company History FAQ
When and where was Salesforce founded?
Salesforce was founded in March 1999 in a rented one-bedroom apartment on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California, by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez.
What was Marc Benioff's background before founding Salesforce?
Marc Benioff spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation under Larry Ellison, becoming Oracle's youngest vice president at age 25. Inspired by Amazon and consumer web apps, Benioff envisioned delivering enterprise software as an online service available 24/7 through a standard web browser.
What was the famous "No Software" guerrilla marketing campaign?
In 2000, Salesforce staged mock protests outside rival Siebel Systems' annual user conference with actors holding signs reading "The End of Software" and red slashes across the word "Software," positioning on-premise disk installation as obsolete and cloud SaaS as the future.
What is the "1-1-1 Philanthropic Model" pioneered by Salesforce?
At founding, Benioff instituted the 1-1-1 model: pledging 1% of Salesforce's equity, 1% of its employee time, and 1% of its product/technology to charitable non-profits, a framework that has donated hundreds of millions in grants and inspired hundreds of Silicon Valley startups.
When did Salesforce go public and how did its IPO perform?
Salesforce completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol "CRM" on June 23, 2004, pricing at $11 per share and raising $110 million, with shares surging 56% on its first day of trading.
What was the revolutionary launch of the AppExchange in 2005-2006?
In 2005, Salesforce launched the AppExchange, the world's first enterprise application marketplace, allowing third-party developers to build, distribute, and monetize cloud applications on Salesforce's underlying Force.com multi-tenant platform.
When was Salesforce Tower opened and what does it symbolize?
Completed in 2018, the 1,070-foot, 61-story Salesforce Tower became the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco, anchoring the city's Transbay transit district and symbolizing the economic dominance of cloud technology over traditional finance.
What was the landmark acquisition of Slack Technologies in 2021?
In July 2021, Salesforce completed its largest acquisition in company history, buying enterprise workplace communication platform Slack for $27.7 billion to serve as the unified collaboration layer across Customer 360.
How did activist investors reshape Salesforce's strategy in 2023?
In late 2022 and early 2023, activist hedge funds including Elliott Management, Starboard Value, and Third Point pressured Salesforce to improve profitability. Benioff responded by disbanding M&A committees, reducing headcount by 10%, expanding operating margins past 30%, and halting debt-fueled mega-acquisitions.
When did Salesforce initiate its first-ever cash dividend?
In February 2024, signaling financial maturity and capital return discipline, Salesforce declared its first-ever quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per share, alongside an expanded $30 billion share repurchase authorization.
What is Agentforce and why is it Salesforce's biggest strategic pivot?
Unveiled at Dreamforce in September 2024, Agentforce is Salesforce's autonomous generative AI platform that deploys specialized digital agents capable of resolving complex customer service, sales development, and marketing tasks independently without human intervention.
When was Salesforce added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)?
In August 2020, Salesforce was added to the prestigious 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing legacy industrial oil conglomerate ExxonMobil, cementing the dominance of cloud enterprise software in the modern American economy.
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