Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez in San Francisco. Benioff, a former Oracle executive, built Salesforce around a then-radical idea: enterprise software delivered entirely through a web browser, with no software to install. The “No Software” campaign helped establish the SaaS model that now dominates enterprise tech.
Salesforce’s Sales Cloud CRM is the foundation, but the platform has expanded enormously through organic development and acquisitions. Major purchases include ExactTarget ($2.5B, 2013), MuleSoft ($6.5B, 2018), Tableau ($15.7B, 2019), and Slack ($27.7B, 2021). Each acquisition expanded Salesforce’s reach into marketing, integration, analytics, and team collaboration.
The Salesforce Platform (formerly Force.com) lets customers and partners build custom applications on top of Salesforce’s infrastructure. AppExchange, the company’s marketplace, hosts thousands of third-party apps. The ecosystem supports a massive consulting and development industry — Salesforce-skilled professionals are among the highest-paid in enterprise IT.
Annual revenue exceeded $34 billion in fiscal year 2024, making Salesforce the largest pure-play SaaS company in the world. The company serves more than 150,000 organizations, from small businesses to the Fortune 500.
Under pressure from activist investors in 2023, Salesforce implemented cost cuts and improved margins significantly. The company has also invested heavily in AI through Einstein and, more recently, Agentforce — its autonomous AI agent platform.
Headquartered at Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, Salesforce employs around 72,000 people. Benioff remains chairman and CEO and is known for his philanthropic initiatives and public advocacy on social issues.
