00:27:48 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:27:48] S1: All good things start in Hawaii. So we we've spent a bunch of time talking about buying companies, and partnering with companies. You have a third option, which is investing in companies, letting them run independently. I used to think of Salesforce Ventures as you partnering with your ecosystem, you know, your close partners. Today, it seems that you're investing much more freely, much more broadly. So, of course, Anthropic, Mistral, close partners of the company, Fall. Base Power seems a little more, you know, out there from a Mhmm. You know, strategic fit. Curious to hear like how the strategy has evolved over the years. [00:28:37] S0: Okay. Yeah. That's a great question because it really... There's been an evolution for sure. But you know, when you think about it, the through line has always been the same, which is how can we make sure we're finding the companies that will be delivering enterprise value, whether it's today or in the future. And so it started off in 2009 when we invested in companies like, you know, that were part of our ecosystem, like DocuSign, like Encino, and They [00:29:08] S1: should closely fit with your with your software. [00:29:11] S0: Twilio was another early investment. [00:29:13] S1: Makes complete sense.
00:29:13 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:29:13] S1: Makes complete sense. [00:29:15] S0: And we integrated with them, we partnered close to them. We also did a lot of services investments as well to build out our whole ecosystem of services partners regionally. Those were very successful. We then ventured more into new areas where the industry was heading, like companies like Snowflake. That was a very, very critical investment that we made several rounds, and then the IPO round. We also invested in cybersecurity because we could see how that was going to become a massive problem for the industry and we needed to stay current, so Wiz was one of our investments. And then I think when AI became so obvious as the next wave of the industry, we wanted to be very, very big in investing in the best companies there. We created the billion dollar AI fund at the beginning of twenty three. But but in addition to Anthropic, we also invested in Mistral and Cohere in several companies that were more at the at the infrastructure level level. We've invested in voice with Eleven Labs. We've invested in video with runway. And now we're actually venturing into physical AI too, which I think is really a new fun and exciting area. And very... You can see with the improvements like with with... In robotics, with dexterity and mobility, this is going to be a huge future for for the industry. And so we wanna be there. [00:30:53] S1: Totally makes sense. I mean, broad mandate. You know, it seems to cover all of technology wherever there is growth in the sector at large. How are you spending your time personally?
00:30:53 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:30:53] S1: Totally makes sense. I mean, broad mandate. You know, it seems to cover all of technology wherever there is growth in the sector at large. How are you spending your time personally? [00:31:07] S0: I I divide my time between finding new new companies to acquire, the... Working with the integration team and making sure that the acquisitions are successful, and then the ventures program. And so I'm I'm split a lot. As I said to you, I've never been busier than I am now, but I think that's sort of a hallmark of how just the rapid evolution of the industry and how how quickly technology innovation is happening these days. You just have to move faster, and however fast you move, it's not even fast enough. [00:31:41] S1: What... In in all these areas on on the venture side, what are you most excited about right now? [00:31:49] S0: Well, as I, you know, I I think the robotics companies are are just fascinating to see. Like, I I absolutely love that. I have... We have an investment in Figure AI and the humanoids. We've got investments in physical intelligence, Dyna Robotics, Skild, and and a variety of other companies. We have Zipline, which does drone delivery, for example. So we're we're venturing off [00:32:15] S1: We love many of those companies.
00:32:15 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:32:15] S1: We love many of those companies. [00:32:17] S0: Yeah. And we're... So we're doing things in new areas that aren't just about software, but it's very clear they're going to be really important to the industry. And so I'm enjoying that. Would say I also... We have investments around the world and so we're seeing some really interesting companies in Japan for example. We invested in a robotics company there called Mugen, which is like really really big in logistics and in the Japanese market. We have investments in many in Europe, in Israel, and in other parts of Asia and Australia for example. And so I think seeing the globalization of technology has been a real interesting vantage point. [00:33:05] S1: For the robotics side, I I agree. It is really... We're we're starting to see, you know, the early signs of scaling laws within robotics, which is really exciting. And then a bunch of these companies have gone a bit more vertical in their go to market, and so we're starting to see revenue start to scale up, which is which is really exciting. As you think about your investment aperture, how often are you looking at companies, and thinking, hey, potentially one day they could compete with Salesforce? And would you invest in a company that might take that position?
00:33:05 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:33:05] S1: For the robotics side, I I agree. It is really... We're we're starting to see, you know, the early signs of scaling laws within robotics, which is really exciting. And then a bunch of these companies have gone a bit more vertical in their go to market, and so we're starting to see revenue start to scale up, which is which is really exciting. As you think about your investment aperture, how often are you looking at companies, and thinking, hey, potentially one day they could compete with Salesforce? And would you invest in a company that might take that position? [00:33:44] S0: I think actually we probably should. It's good to stay close to where the technology is going. And maybe that company may turn into an acquisition target someday. So one of the things, just to give you some numbers, we've invested in more than seven fifty companies. We've acquired 29. So it's still, it's a relatively small number of companies, but I think if we ever see something really exciting that maybe it's an acquisition target in the future, maybe not, maybe it's just a great partner. You know, we want to stay close to that company. [00:34:20] S1: Yeah, and I mean, you mentioned a good portion of those seven fifty are in areas that you wouldn't say are core strategic areas. Like robotics today doesn't strike me as, you know, the next thing in line in the Salesforce roadmap. [00:34:37] S0: But we wanna be partnering with them. [00:34:38] S1: But you wanna be partnering with How do they think about the value proposition partnering with Salesforce Ventures?
00:34:38 · Alex Immerman, John Somorjai
[00:34:38] S1: But you wanna be partnering with How do they think about the value proposition partnering with Salesforce Ventures? [00:34:45] S0: I think the the biggest value add is probably how we can help them access customers. And you know, we have we have the broadest set of enterprise customers that are interested in buying technology, And so we help our portfolio companies get in front of these customers. I think we also provide a lot of meaningful advice from an operational lens around what is it like to build a business in this particular area. And having, you know, been been through so many stories, we can really help these entrepreneurs grow their businesses. [00:35:20] S1: If you were gonna start a company today, and it was gonna attack Salesforce head on, What are the openings that you see fit? [00:35:28] S0: What I what I would say is I don't know why there continue to be new CRM companies at this point. Like, it just... It is interesting, like, how [00:35:38] S1: And and why do you feel that way? There are a bunch of AI native CRMs. There's Lightfield, Monaco. Curious your take. [00:35:48] S0: I just think it's very hard to... First of all, there's so much great CRM technology in general, and we are continually improving our products. It's just very hard to build something that's particular and particularly specialized and niche in that area right now. And so I'm not... I I I have yet to see something that's so novel that it's going to turn into a large multi billion dollar company in that space.