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00:00You started the company in nineteen ninety nine. Yes. If you had bought the stock at the beginning you'd be up about 7000 percent. Thirty five hundred percent. But who's counting now that you own Time magazine. Do you get to pick who is the person of the year. David you're very lucky. I realize you are a good candidate. All right. I get it. I'm not involved in editorial. Would you consider running for office. I think that business is the greatest platform for change. We can do it. We can change the world. Would you fix your time please. People wouldn't recognize me if my time was fixed. But just stay with us . All right . I don't consider myself a journalist and nobody else to consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though I have a day job running a private equity firm . How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . Let me ask you about Salesforce.com for those people who are not that familiar with it. There may be a few. You started a company in 1999. Yes. And today it has a market value of about one hundred and thirty billion dollars. Yes. If you had bought the stock at the beginning you'd be up about 7000 percent . Thirty five hundred percent. But who's counting here. But you're more on those kind of things than I am. 35 are a much better investor. Well I don't know about that. OK. So yeah pretty pretty 500. Yeah. We haven't had a very good shareholder return. But the thing is we've also had what we call a very good stakeholder return. So you know we've also been able to give away 300 million dollars. We've done four million hours of volunteerism for those who aren't knowledgeable about what Salesforce dot coms main business is. What does it actually do . Well Salesforce is a business software company. If you go to Adidas dot com and you buy some Adidas shoes you know some easy uses from you know Kenya West and you like this you just got like the shoe and then you get an email from Adidas and then you . But the shoe comes in. There's something wrong with it. You have to call customer service and send it back. And all of those things the sales the service the marketing the e-mail the commerce is all 100 percent sales force on Adidas. As I understand it your company really did two things in terms of OK good. What was what you've just asked. Yes CRM customer relations management. And your point was that the most important thing in business is to make sure your customers are OK. Is that right. I think that's generally a good idea . And second was the near novelty as I understand it was that you said let's do this through the cloud. Yes. And when you started the company in 1999 people thought clouds were white things in the sky. And you kind of told people there's more to that. Is that right. Well you're 100 percent right. There's really three things we said we were going to do when we started our business. Number one what we're gonna do is we're going to build this cloud too. We're going to have a subscription model . So you're going to subscribe not buy a license. So you know we're going to have a deeper relationship with you. And that became a recurring revenue stream. And that was a whole different type of business model for software. And three we said you know we're gonna put 1 percent of our equity 1 percent of our profit and 1 percent of all of our employees time into this fiber when C 3 charity. It was very easy because we had no equity with no profit. We had no time with nobody. But it turned out. Now we have forty five thousand employees 130 billion market cap. So we've been able to have that stakeholder impact. The premise was that you wanted to build a company that was actually one that employees felt they were having a culture that they would be proud of. Is that essentially right. You know I was working in another software company for a decade from 80 Oracle Oracle from 1986 starting in 1986. And in 1996 I walked into my boss's office Larry Ellison everybody knows who he is. He's been a tremendous mentor to me. And I said to him I really don't feel good. I am having trouble getting up in the morning. I just am not enjoying my job. I don't really know what's going on. And he goes you know what you need to do. You need to take a sabbatical. So I did. I went to Hawaii and then I came back. And he is like you still don't seem exactly right . This was after 90 days. Take another three months off. I said fine. So I went to India. All right. And . I was touring India with a friend of mine who had just quit working for George Soros and was going to start his own venture capital company called Tell US Off Partners name is Arjun Gupta . And we're in the Kerala region right in the backwaters of the Arabian Sea. And all of a sudden we're invited into this ashram which is like us you know it's like a synagogue anyway. OK. So just help bring you along. And the story helping you come along . I got it. But anyway that's where they lost tried over. I know I know. I'm helping you. OK. And so we're in the ashram now in this part of India. All the gurus are women . And this woman is now lecturing us on spirituality and so forth . And all of a sudden Argent takes out his business plan goes oh well let me tell you about what I'm gonna do. Tell us our partners . And he starts giving her and she's like really interested . Wireless is coming. And we're gonna connect the world and mobile devices are coming in. And this is you know we're there . This is 19. This is 1996. So then she is listening really clearly. And I'm like I think she's going to invest. OK . And then all of a sudden she says this really powerful thing which is she's saying it to him but she's looking right at me and my eyes. And she goes in your quest to change the world . Don't forget to do something for other people . And that was a moment in time when I said wow when I start a company I'm going to make sure that philanthropy and giving and generosity and these values are in the culture of the company from day one. And then when I started the company which was March 8th of 1999 I rented the apartment next door to me in San Francisco hired a few people moved in. And I said to them at that moment we're gonna do these three things . And one of them was to make sure that we made a business that we felt great at being there every single day. OK. That's pretty impressive. So did you think when you started doing that David . Did you ever think when you started it that it would never get anywhere. I mean you you were starting in an apartment you didn't have. Did you have a lot of capital. Where'd you get your capital. I thought we'd go right to 130 billion market cap . No I don't really know what is going to happen. And we have a lot of amazing executives and entrepreneurs in this room. I mean some that I'm looking at right here you don't really know what is going to happen. I mean I remember the day very well . I wrote down a bunch of notes that you know one of my co-founders kept and we had a vision for the end of software . We had a vision for CRM that I kind of articulated. We had a vision for of the 1 1 1 model . We wrote all of those things down and then we start to hire people into the model. And it just got going 21 years ago exactly like that. And that's all we did new recently with your wife bought Time magazine. Do you get to pick who is the person of the year and her friends call you up and say hey hey how I . I can't do it. I know you want to be. I got it. We shouldn't bring it up here or maybe name it. You're very lucky. I realize you are a good candidate. All right. I get it. All right. Look there's advertising and I'm not involved in editorial. Now why did you buy time by the way . That's a very good question. You know we actually are looking for ways to have impact and really to add more trust and impact in the world . And one of the things that I've always loved about Time magazine . Really there's four things. One is that it's it's always been about trust . It is an incredibly impactful business. The stories that not only Mali but also her peers are writing and have dramatic impact in the world for the good . It's a fantastic magazine. And it's also all about equality . In fact that idea that it's about trust impact. It's a magazine about equality. That's what we call it. Time to Miami. That's where you got it. Yeah. Wow. OK I can do the same for I know her very well actually . It's a tough crowd. Washington D.C.. That was actually my partner material. All right. Did you meet Steve Jobs. Have any relationship with him. I wouldn't be the person I am. And Salesforce would not be the company it is without Steve Jobs . Your background was you grew up in San Francisco is that right . I am a fourth generation San Franciscan. So you went to high school. Were you an athlete where you are a star student . I was into computers. You know I was in RadioShack in nineteen seventy nine. I found the Teresi model one and I went and talked to my grandmother and I said you know I really like to buy one of these. And she's like well how much is it. I'm like it was like 400 dollars. He's like I'll give you two hundred if you can make 200. So I got a job at current jewelry store across the street and after school in high school I was cleaning the jewelry cases. I got fired. I did a terrible job but I did make the two hundred dollars and I got the computer from her. I learned how to program. And when I was basically 15 years old I wrote my first piece of software How to juggle. By the time I got to college I had written 10 software titles and I was making maybe fifteen hundred dollars a month which for in high school . It's really good. So then I'm like this is amazing. And then something crazy happened to me which is I'm in college at USC . I'm writing my software or whatever. And the Super Bowl comes on in 1984 and I'm enjoy the Super Bowl. And there's this crazy ad that 1984 won't be like 1984 in this apple. And I'm like maybe I'm going to have to do this Macintosh. So I bought the Macintosh computer and . Set it up just like they did as a software developer actually ended up having to make a big financial commitment and it didn't work. And I called them and talked to the head of evangelism at Apple. His name is Guy Kawasaki is it's kind of turned into a famous person. And I said you know I'm 19 years old. I just put all my life savings into your computer to write software and doesn't work. So why don't you explain to me why that is. This was in May of 1984 at that point. And. He's like why don't you come to work here this summer and help us fix it because we're having some problems . And I was like what was that. And he's like we're going to hire you as an intern in into Apple. And I'm like OK where are you . Well he's in Cupertino. Like it's a 15 minute drive. It's actually right next to my father's store. Did you meet Steve Jobs. Have any relationship with him. I did. I met Steve Jobs and then Steve Jobs ended up having a huge impact on my life especially when I started Salesforce. It was a very very meaningful and powerful relationship. And I wouldn't be the person I am and Salesforce would not be the company does without Steve. Now when Salesforce was started you started a system of having people develop applications apps and you had the name of the app store. And then can you tell how that revolved. Well this was a really weird situation. So in 2001 Salesforce was like 18 months old or something. And I got an invitation to fund something called College Track was starting which was being put together by Steve Jobs wife Laurene Powell Jobs. And so we ended up doing it. And then there was a dinner afterwards. And I was like oh this is gonna be some incredible huge dinner. And I go to the dinner. And Larry and had forgotten to make a reservation and it was packed. So Steve's like I'm not leaving until the table opens. Now I won't go into the aspects of his personality but just know we weren't leaving. So . He's like you want to see something cool. I'm like oh yeah. So he takes goes out the back pocket goes well I just entered is this last week. It's the iPod. And he had an iPod. And I'm like well that's pretty cool. It's like yeah I got a thousand songs in my pocket. What you think about that. I'm like . I like it . And it's like yeah you can twist it turn it like this and all the lousy click this. That is really cool. And then I he I guess said to him you know it's kind of like a computer. You could probably build a little application there and that screen could be color. You could probably even have movies and it probably wouldn't be that hard. And you know it'd be really awesome. And he goes he will never do that. That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard . So then at the end we have this nice long dinner. It goes on for hours and and at the end then he says Well Marc. Do you need some help running sales force and I go well maybe. And he goes well you really need help. You better come and see me in my office and I will help you. So then I kind of got my courage up and we went down there and I took my coat to co-founders with me and the demo in Salesforce. He goes with this . And then he's like You know what Marc. There's three things you better do and you better do it right now . And I'm like OK what are they. Number one. You better go get the biggest customer you possibly can get somebody like Avon Avon it was too said. Now I want you to really understand this . You are gonna be 10 times larger in 24 months or it is over for you. Do you understand what I'm saying. Yes sir . Ten times larger in 24 months. And one last thing. Yes. You need to go build an application economy. Well what does that mean. I don't know. But you better go figure it out . And I said thank you very much . And we walked out of the building and got in our car and drove home and my co-founders mouths were open and I could not figure out that last the first one the first two are easy. I could not figure it out. Then I kind of had a dream where I saw that we could have in our application a marketplace where other developers could maybe build on our platform and then insert things in it. And then we could have a catalog of things. And I'm like this is like an app store. And I called up our lawyer at the time and I registered the trademark app store and . Then what happened was is we got a call. Steve Jobs wants us to come down for a major announcement on the Apple campus. So then we are down there and we're in this Big Apple Auditorium and it's a big production . And the videos are going and Steve walks out in his jeans and a black t shirt and the whole thing. And longer. Ladies and gentlemen amazing. I'm here to announce my greatest invention of all time. App store . And my employees who are sitting around me you could hear them have an audible gasps the production went on and at the end the whole auditorium ended and emptied out. And Steve was down at this stage at the bottom. I said I'm going to give you a gift as well. What gift can you give me . And I said I'm going to give you the trademark for Appstore and the URL for no charge because thank you for everything you've done for me. And he goes well it's not going to be anything . You know the app store is never really going to work out. Right . It's not going to be that big. But recently you said Facebook is cigarettes. What do you mean by that. Well it is. Facebook is the new cigarettes. It is bad for you. It is addictive . You know they should be regulated very aggressively . Recently you've been very involved in things other than running Salesforce.com Salesforce.com has done very very well. But you've been a leader in certain issues. For example when Indiana decided to change its laws relating to health lesbians bisexuals gays and so forth. You did something about that . What did you do and why were you so concerned about it. We're not just the largest employer in San Francisco and the largest tech company in San Francisco but we're actually the largest tech company in Indiana and Indianapolis. And if you go to Indianapolis you'll see a gorgeous salesforce tower. Call me ahead of time. Unbelievable view. And my employees call me and they go well we have a problem and I'm kind of listening to them. And it just feels inside that they're right. Some like don't worry Mike Pence is never going to sign a law discriminating against gays. I met him. He's great. Well . I he did and I was really surprised and maybe a little upset and I tweeted well this is going to force us if Indiana is going to discriminate against our LGBTQ employees then we are going to this invest in Indiana. Because how am I going to bring my customers there and my employees there and how am I going to hire and make a great tech company there. If they're discriminating against LGBTQ employees and customers and everybody else. And that opened the door. And by the next day every other company like Cummins and Eli Lilly and Indiana and hundreds of other companies even companies all over the world said we agree with Mark. We're also going to disinvest. And Mike Pence called me and said . Well what are we gonna do. And I'm like . I think we're going to have to issue rolling economic sanctions against the state of Indiana . And he's like well what does that mean. I'm like I don't know but I think it's gonna be bad. And he's like well what should we do. I'm like why don't we just resolve this. You know we know each other. It's just not that hard. And in fact I sent two of my employees to his office. And within within a couple of days it was worked out. He changed the law and it was all behind us. And by the way I think that's how it should work anyway. You know it's very easy. Now you did a similar thing . You did a similar thing not long ago when in San Francisco there was a tax that was proposed to help pay for homelessness which is a big problem in San Francisco. Most CEOs in the tech world said this is crazy. We're against it. You said you're supporting it and you lobbied for it and it actually passed . Why did you get so involved. So we've been working for years to do homeless services and private philanthropy and some have been very successful where we've been able to move hundreds of families off the streets. But we have eight thousand homeless people on the streets and services go. So I can see we need a lot more money. And so all of a sudden a group of people who are the top homeless advocates and most brilliant people in homelessness including the University California San Francisco and scientists medical doctors come up with something called Prop C and that is to direct a certain amount of money to the homeless. But it is a tax on business a half of 1 percent of revenue but only for the top 50 companies in the top three. You may have heard of Salesforce Facebook and Google . We can afford it. So I just said let's support it. And when I did that that was like hearsay that people could not believe that a CEO would support attacks. And in fact some CEOs of other tech companies got really upset with me. I'm very upset with me. And it became a kind of a nightmare for me where all of a sudden I got on the front page of The New York Times where it's Benioff versus this CEO and so forth. And I'm like this is a very small amount of money. And we are making billions. Like you mentioned one hundred and thirty billion. We can take a tiny amount and help clean up our city. This is what we're doing in business. We can have a great shareholder return and we can have a great stakeholder turn. We can do both. But recently you said Facebook is cigarettes. What do you mean by that. Well it is. Facebook is the new cigarettes. It. Is bad for you. It is addictive . They run. They do advertising. That's not true. There is you know they should be regulated very aggressively. Have you heard from Mark Zuckerberg about your. Sure. I've talked to him. I've talked to his management team. And what I say is trust has to be your highest priority. If trust is not your highest priority and if you're not thinking about all your stakeholders and you're only focused on money then what kind of business are you building. Now they agree for example that pornography should not be on their site. So they have built the technology and it cleanses their side of pornography. They're very careful about that. They have A.I. It's advanced but there's other things that they allow and where they could look for truth where they could actually work to have great integrity you know and make sure that everything is accurate and clear . They don't do that. And that I think you know is a problem . And that needs to be directly addressed as a result of your success at Salesforce and other things. You've obviously made a fair amount of money. Is your goal in the future to make more money to give it away. Would you consider running for office . I would never be a politician. I will never run for office. I wouldn't know how to run for office. I don't think I I I could not see how I could do that. I like to go to Hawaii. Like what . Steve is enjoying myself. That doesn't really work with that model. You know I think that business is the greatest platform for change. I think that what I'm doing actually have more impact doing what I'm doing with 45000 employees and all my partners and my trailblazers all over the world and say we can do it. We can change the world. Oh because by the way if you and I don't change the world no one else is going to you know we have to repair the world. We have to improve the world that you know we're on the board of the World Economic Forum together . We're trustees of the World Economic Forum. You know our tagline is committed to improving the state of the world . Isn't that everyone's tagline. That's why we're here. That's why we're on this planet is to improve the state of the world . We're not here just to make money. We're not just here to manipulate other people or to get our way. We're here to prove the world and to love each other. And that that's what it's all about .

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