6 Takeaways From Successful Salesforce Entrepreneurs

Successful entrepreneurs are the heartbeat of the Salesforce ecosystem. Salesforce partners who help their customers grow, adapt, and problem-solve with innovative technology are a deeply inspired and incredibly motivated group. The success of these individuals is largely a result of their commitment and tenacity.

The tools and capabilities offered to these entrepreneurs through their partnership with Salesforce also play a vital role in their success. From outsourcing infrastructure to leveraging the energy of the ecosystem, Salesforce partners have found an environment in which they can thrive.

Read on to learn more about these seven individuals and how the power of Salesforce has led them to success on their entrepreneurial journey.

Melanie Fellay, CEO & Co-Founder, Spekit
“Pairing our technology with the Salesforce Platform ensured that we would be staying ahead of the curve and innovating at the same rate as one of the most powerful technology companies in the world.”

Melanie Fellay had never planned to start a company. But that didn’t stop her from moving to San Francisco and building Spekit, a dynamic knowledge adoption platform.

Melanie discuss her company’s powerful relationship with the Salesforce Platform.

Jerry Huskins, CEO & Co-Founder, Fonteva
“Because we’re Salesforce partners, we’re able to outsource lots of the infrastructure and application building tools to Salesforce. It’s incredibly difficult with our competitors to keep up with that pace of innovation.”

Jerry Huskins began his career as a CPA. After taking the plunge to chase his dreams, he is now the CEO and founder of Fonteva, an integrated event and membership software platform.

After reaching over $30 million in revenue, Jerry shares that the secret to success is investing in your customers >>

David Schmaier, President & Chief Product Officer, Salesforce
“We built on top of Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud, because we think that’s what customers really want. We didn’t have to build a platform which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, we got to use the Salesforce Platform.”

David Schmaier grew his industry-specific software business, Vlocity, to over $100 million in revenue in less than five years before getting acquired by Salesforce. Yeah, you read that right.

Learn about David’s innovative approach to building on the Platform >>

Jennifer Mercer, CEO & Co-Founder, Metazoa
“Being a part of the Salesforce ecosystem allows you to be a start-up and sell big, grow big, and scale. We’ve seen it over and over again.”

Jennifer Mercer’s Salesforce journey began in 2003 when her company became one of the first Salesforce ISV Partners to list their app on AppExchange. Fast forward 18 years and Jennifer is onto her next venture in the Salesforce ecosystem — Metazoa.

Hear her story >>

Max Rudman, CEO, Prodly
“Salesforce offers a very exciting ecosystem. The scale, the energy, the diversity, and variety of solutions and partners. There is a fantastic opportunity in the ecosystem.”

Max Rudman is onto his second business after successfully building his first, which was eventually acquired by Salesforce. His current venture, Prodly, is reinventing the admin experience on the Salesforce Platform by empowering them to lead meaningful change for their organizations.

Hear more from Max >>

Kraig Swensrud & Sean Whiteley, Co-Founders, Qualified
“We needed to map out a path to success that maximizes the chances of our business growing and succeeding. That’s why we chose to build our entire company on Salesforce.” — Kraig Swensrud

Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley, Co-Founders of the conversational marketing platform Qualified, are a dynamic duo. They met in the early days of their careers and became great friends. Fast forward two decades later and three companies sold, they’re now building a $1B enterprise software company entirely on Salesforce.

Hear from the co-founders >>

Become a Salesforce partner today to experience how building on the Salesforce Platform and leveraging the ecosystem can help you build and grow your business.

This article originally appeared on AppExchange and Salesforce Ecosystem.