Marc Benioff, co-founder of Salesforce, showcases his incredible entrepreneurial ability by racing to millionaire status at age 25. How did he accomplish this monumental achievement so quickly? Key factors like software development, humble beginnings, and wise mentors helped skyrocket Benioff’s success as an entrepreneur.
Marc had a passion for developing software. He sold his first software product at just 15 years old. It was a software called “How to Juggle” priced to the buyer at $75. A strong start for young Benioff. He continued, at the age of 15, to develop and sell Atari 800 games such as Escape From Vulcan’s Isle and King Arthur’s Heir. Marc surely showcased his computer and coding prowess. However, none of it would have been possible without this humble start.
Benioff had the opportunity, through the permission of his parents, to work at a jewelry store. He would work there after school hours and do work such as cleaning the floors. This allowed him to save up enough money to purchase his first computer. Little did young Benioff know, this would be the first brick in building his largely successful career.
Continuing to develop his professional skills for 10 years at Oracle, Marc became a millionaire at the young age of 25. He worked as an executive where his salary quickly added up to the millionaire mark.
Marc dreamed of bigger things than what Oracle could offer and began to be inspired to change the way people upgrade their software through the development of the large, well-known company, Salesforce. Salesforce, Benioff says, would not exist without the mentorship he received from Steve Jobs. Marc developed the #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform. It is a cloud-based application for sales, service, marketing and more. They allow a company to log in and begin connecting to customers without the help of an IT expert.
Super well written post! This is a really interesting story. I love the narrative of hard work and how that helped him to become successful. I think the idea of working hard and it paying off is super encouraging. I loved that he was an entrepreneur from a young age and that he was driven from such a young age. Very encouraging story of what hard work can do.
I love how this post covered the importance of mentors in the company’s success. Data management is a new field ripe for innovation. I think the worth of his company is a huge indication of how successful this idea is and I have no doubt it will continue to grow in the future. I could honestly see this becoming mainstream almost like google apps and how they are accessible from everywhere and used by the majority of population.
Interesting story on how he became a millionaire so young. I love how he started doing software when he was young and he wasn’t worried about people (particular older people) that he couldn’t start anything because he was “too young”. I feel there are so many millionaires within the world who will never be recognized for how hard they worked and what they did to become so rich. Society talks about all the money and make it seem an overnight success instead of talking about the grind and hours spent working and crafting an over night success.
This is a very interesting story. I think it’s important that you recognized his natural abilities in his eventual success because without those talents, his hard work would not have gotten him anywhere. Hard work is certainly important, but there needs to be a natural ability backing it up to be successful.