Building a 25-Year Startup:
Beginner's Mind at Scale

Marc Benioff

Co-Founder & CEO, Salesforce

NOV 2024

The Foundation

Generosity as Strategy

"He never turned down anything that I asked him to do. Everything has worked out so much better than we could have ever imagined.", Steve Jobs to Marc

Generosity creates reciprocal opportunities and trust
Marc gave Steve appstore.com domain; Steve became his greatest mentor
One domain gift became a 20-year relationship that shaped Salesforce
Generosity is not a tactic, it's a philosophy embedded in leadership

The Mindset

Startup CEO Forever: Beginner's Mind at 25 Years

years old, still a startup

$350B

market cap

75K

employees

Never look at the stock: It's a distraction. The journey is the reward, not the destination.
You're always the CEO-as-startup: No matter what the company size, act like you're at the beginning.
The next thing is coming: The mindset is "I can't wait for the next thing," not "I just got used to this."
Clear your mind to write the music: Meditation, Zen temples, geography matter. Find your place to think.

Marc's philosophy"The journey is the reward. That's also something Steve Jobs would say all the time."

The Launch Playbook

How to Win When Nobody Believes Your Vision

Throw everything against the wall: Test tactics rapidly. Look for what sticks, then turn it into strategy.
Create spectacle: Hire protesters. Stage fake news crews. Make noise at competitor conferences.
Own the narrative: Control the story about what's ending (software) and what's beginning (the cloud).
Get 10x growth in 24 months: Steve's advice: if you're not growing massively, you're done. Make growth the obsession.
Land a logo customer: Sign a marquee name. Proof of concept at scale beats any demo.

The audacious move

Marc hired actors as protesters at Siebel's conference with "The End of Software Is Near" signs, staging fake news crews to cover the protest. Pure marketing theater.

The big bet insight

"I'm throwing everything against the wall. I'm looking to try to find the winning tactic and turn it into a winning strategy."

Agentforce

The Six Levers of a New Category

Get everyone focused on the product (internal alignment)
Find more fuel: distribute the breakthrough to all 135K customers
Build distribution: hire account executives for direct sales
Tell customer stories: Disney, Nike, all the wins
Activate the ecosystem: millions of Trailblazers → Agentblazers
Flip the switch: ship it to all customers; motivate them to turn it on

What is an agent?It's like the Minority Report Gap store scene: software that knows your history, understands your preferences, has institutional memory, and advises you. A car. A doctor. A home bot.

Contrarian

What Most Leaders Get Wrong

✗Keep the company simple as it scalesINSTEAD →✓ Complexity is inevitable. The question is: are you solving new problems or repeating old ones?

✗Stock price is the goalINSTEAD →✓ Never look at the stock. It's a reflection. Money comes at the end, not the beginning.

✗Once you know something, master itINSTEAD →✓ The moment you think you know what's next, you're behind. Beginner's mind forever.

✗Stay close to home to stay groundedINSTEAD →✓ Geography is important. Go to Kyoto. Go to Zen temples. Clarity comes from unfamiliar spaces.

Based on Marc Benioff's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Watch on YouTube Follow @benioff on X

GO DEEPER IN THE EPISODE

03:54 Marc’s early career and domain names 05:59 The App Store story and lessons from Steve Jobs 15:18 Lessons from launching Salesforce 22:03 The importance of keeping a beginner’s mindset 29:53 Why Marc calls Salesforce the “25-year startup”31:47 Agentforce 36:09 Why Marc says AI is the defining technology of our lifetime 40:12 AI’s impact on the workforce 42:31 Entrepreneurs need to be like conductors 46:02 Failure corner 50:32 The future of AI agents 56:34 Final thoughts and farewell

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