It’s not just money though
As with many other venture capital firms the investments are not just about money. Salesforce Ventures also offers guidance and the advice of some of the innovators and executives from within the Salesforce company. This also extends to the CSR policies for any startup, which few other venture capital firms deliver. The Salesforce Foundation can be leveraged and companies can be educated on their 1-1-1 philosophy and how to develop it.
The Salesforce Foundation is based on a simple idea, leveraging Salesforce’s people, technology, and resources to help improve communities around the world. Salesforce are not alone in doing this with Tableau Software making a recent announcement around their CSR program as well.
Ruben Daniels, co-founder and CEO, Cloud9 IDE is an advocate and believes in this approach: “Salesforce Ventures provides not only the funding, network and introductions, but also the mentorship and framework to help companies understand how they can give back as they grow.
“We are proud of our commitment to Pledge 1% and expand diversity in the technology industry by making the community a key stakeholder in our business.”
Conclusion
For European startups this is great news. For those looking for funding it may well be worth approaching Salesforce Ventures as a possible partner. Success in obtaining funding is not just about the money, it can change the success vector of the firm completely.
As Thorsten Köhler, co-founder, CEO, YOUR SL comments in the release: “An investment from Salesforce Ventures offers a collaborative partnership. Salesforce Ventures has increased our ability to stay competitive as we grow and connect with new enterprise customers, delivering success to the entire spectrum of business.”
