Marc Benioff Posts

Kenandy Raises $33 Million

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Kenandy is a cloud-based supply chain software company, based in Redwood City, California, that has raised $33 million.  Kenandy was founded by Sandy Kurtzig.  Kurtzig is known for being one of the executives behind the Manman, which is one of the largest software packages in the 1970s and 1980s.  Lightspeed Venture Partners led this round of funding.  Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Salesforce.com, and law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati participated in this round.  Lightspeed partner Chris Schaepe is joining Kenandy’s board of directors.  Kenandy previously raised $10.5 million in funding two years ago.
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Upstart Raises $5.9 Million

Upstart is a company that makes it possible for users to raise money for entrepreneurial projects.  The people that raise the money pay lenders back with a percentage of their income for 10 years. The company has raised $5.9 million in Series A funding led by First Round Capital.  Other investors in this round include Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Eric Schmidt (Google executive chairman), Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com CEO), and Scott Banister (IronPort co-founder).  Kiva co-founder Jessica Jackley and former Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey have also joined Upstart as advisors.
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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Invests In Brandcast

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has invested in a company called Brandcast.  Brandcast helps brands create a website, an online store, and social media profile.  Benioff led the company’s seed round and first round of funding.  He is also serving as an adviser to the company.
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Sift Science Raises $5.5 Million In Seed Funding

Sift Science is a company that has raised $5.5 million in funding to help fight fraud.  Investors that participated in this round include Y Combinator, SV Angel, Start Fund, Alex Rampell, Harj Taggar, Garry Tan, Lee Linden, Kevin Scott, Alexis Ohanian, Rich Barton, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Max Levchin, Chris Dixon, Marc Benioff, and several others.  Sift Science has created technology that helps e-commerce companies, payment companies, and retailers detect fraudulent activity.  Albert Wenger of Union Square will be joining Sift’s board of directors.

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Salesforce.com Reports $788 Million In Q3 Revenues

Salesforce.com has posted their financial results for Q3 2012 and they beat Wall Street expectations.  Salesforce.com reported Q3 revenue of $788 million, which is up 35% year-over-year and they are up 7.6% from Q2 2012.  Based on a non-GAAP basis, Salesforce’s earnings per share (EPS) was 33 cents, which is a one cent decline from its EPS in Q3 2011 and nine cents down from its Q2 2012 EPS.

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WATCH: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff Has A Fireside Conversation With Sir Richard Branson

Salesforce.com has uploaded a fireside conversation between Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson from the Dreamforce 2012 conference to YouTube.  Benioff and Branson are both entrepreneurs and are dedicated to philanthropy.  Check out the video below:

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Marc Benioff Announces Do.com With Google As A Customer


Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has announced a new project called Do.com, which is an online project management tool.  Google is rolling out this tool for their engineers said Benioff when speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.  Salesforce.com started rolling out a refresh of Do.com built on technology from their 2011 acquisition of Manymoon.  Salesforce.com said that they have thousands of Do.com users already including homebuilder company Shea Homes.  Manymoon initially started built on Google Apps and the task-list features.  Benioff is an investor in Asana, which is a company that is just like Do.com.  Benioff actually did not know whether he invested in Asana after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington asked him.  However Ron Conway confirmed that Benioff is an investor in Asana through his fund.

Yammer CEO: We Did Not Go To Microsoft, They Came To Us

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Yammer founder and CEO David Sacks sold his company to Microsoft for $1.2 billion in June.  At the TechCrunch Disrupt SF conference, Sacks sat down with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to talk to him about the acquisition.  ”Selling your company is always a hard decision,” stated Sacks. “You want to make sure it makes sense, and it’s something you want to do.”

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