Behind The Cloud: The Untold Story Of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea To Billion-Dollar Company-And Revolutionized An Industry (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Broken up into into 100+ 1-3 page sections, very readable. Nice to get some historical context on what is was like before SaaS was the default. Lots of detail on:- marketing- recruiting- sales process- company scaling- international expansion- customer focusBrief bits on - financing- going public- underlying technology- 1/1/1 approach to corporate philanthropy- mission statements, organizational objectives Behind the Cloud is a great book to understand more about how things are run at an executive level. Marc Benioff displays his style and attitude in the book, too. While I appreciate the honesty and rawness of his thoughts, he sounds to me like a rich, spoiled brat, and if given the opportunity, you could not pay me to even have dinner with him. He seems to have had such a great life for such a long time, that his whines and complaints in the book are reserved only for aristocracies.The organization of the book is into "plays", which are more disconnected than I would have preferred. Nevertheless, I still did give it a positive score because I learned so much more about what it is like to be in an executive team, which I have no clue about.With that being said, its worth a read, but not worth living your life by it.
What do You think about Behind The Cloud: The Untold Story Of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea To Billion-Dollar Company-And Revolutionized An Industry (2009)?
Great book - really inspiring story of org, structure, disrupting norms, and great marketing
—Leo
Interesting read for folks interested in b2b marketing and sales dynamics
—lilin08
finished on the way to Dreamforce 2011 in San Francisco
—SuzyQ
Great book for learning how to market a Saas company.
—shana
Interesting story written in an easy-to-read style.
—brendalu
