The Salesforce Incubator: Then & Now
Thoughts from Batch #1
Last week we said goodbye to Batch #1 of the Salesforce Incubator — 12 SaaS startups building with the Salesforce Platform. Before we let them go, we captured their thoughts on their time with us, some of the challenges they faced and their well-deserved wins during the 5-month program.
Metadata
What they do: Metadata runs demand gen for B2B companies by combining predictive scoring and programmatic advertising. They identify net new targets based on top customers’ profiles and push content to them.
“There were lots of advisors who spent hours and hours with us.”
5 months ago: The small team had just hired their first sales person to tackle early traction.
Today: They’ve more than doubled revenue, increased renewal rate significantly and made seven new hires.
Tomorrow: They plan to focus on success stories to improve their product and release a self-serve version. They’re also working on an AppExchange “MVP.”
Bud Mobile
What they do: They improve sales collaboration processes by reinventing the way people work together, ensuring each deal moves forward and nothing falls through the cracks.
“We’ve been adopted by the ecosystem. It was not someone lecturing us, it was having access to people who could help us.”
5 months ago: They had a good understanding of what a successful collaboration environment should look like.
Today: They understand the value and power of building within an ecosystem like Salesforce.
Tomorrow: They will focus on their go-to-market by listing an app on the AppExchange.
Wootric
What they do: Wootric is a customer feedback management platform. They help teams stay aligned in a united effort to improve the customer experience.
“This was a great opportunity for us to understand Salesforce’s customers and how they can benefit from Wootric.”
5 months ago: They had proven customer traction.
Today: They’ve brought their app to the AppExchange to make it available to Salesforce customers.
Tomorrow: They’re going to lean harder into demand gen efforts and actively build up the sales team.
Ideator
What they do: Ideator is an innovation network — they help organizations and people share ideas. The Higher Ed market is their sweet spot.
“There were a lot of other CTOs in this program we were able to connect with.”
5 months ago: The team was pre-seed looking for validation, a stamp of approval to raise money.
Today: They raised $1.5 million and discovered a great go-to-market opportunity through Heroku Connect and the Salesforce Higher Ed team.
Tomorrow: They will keep leveraging networking opportunities and be our neighbors, moving into SaaStr’s new co-selling space down the street. Their product will support idea sharing for Batch #2.
Kapuhonu
What they do: They built a framework to help Salesforce developers quickly connect external data to the Salesforce Platform. Their CEO, Chuck Liddell, is very involved in Hawaii’s local startup community.
“I was pleased with the strong support that we had but also that it was more of a choose your own adventure program. We were not necessarily new at this, but we needed help.”
5 months ago: Kapuhonu was a service company working on a product.
Today: From a bunch of dev hours, the startup turned into a product company and started working on a business strategy.
Tomorrow: They’re working on getting a set of customers who are going to love the product and use their experience in the incubator to adjust the roadmap.
Leankor
What they do: Leankor is a visual project management solution. They help teams visualize workflows and processes. The startup is based in Calgary, Canada.
“Five months can be worth five years of experience for a startup visiting Silicon Valley.”
5 months ago: They had some early customers and a solid product.
Today: They understand the best structure for their sales team as well as the metrics and processes that will lead them to success. They also nailed their pricing strategy.
Tomorrow: They’re looking forward to further integration with partners and leveraging the doors that the Salesforce Incubator opened for them.
Nova
What they do: Nova is a sales platform using AI to make sales teams more effective. Their product provides AEs and SDRs with personalized workflows that increase their chance of getting a response.
“What we really took that we didn’t expect […] was the access to brilliant executives […]. Those connections have been invaluable.”
5 months ago: They had early product/market fit and customer traction.
Today: They’ve transitioned from founder-led to a 10-person team focused on building processes.
Tomorrow: Scale!
Batch #2 join us May 1st to focus on innovation in the artificial intelligence space using Salesforce technologies and tools. Stay tuned to meet the startups.
Batch #3 applications open June 2017.
