Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff reveals how swimming with dolphins inspired his multi million-dollar dream, recalls life lesson by Indian Guru

Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff recently shared the idea that pushed him to start the company- and it was in an unconventional setting. Marc Benioff came up with the idea for Salesforce.com, when he took a break from his job at Oracle and it was during this period he decided it was time to think more deeply about the technological landscape. Unlike the birth of rival tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon that trace their origins to a garage, Marc Benioff took a sabbatical that started with a trip to India where he met a variety of diverse people, reports Business Insider. He took a sabbatical that started with a trip to India where he met a spiritual leader and humanitarian, Mata Amritanandamayi,who helped strengthen his commitment to doing well and doing good in business.

His next stop was Hawaii, where he discussed various ideas for new businesses with an assortment of entrepreneurs and friends. While swimming with dolphins in the Pacific Ocean, the fundamental idea for Salesforce.com surfaced. He reflected: "I asked myself, 'Why aren't all enterprise software applications built like Amazon and eBay?'"

The multi-billion-dollar empire of Salesforce began when Marc Benioff was swimming with a pod of 100 dolphins off the Hawaii coast.

Why Marc Benioff quit Oracle

In a new interview with TBPN, Benioff recalled a 1999 “vision” led him to quit his high-ranking role at Oracle. "I pay attention to my dreams. I pay attention to my visions, my insights,” Benioff said. “Salesforce started because I was swimming with a pod of dolphins outside the coast of Hawaii, where I live. About 100 dolphins. I was one with the pod. And when I was one with the pod, all of a sudden in my mind, I saw this vision of what Salesforce could look like,” he explained.

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He said that during the swim, he envisioned what Salesforce could become and how software might shift from traditional on-premise licensing to a subscription-based, internet-delivered model. This was out of the box that time as such an approach was unconventional in enterprise technology. The 'vision' not just gave birth to a new idea but was more than an intuition and it needed capital.

He said that he went to the office of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison who was his mentor and then-boss. “I went to Larry Ellison and said, 'Hey, I think I'm going to quit my job’. He gave me $2 million, and we started Salesforce. That was 26 years ago,” Benioff recalled.

Marc Benioff shares life lesson by Mata Amritanandamayi

Last year, Benioff spoke about the idea of starting Salesforce, saying it goes back to the year 1996-97. He said that he was on a trip to India to meet his Guru Mata Amritanandamayi in Kerala. He recalled discussing his new technology and business model with her. Her reminder about the importance of giving back profoundly influenced him, leading to the development of a company with a philanthropic spirit.

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“I was with her, I was explaining my vision for Salesforce, which was a new technology model and a new business model. And she reminded me, of course, of the importance of giving back, it was very much in that spirit that we have built a different kind of company,” said Benioff.

The Salesforce CEO has previously shared how Mata Amritanandamayi has influenced his life. In an interview in 2020, Benioff said that she told him, 'In your quest to change the world, don't forget to do something for somebody else.'