Steve Jobs’ advice led Benioff to build an app exchange

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 5:59

   And so one of the domain names you owned was AppStore.com, which I know you gifted to Steve Jobs. I read in your book. Is there a story there that you could share? Because that's an epic domain just to gift. It's a great story, but it's really a story about my relationship with Steve Jobs. And when I was, you know, in college in 1984, I would have the opportunity to be an intern at Apple. And I wrote the first native assembly language on the Macintosh.

2. 6:25

   It's kind of a crazy thing to be able to say, but it's true that I was writing these example programs for this Macintosh 68,000 development system. And on these, you know, Apple headquarter buildings in Banley, on Banley Road and Cupertino. And started to have a relationship with Steve Jobs in that, not that I was actually talking to him. I was like this snot-nosed 19-year-old kid. but he's running around the building and like, you know, we have this refrigerator over here with all these fruit juices. There's a masseuse over here doing shiatsu massages. There's a motorcycle in the, in the lobby. There's a pirate flag on the roof and there's Steve Jobs running around yelling at everybody. And it was fricking cool. Okay. So you can just imagine like, you're like, Whoa, this is like, I'm in a movie. And there's a lot of other cool parts of the movie

3. 7:18

   that were going on. And it kind of started my relationship with him. And then I kind of actually kind of got to know him then, you know, as I eventually got to Oracle and then eventually started Salesforce. And I had this moment at Salesforce and it was, I think, 2000, 2001. I cannot remember exactly what it was. And we were at the opening of one of his movies for Pixar and we're having dinner. There's a lot of details around the dinner. It'll be a hugely long story if I go forever. And he says to me, well, Mark, now listen to me. You're doing so great. You've got your company, Salesforce. If you need any help, you make sure you call me, okay?

4. 8:07

   And I'm like, yes, sir, I will do that. And he took out his, he had just introduced the iPod. and he's like you know i got a thousand songs in my pocket here look at this and that and all that and it's this cool device and he's like i'm like that's such a cool screen steve's goes oh thanks so much and i go steve you know you could do movies on there too not just or photos you didn't have to do songs no mark i will never do a device like that absolutely not and that's a little insight into his personality that he would never ever exactly like say oh yeah i'm gonna do the movie device that I had the photo the phone the this so anyway things were kind of moving along at Salesforce and so I kind of was like I kind of stuck and I kind of need to kind of get through my block writer's block entrepreneur's block I'm gonna reach out to him and he's like come down

5. 9:01

   here right away so literally got in my car I brought a few of my team with me and we go down And he's like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're blocked. There's three things you need to do right now. And I'm like, okay, what are they? Your company, it better get 10 times larger than it is now or in 24 months or it's over. Okay, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Number two, you better sign a huge customer for the Salesforce automation product like Avon.

6. 9:31

   They're a great Salesforce. And the CEO of Avon was on his board at the time, so that was on his mind. And one last thing I'm going to tell you, you must do. I'm like, yes, sir. What is it? You better go build an application economy. An application economy? Yes. What does that mean? I don't know, but you're going to go figure it out. And it was like, you know, meeting with your guru and, you know, getting a Zen koan or something where you're like, now you have a puzzle I have to solve.

7. 10:03

   and I literally went away and I had all the notes from the meeting, you know, I went through it over and over and again. And then finally I'm like, I think he wants me to build an app store. And at that moment I went to the domain registry and I bought appstore.com. And then I started working on it at Salesforce so that we would have the ability with our platform to build apps and then, you know, sell them, you know, and that you could do all these things.

8. 10:33

   so I did all that and, you know, launched AppExchange in like 2005 or 2006, and we didn't call it AppStore because when we tested the AppStore name and focus groups, customers were like, this is not an AppStore, this is an AppExchange, we're all going to exchange apps and capabilities. Anyway, it rolled out, iPhone rolled out, and then, you know, he basically said to me one day, hey, come down and see me. This is maybe like a year after iPhone. I'm like, I'll be right down.

9. 11:07

   And I get down there and I have some team members with me and they'd heard this story before, et cetera. And then we're sitting there like this, the Apple auditory was not like at a hotel or anything. I remember it very clearly like it was yesterday. And he said, I brought you all down here today. And, you know, he's just very, very good theatrical performance. I could never do what he does is incredible you know he's got the thing and then he says and i'm here to reveal to you the app store and all of our people go you know they think doesn't break breath and they're all like go white because they're like oh bark has been talking about app store for years and how how could steve even know and then at the end of it it's all over everyone leaves the auditorium They're all going out to play with the app store and all these things.

10. 11:58

    And I walked down and he's sitting down there by himself, you know, working on something. And he's like in the corner of the stage. I go, Hey, Steve, can I talk to you for a second? He goes, of course. Very generous of me. Very kind with me. He goes, Steve, I'm going to give you a gift. Wow. But Mark, what are you going to give me? Steve, I'm going to give you something you don't have, but maybe you'll need.

11. 12:24

    which is the appstore.com URL appstore.com and the trademark for app store. Because after that meeting we had like six years ago, I ended up trademarking these things and buying this URL. And he's like, oh, it's very nice. But you know, this app store thing isn't going to be very big and, you know, whatever, but thank you very much. And that was the story of app store is kind of amazing. It's kind of a, it was kind of a very amazing relationship that I had with him.

12. 12:53

    very grateful to have that relationship and dramatically influenced me in my career and my my whole life there's one thread that i love about everything you shared here is how generosity was