Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff: ‘Many CEOs are afraid to get too personal’

Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff: ‘Many CEOs are afraid to get too personal’

Marc Benioff has been the reliably outspoken chief executive of Salesforce.com for 10 years. Salesforce was one of the pioneers of the software-as-a-service business model, where traditional software is replaced by a web-based application that customers pay for via subscription, and he trumpeted the model with… Continue Reading

Salesforce.com on Microsoft: “They hate everybody”

Salesforce.com on Microsoft: “They hate everybody”

Salesforce.com’s strategy can be boiled down to one word, according to chief executive Marc Benioff — love. Of course, Benioff was being a little tongue-in-cheek as he answered questions from analysts and reporters at today’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. But he was illustrating a… Continue Reading

Dreamforce: Salesforce.com adds Facebook, Amazon and Neil Young

Dreamforce: Salesforce.com adds Facebook, Amazon and Neil Young

As tech giants eye the cloud computing market, Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff made it clear that he intends to stay competitive. During his keynote speech today at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, he first discussed Force.com Sites, the service for hosting public-facing websites… Continue Reading

Zuora raises $15M to manage online subscriptions

Zuora raises $15M to manage online subscriptions

Zuora, which offers online services to automate customer subscriptions and payments, has raised $15 million in a second round of funding.

Chief executive Tien Tzuo said he wants Zuora to be the web’s top “online subscription platform,” the way PayPal is the default platform for web… Continue Reading

Zuora’s new product helps companies collect money from customers

Zuora’s new product helps companies collect money from customers

Zuora, a startup that offers software to manage customer subscriptions, just announced its second product, dubbed “Z-Payments.” While Zuora’s first product, Z-Billing, automates the billing process (duh), Z-Payments handles the other side of the equation — actually allowing customers to pay those bills, including integration… Continue Reading

Tapulous wants to be leading application ecosystem for the iPhone

Tapulous wants to be leading application ecosystem for the iPhone

Tapulous, a new Silicon Valley startup, embodies the craze that’s going on right now around the iPhone.

Tucked inside a ground-floor office on Hamilton Ave. in Palo Alto, Calif., a stone’s throw from social network comany Facebook, the company’s eight employees are feverishly building applications solely… Continue Reading

Zuora offers subscription services to all those online software companies

Zuora offers subscription services to all those online software companies

updated
Zuora is a Silicon Valley company that says it offers a simpler, less expensive way for companies to offer online subscription services. It launches today announcing it has gotten $6.5 million in a first round of funding led by venture firm Benchmark Capital.

Until now, software… Continue Reading

Social network ad company Lookery raises more seed capital

Lookery, the company that offers an ad network for applications social network companies such as Facebook, has raised another couple hundred thousand in seed capital, the company’s founder Scott Rafer said.

Investors include:

Marc Benioff
Tom Cole (blog)
Reid Hoffman
TAG, which is Saul (blog) and Robin… Continue Reading

Validity Sensors raises $20M more for fingerprint sensors

Validity Sensors, San Jose start-up the builds advanced fingerprint sensors, has raised $20 million in its latest round of venture capital, in what appears to be a formal financial restart of the company.

The round included a “substantial investment” from Qualcomm Ventures, according to the company,… Continue Reading