💃 AppExchange History and Fun Facts🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! Did you know that Salesforce's AppExchange precedes Apple's Appstore, and that Marc Benioff gifted Steve Jobs the Appstore.com domain in appreciation of Jobs planting the seed that grew to become the AppExchange?

In today's quick hitter, we will reminisce on the early days of Salesforce, and Apple taking them under their wing, then getting a nice gift in return.

Agenda for today includes

• Super Brief History

• Daily Principle

• All the Memes

A Brief History

As the story goes (summarized from Marc's book - Trailblazer) - Steve Jobs and Marc Benioff met in Cupertino in 2003. During the meeting, Steve told Marc that a cloud-based applications ecosystem would be necessary for relevance and growth. In 2003, this was a wild concept to most non-geniuses, and it even took Marc years to wrap his head around it.

When Marc did have his realization, in a San Francisco restaurant and on the back of a napkin (why is it that all billion dollar ideas are born on napkins...Alexa! Get more napkins!!!), he drafted the idea of an App Store - a place any developer had the ability to publish their applications for the Salesforce ecosystem. Knowing he had a revolutionary idea, he quickly purchased the Appstore.com domain.

Fast forward to 2008 - the Salesforce AppExchange (the name "Appstore" was rejected) has been live for 2 years, and Apple announces The App Store. Apple being Apple, The App Store does not require a domain, but the value of the Appstore.com domain is definitely a valuable asset. Marc understood the valuable advice he had received from Steve Jobs was an important part of Salesforce's success, and gave Steve the Appstore.com domain for free. And still, today, you can type Appstore.com into your internet browser and you will find yourself in Apple's App Store!

See our previous post about the AppExchange, and what to consider when searching for apps - click here

Daily Principle

Ernest Hemingway was a legendary writer and author. He lived hard, if it's not obvious by his metal quote. His belief that writing is an extension of what is flowing within you to something that can be read is a powerful thought.

Write. A lot. Write about your favorite team losing game 6 but winning game 7. Write a Standard Operating Procedure document. Write about your pivoting to a Salesforce career changing your life. Write about your day in your journal. Write when you are happy. Write when you are sad. Just write. A lot.

Writing helps declutter your mind. It distills your thoughts. It can turn chaos to clarity. Next time you are stuck on a problem, try this - write the problem down, then write out possible solutions. It is not guaranteed you will solve the problem, but you will gain a new perspective.

and now....Your Daily Memes