41 One-Liner Startup Lessons I Learnt From a Programmer Who Built a $230 B Empire Leaving 9–5 at Oracle

Sanjay Priyadarshi
3 min readOct 17, 2023
Photo by Ali Jouyandeh on Unsplash

Before 1999, Marc Benioff was stuck in a corporate job.

He wasn’t enjoying his corporate life even after receiving a huge salary from Oracle.

He had no idea what he wanted to do next with his life.

In February of 1999, he started his company, Salesforce. In just ten years, he took Salesforce’s revenue from $0 to $1 billion.

A few months ago I studied his life and listened to his interviews to figure out how he was able to build a $230 B empire. Here I have shared startup lessons I learned from him.

  1. Don’t quit your job. Take a sabbatical instead.
  2. Software as a service is a great model for starting a business.
  3. Read online articles, magazines, and newspapers, but trust your instincts.
  4. Even if the person you admire misjudges your worth, continue to believe in yourself.
  5. There are good people in this world who will definitely help you. You just need to find them.
  6. To create a billion-dollar company, your talent isn’t enough; choose your collaborators carefully, as their help is essential.
  7. You should never give an emotional…

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Sanjay Priyadarshi
Sanjay Priyadarshi

Written by Sanjay Priyadarshi

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