"Shark Tank"/ABC
Chris Sacca (far right) had some fun riling up Mark Cuban (far left) on the set of "Shark Tank."
The event, called "Dreampitch," will give three lucky startups a chance to pitch in front of Cuban and Sacca. The judges will only decide who gets how much, as Salesforce's own VC arm, Salesforce Ventures, will be the one making the actual investment that can go up to $150,000 each.
Salesforce is also providing all travel accommodations and a separate booth at Dreamforce, as well as a VIP membership to its exclusive startup program, Salesforce for Startups, to the three Dreampitch finalists. One winner will also get to join Salesforce's new startup incubator early next year.
"As an early-stage startup, every opportunity to showcase your company to potential customers, partners and investors is invaluable. And the chance to pitch to legendary investors Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca is a great way to increase brand recognition and receive valuable feedback," Julia Barrett, Salesforce for Startups' Global Program Director, told us in an email.
But not every startup is qualified to apply. You need to fit the following criteria:
- Some parts of your product must be built on top of Salesforce's own platform technology, like Lightning, Force.com, or Heroku
- You must be US based and authorized to work here
- You must have less than $2 million in total funding
- You have to have over $100,000 in annual gross revenue run rate (most recent quarter gross revenue times four)
- Must be an independent legal entity (LLC, S corp or C corp)
- None of your members have been employed by Salesforce, its affiliated companies, RECESS, or the affiliated companies of any judges within the past five (5) years
- You comply with the Official Rules.
Salesforce of course isn't doing this just for fun. Dreampitch will help expand Salesforce Ventures' portfolio, who has quickly become one of the most active corporate VC arms over the past couple years. But more importantly, it will encourage more startups to use Salesforce's App Cloud, which generated $325.9 million in revenue last quarter - up 45% year-over-year, by far the highest growth rate among Salesforce's four largest product categories.