Bret Taylor explains how he worked his way up to COO of Salesforce, only a few years after selling his startup to the company for $750 million

• Bret Taylor has risen rapidly through the ranks at Salesforce after it acquired his word processor startup Quip for $750 million. He is now the cloud software company's chief operating officer.
• Taylor attributes his success to two factors: dedicating himself to the job and being realistic about what it's like to be acquired, he tells Insider's Nicholas Carlson in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.
• "When we were deciding to sell the company we were like, this is a culture that I could be a part of, and most importantly that all the employees of this Quip really felt like they could be a part of," Taylor told Carlson.
• Taylor also highlighted Salesforce's platform and culture of innovation as a reason many entrepreneurs who join the company choose to stay.
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Bret Taylor has left his mark on every tech company he's worked at, including the company he's currently at - Salesforce. He helped lead Facebook through its 2012 IPO and is credited with creating the like button. Earlier, at Google, he was on team that created Google Maps.

At Salesforce, Taylor has risen rapidly through the ranks after joining the cloud software company in 2016 when it acquired his online word processor startup Quip for $750 million. As soon as he joined, he reported to CEO Marc Benioff, a rare thing for a startup founder whose company was just acquired.

A year later, in 2017, he made the leap to the C-Suite, becoming president and chief product officer. Just a few months ago he became the company's chief operating officer, taking on a greater leadership role with more influence over the future of Salesforce. Taylor's rapid rise at Salesforce is not over, either: Experts expect Taylor to take more of a leadership role going forward, alongside co-CEO Keith Block.

In an interview with Insider Inc. Global Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Carlson at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, Taylor attributed his success to a combination of dedicating himself to the job and being realistic about what it's like to have your company acquired.

"My philosophy is I just lean into the job that I'm doing ...When we sold to Salesforce, it was with good intentions, we're doing it because we want to be a part of this company and help grow it ... it wasn't transactional, it was based on a premise of trying to make something." Taylor said.

He said his co-founder from Quip, Kevin Gibbs, is also still at Salesforce and both their roles have expanded in the time since. Many other Quip employees are also still at Salesforce, 4 years after the acquisition, he added.

Benioff also particularly wanted to work with Taylor, previously telling Business Insider that he is "one of the absolute rising stars of our industry."

During the process of discussing an acquisition by Salesforce, Taylor said he focused a lot on seeing if both companies had a similar culture. He added that they saw an alignment with Quip's goals and Salesforce's goals and realized they could grow Quip a lot faster by being part of Salesforce.

"When we were deciding to sell the company we were like, this is a culture that I could be a part of, and most importantly that all the employees of Quip really felt like they could be a part of. I think people undervalue that. They sort of look at a price tag, they'll look at other attributes of the transaction," Taylor said.

Taylor also said his experience with acquisitions - both having a company get acquired and being at the company doing the acquiring - gave him a realistic perspective about what it would be like. Being acquired by Salesforce meant big changes for Quip and discussing those changes ahead of time made a big difference, he said.

"I think the most successful acquisitions, you really deliberate about what it's going to look like two years from now," he said.

He also highlighted the benefit that Salesforce's platform gives startups and entrepreneurs who join the company. Salesforce's reach opens up many growth opportunities while still preserving a culture of innovation that attracts entrepreneurs.

"With Salesforce, and I think most thriving technology companies that are really growing, really tried to create an environment and a culture where the best innovators, the best entrepreneurs can have that independence but have a bigger impact because we have a big platform." Taylor said. "And I think that's why so many of the entrepreneurs who have joined Salesforce are still here."

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