Hi there,

Salesforce has spread its wings, as our strategy map highlights.

Outside of its flagship CRM product, Salesforce now competes in a number of markets (and in its core CRM biz) with a bunch of insurgent competitors with a narrow focus on specific customer use cases.

We mined Yardstiq transcripts and found buyers mentioning Salesforce as a competitor against 18 other companies who ultimately won the deal over Salesforce. 

Buyers say these companies (among others) compete with Salesforce:

• Contentsquare in business intelligence & analytics

• Salesloft in sales engagement

• Tealium in customer data platforms

• Workato in integration platforms (vs. Salesforce’s MuleSoft) 

Below are some choice quotes of when the disruptors are beating out Salesforce.

In email marketing automation:

And in customer service CRM:

Given the breadth of its product portfolio, Salesforce is now fighting a multifront battle, and it appears customers are increasingly open to and in some cases actively seeking out smaller best-of-breed solutions. With its stock price down and no M&A activity in the 2nd half of the year, it will be interesting to see how it fights back.

10 years later

Right now, looking at your Schwab or Robinhood account isn’t so much fun.

But it won’t stay that way forever (hopefully). 
 

We cover 3 key technologies helping investors move toward a better future here.

Maybe together they can get somewhere

Tech giants like Amazon and Google are helping automakers:

• Increase vehicle connectivity 

• Improve sustainability

• And tackle autonomous driving

Go beyond the bullets and dive into big tech’s auto advancements in this report.

Requests for Technology 

Every week, hundreds of CB Insights customers source technology vendors on our platform.

Here are a few recent RFTs we’ve received:

RFT #1 — A global strategy and management consulting firm is helping one of its customers collaborate with innovative data processing companies.

RFT #2 — A Chinese e-commerce platform would like to partner with vendors to empower merchants with fulfillment and shipping services. 

RFT #3 — A multinational investment bank is looking into video solutions on behalf of its leadership team.

If you’re building technology that can assist with any of this, submit an Analyst Briefing here.

What’s next? 

Banking startups were hit hard last quarter. 

But that doesn’t mean the innovation is stopping. 

New kids on the block 

We got a lot of love for our report on the tech shaping the homes of the future.

So we took a deeper dive into early-stage innovation in this area.  

MedCity News. Katie Adams covers the decline in digital health funding and mentions CB Insights research.

Fintech Insider by 11:FS. A panel of experts discusses fintech innovation amid the economic downturn and Versapay VP Jake Johnson (@thejakers) mentions CB Insights research.

San Francisco Chronicle. Roland Li (@rolandlisf) reports on tech layoffs using CB Insights data.

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal

P.S. Think your company qualifies as one of the most promising blockchain and crypto companies in the world? Apply for The Blockchain 50 before time runs out.