When a Dreamforce kickoff party for salespeople went down Monday evening in San Francisco, it wasn't a strictly West Coast affair. That's because the lead sponsor of the party was actually Cambridge's InsightSquared, maker of a fast-growing Salesforce analytics app.
It's also probably safe to bet that a Boston company, Yesware, was the only Dreamforce participate with a big green "Yeti" running around.
Oh right—Boston companies are also doing some business stuff this week at the conference, which Marc Benioff, CEO of conference organizer Salesforce, bragged would "completely shut down" San Francisco.
Here's a roundup of what some of the Boston-area firms have been up to at Dreamforce, which runs through Thursday:
• Yesware. Along with the Yeti thing, the company also announced a relaunch of its business in conjunction with Dreamforce. Originally geared around an email tools for salespeople, Yesware is now also offering features for presentations (tracking how prospects receive them) and phone calls (immediately dialing a prospect after they open your email). Yesware also added Microsoft Outlook to its service, which had previously focused on Gmail.
• InsightSquared. On Sept. 23 the company held what it called the first-ever party for Boston Dreamforce attendees, dubbed "Beanforce," at the Boston Harbor Hotel. The event also was about business too, of course—along with networking, attendees were able to ask questions of a panel of Dreamforce vets. Then on Monday the company co-sponsored what it called "the only kickoff party of its kind for salespeople." InsightSquared says it sent about 20 percent of its employees—it had 75 at last check—to the conference. Those have included CEO Fred Shilmover, who has been on the expo floor this week along with other company execs at the company's "Never Leave Your Pipeline to Chance"-themed booth.
Brainshark. The company debuted new sales enablement software—integrated with Salesforce—that aims to assist with for sales onboarding and continuous training, prospecting, coaching and engagement. The ultimate goal: "helping sales reps have better conversations with customers and prospects to win more deals in less time."
Qvidian. The cloud-based sales software firm has had a VIP suite at the W Hotel open all week, where it has hosted briefings and discussions "centered on how to revolutionize selling," as part of a new marketing campaign launched at Dreamforce.
CloudLock and Backupify. Along with exhibiting during the week, the two companies held a kickoff event on Monday at the 540 Lounge and hosted VIPs there during the week.
