Events

Elevate 2025 Highlights

What happened at our annual CEO summit.

April 10, 2025

Last week, Salesforce Ventures had the privilege of bringing together more than 100 portfolio founders, enterprise executives, and Salesforce leaders for two days of insight, connection, celebration, and impact in Southern California.

Elevate is our flagship event — and a powerful example of what can happen when an incredible community of builders and innovators comes together to support one another.

“Honestly, best founder conference of the year. I’m 3 for 3 on these and make it a point not to miss them. Salesforce Ventures goes out of their way to put founders first, especially at this event. First class.” – Jason Smuth, CEO, Klue

Our third annual CEO summit from the shores of beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes featured keynote speeches from author and statistician Nate Silver and 11-time Olympic medalist Allyson Felix, fireside chats with CEOs Howie Liu of Airtable and Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs, and workshops on topics that are top of mind for founders in 2025: navigating the evolving exit market, scaling AI infrastructure, determining AI pricing models, reskilling your workforce for the AI age, building GTM teams, and selling into the public sector.

Our goal with Elevate is simple: create space for founders to share stories, spark new ideas, and build meaningful relationships that fuel the next chapter of their journey. This year’s event was filled with inspiration, honesty, and energy — and because not everyone in our network could join us in person, we wanted to share some of our favorite takeaways from the mainstage content

Editorial note: Quotes have been edited for clarity.

Adversity Breeds Success

Rachel Gillum, VP of Ethical & Humane Use at Salesforce, led an inspirational discussion with Allyson Felix, the world’s most decorated track and field athlete and co-founder of women’s shoe brand Saysh and sports management firm Always Alpha.

Allyson shared powerful insights on the parallels between elite athletics and entrepreneurship, emphasizing the value of intentional preparation, building strong teams, and embracing adversity. One defining moment in Allyson’s journey: Missing out on the gold medal in the 2008 Olympic 200m final — a setback that ultimately fueled her growth as an athlete and businesswoman.

“I needed to go through failure and understand what that feels like to be able to find success and have longevity in my career,” Allyson said.

AI Adoption Requires Full Commitment

Slack COO Sarah Walker sat down with Airtable co-founder and CEO Howie Liu for a conversation about Howie’s entrepreneurial journey, how he thinks about AI transformation, and the steps his team is taking to implement AI into their work and Airtable’s products. Among Howie’s key lessons for founders grappling with AI adoption was to take a 0 to 1 approach in how you think about your business in the AI age, and foster a culture that reflects the kind of AI-driven efficiency you want to bring to your customers.

“AI implementation is about taking a step back and reimagining the entire product experience, rather than just making incremental changes,” Howie shared. “This means embodying the type of cultural transformation you want your customers to experience. The companies that do well with AI practice what they preach.”

AI Product Development is a ‘Constant Tradeoff’

ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski and Fortune reporter Allie Garfinkle discussed ElevenLabs’ early days and how Mati’s team tries to bridge the gap between performing research to improve their models and delivering an excellent product experience. Mati said building great AI applications is a perpetual give-and-take between product and research, and founders must use their understanding of their users, the market, and the latest AI developments to make an informed decision on where to focus their efforts.

“You can’t spend all your time doing research, because then there is no product,” Mati said. “But if you spend too much time building the product, eventually the research will leapfrog your product. So you’re always dealing with this question of building or researching. AI developments are happening so quickly that it’s a constant tradeoff.”

Founders Should Play More Poker

Author, statistician, and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver sat down with Fortune’s Andrew Nusca for a compelling conversation on the art and science of risk-taking, decision-making, and navigating uncertainty. Drawing from his new book, “On The Edge,” Nate explored what we can learn from some of society’s boldest risk-takers — and how those lessons apply to building companies in an unpredictable world. While founding and investing in startups is inherently risky, Nate stressed that outsized reward is typically only possible if you have a high risk tolerance.

One practical tip Nate had for founders: Play more poker. According to Nate, the game sharpens your ability to make quick, high-stakes decisions with incomplete information — a skill every founder needs in today’s fast-moving world.

“Successful risk-takers take a raise-or-fold attitude toward life,” Nate said. “They abhor mediocrity and they know when to quit.”

What Attendees Had to Say

Elevate is about empowering our founders — giving them the insights, support, and community they need to navigate the challenges of building great companies. Here’s what a few of our guests had to say about their experience at this year’s event:

“Last week, William Wang and I flew to Palos Verdes to join 50+ incredible operators at Salesforce Ventures’ CEO summit, Elevate. It’s already one of my top 5 highlights of 2025 — here’s why: Caliber, candidness, and camaraderie. Off the charts for every single person I met. In the span of those 2 short days, we rubbed shoulders with leaders running some of the best companies out there, including household names like Airtable, G2, Lattice, and Writer. The best part? How real everyone was about what success & failure meant to them, where they all were in their lives’ journeys, and willingness to pay it forward. It was a real privilege to be in those rooms.” – Rachit Kataria, Co-Founder, Centralize

“Grateful to have attended Elevate event this week! Thank you to the Salesforce Ventures team for bringing together such an inspiring community of founders, investors, and industry leaders. I walked away with valuable insights from the fireside chats and workshops, particularly around scaling GTM strategies, navigating AI opportunities, public sector relationships, and many more.” – Jagadeesh Kunda, Co-Founder, Oleria

“Huge thanks to Salesforce Ventures for an incredibly inspiring few days at the CEO Summit! I loved connecting with founders further along in their journey, and to hear from Nate Silver, Howie Liu, and Allyson Felix.” – Julia Stiglitz, CEO, Uplimit

We’ll See You at Elevate 2026!

Elevate was an incredible opportunity to bring our portfolio together and facilitate the kinds of support, insights, and connections that help founders thrive — both today and in the long run. We left feeling deeply grateful to be part of such a vibrant community of builders, innovators, and optimists. We hope everyone who joined us felt the same energy, and we’re already looking forward to doing it all again next year at Elevate 2026!