Salesforce Ventures Founder Summit: 4 Key Takeaways
Insights and learnings from our Founder Summit in New York City.
How do you build trust with enterprise buyers? When should you implement AI features? At our recent Founder Summit in New York City, leaders from Together AI, Chainguard, Sixfold AI, and other successful businesses shared tactical advice for founders navigating these foundational challenges.
The event featured three sessions:
- Building early-stage GTM momentum that lasts
- Creating durable enterprise partnerships
- Taking AI from experimentation to production
Here were some of our favorite takeaways from these panels:
1. Great Data Infrastructure Helps Win Enterprise Deals
Data infrastructure can make or break an enterprise deal. Adam Schink, who runs partnerships for BT Group, said his team rejects many startup deals due to a lack of reliable data infrastructure.
“We need to see that startups can handle enterprise data requirements from day one. Without that foundation, even the best product won’t succeed in our environment.”
Startups should strive for data infrastructure that demonstrates:
Security & compliance
- Ability to handle sensitive enterprise data securely
- Documented compliance with industry standards
- Clear protocols for data access and governance
Integration & scale
- Capability to integrate with existing enterprise systems
- Architecture that can scale with enterprise data volumes
- Proven ability to handle complex data requirements
Measurement & reporting
- Systems to track go-to-market metrics
- Clear visibility into customer conversion data
- Regular reporting capabilities
Early investment in data infrastructure pays off. As Slack COO Sarah Walker noted: “One thing that comes out consistently when we talk to later-stage founders is that they would have been more focused on data earlier, both in the way they set up their go-to-market teams and what they were tracking.”
Key takeaway: Before engaging with enterprise buyers, ensure your data infrastructure can handle their core requirements. Without a strong foundation, even great products won’t make it past initial evaluation.
2. Enterprise Buyers Value Transparency
As we found in our Startup Enterprise GTM Report, the average enterprise sales cycle is somewhere between 6-12 months. While a great product can get you in the door, trust is an essential ingredient to help navigate the purchase and procurement process. Zakie Twainy, Head of Digital Partnerships at BNY Mellon, said sellers that prioritize transparency stand apart from their competitors:
“Companies that come in fully prepared — with their financials in order, clear active goals, and everything organized — start earning trust from day one. But equally important is transparency about what you can’t yet do. Enterprise buyers respect honesty about your roadmap gaps.”
Sixfold AI made transparency their competitive advantage, per CEO Alex Schmelkin:
“When we started engaging with regulators early, we incorporated their feedback about AI transparency and traceability directly into our product development.”
By proactively building relationships with regulators and openly discussing concerns about AI implementation, Sixfold earned credibility with both regulators and potential customers that has aided the business’s growth.
Key takeaway: Enterprise buyers value honest dialogue more than a perfect sales pitch. Build trust by being upfront about your product’s capabilities and limitations.
3. Implement AI Selectively
AI implementation requires tough choices about where to invest. Joe Teplow, who leads AI strategy across Salesforce’s product portfolio, recommended founders be selective when leveraging AI in their business:
“We’re moving from asking ‘why AI?’ to ‘how do we implement it effectively?’ The companies succeeding are those picking specific, high-value use cases rather than trying to boil the ocean.
Key learning: Rather than trying to paper AI across your entire business, prioritize features that directly enhance your core value proposition.
4. Scale Enterprise Sales Deliberately
B2B sales experience doesn’t always translate to enterprise deals. When assembling your team, Ryan Carlson, president of Chainguard, explained the importance of hiring for a specific profile:
“In enterprise sales, you can’t just hire great salespeople — you need people who understand the unique dynamics of enterprise software sales cycles. The way you de-risk it is to find somebody who’s done that exact same job.”
High-velocity sales tactics fail in enterprise environments. Success requires patience, relationship building, and deep industry knowledge. According to Carlson, early sales hires need:
- Experience with complex enterprise procurement
- Comfort navigating multi-stakeholder deals
- A “zero to one” mindset for building new processes
Arielle Fidel, VP of Sales and Business Development at Together AI, also said sales hires need to have a 0 to 1 mindset:
“In a startup, every single day is an experiment. When you’re scaling an enterprise sales team, you need people who love building from scratch and are comfortable with that pace of change.”
Key learning: Build your GTM team around veterans who understand enterprise sales cycles, embrace the complexity of building something new, and who can operate independently and with ambiguity.
Want More Founder Insights?
Salesforce Ventures hosts frequent events with luminaries from across the startup enterprise ecosystem. To hear about future events, sign up for our newsletter.
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