Which Startup Excites Google, Threatens Salesforce?

Hint: lots of investors are excited about it. Give up? Alright, I'll tell you: it's Nimble, the CRM company that, according to its website description, allows you to “easily manage your contacts, calendars, communications, and social conversations with Nimble's social CRM.” Nimble promises to “Unify all your contacts, calendars, conversations from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn LNKD, and Google GOOG. Monitor the most popular social networks from one screen, engage prospects, and build deeper relationships.” Hmmm, it can unify your contacts, calendars and conversations from Google? With that in mind, should we really be surprised that Google Ventures has contributed to the company's $1 million investment? According to TechCrunch, Google isn't the only one. Mark Cuban is also on board, along with Dharmesh Shah, Jason Calacanis and Don Dodge. “Great innovations spring from great needs,” Nimble wrote on its site. “Twenty years ago, Jon Ferrara understood that businesses needed more efficient ways of getting and staying connected to their customers in order to succeed and grow. That simple idea led him to co-found GoldMine Software, which grew to become a world leader in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space. “Today, business has changed. With the advent of social media, email, IM, text messages and more, businesses are overwhelmed by the myriad applications needed to listen to and engage with their customers. The question is no longer how to stay connected – but how to efficiently and cost-effectively build business relationships given multiple communication channels. From that new need sprang Jon Ferrara's latest innovation: Nimble.”
Follow me @LouisBedigian