Trying to build custom AI agents on a legacy CRM takes months of endless developer tickets.
That's why Ohalo CEO Friedberg had to scrap his old software – and could only get everything stood up in ~30 days by switching to Salesforce.
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What David Friedberg said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
David Friedberg, CEO of Ohalo Genetics and co-host of the All-In Podcast, discussed his company's name origin from an agricultural find in the Sea of Galilee and his decision to switch to Salesforce after initially trying to build a custom CRM through 'vibe coding.' He explained that Ohalo builds custom interfaces for plant breeding and farmer product selection based on satellite and radar imagery, while relying on standard platforms like Salesforce and Slack for CRM, communications, and HR. Friedberg admitted he wasn't initially sold on Salesforce, but after his employee Ben used Claude and Cursor to set it up in under a month, he was convinced. He now views Salesforce as a valuable horizontal platform, contrasting it with verticalized software that destroys value, and has deployed AI agents for prospecting and an 'ask HR' channel via Slack and Claude.
Key takeaways
Ohalo switched to Salesforce after Ben used Claude and Cursor to stand it up in under a month, versus months of customizing another CRM.
Friedberg initially wasn't sold on Salesforce during his first call with Benioff, but changed his mind after the successful implementation.
Ohalo builds custom interfaces for plant breeding and farmer product selection using satellite and radar imagery, relying on standard platforms for everything else.
Friedberg modestly revised his 'SaaS apocalypse' view, now believing horizontal platforms like Salesforce are bolstered and more valuable.
0:05I'll tell you, David had chosen the CRM product when he started, and how is it pronounced?
0:33It's based on an important bioengineering history, right?
2:53What I want to know is this: so when you do think about the future and you think about your company and about bringing the best of AI and the best of CRM together, how do you plan to do that?
5:19... anymore.' I was like, 'Well, why?' You already invested in the CRM platform, but what are some of the features and functions you saw in Salesforce that then gave you this ability to achieve all this productivity that you so badly desired?
They're changing how we do this. I was sent a can of seeds. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this, but it was awesome. I'll tell you, David had chosen the CRM product when he started, and how is it pronounced?
There was an agricultural find in the Sea of Galilee where they found this pot of seeds that rewrote what we thought about the history of agriculture, so we named it after that village.
Fantastic. I know that you started with another CRM product we won't talk about, but I remember when you called me and you said, 'Mark, it turns out...'
We did a little vibe coding to make a CRM product over the weekend. You realize how much it takes to do maintenance, to do security, to do accounts. We realized quickly there were certain, I would say, software applications that are maybe verticalized where you have to build custom workloads that make sense for your particular business. But then there's platform software, and we realized what we need to build our entire company around. Salesforce is what we decided to go with on CRM. We're already on Slack. We're not going to vibe code Slack or CRM, but then we build custom work interfaces, prospecting tools. I have agents that are out scanning public databases to find where farmers are planting what crops. I have agents doing prospecting. That gives my sales team leads, they can then go run the standard workloads that are a little more standardized across verticals. And we can build all of our custom workflows in parallel and in concert with the Salesforce tool.
It's been very exciting. I'm thrilled to have you as a Salesforce customer. I would say large in terms of presence. Everybody knows you now because your podcast is so popular.
10 more exchanges in this transcript
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Friedberg, D. (2026, September 1). Marc Benioff & David Friedberg: Why Ohalo Switched to Salesforce [Interview transcript]. Salesforce. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3094613/
MLA
David Friedberg. "Marc Benioff & David Friedberg: Why Ohalo Switched to Salesforce." Salesforce, 1 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3094613/.
BibTeX
@misc{friedberg2026_3094613,
author = {David Friedberg},
title = {Marc Benioff \& David Friedberg: Why Ohalo Switched to Salesforce},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Salesforce. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3094613/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
