# Kraig Swensrud

> Kraig Swensrud is the co-founder and CEO of Qualified, the AI-powered pipeline generation platform built natively on Salesforce. A serial entrepreneur and former Salesforce CMO, he has founded three companies - Kieden (acquired by Salesforce in 2006), GetFeedback (acquired by Campaign Monitor in 2014, later by SurveyMonkey), and Qualified (acquired by Salesforce in April 2026 for an estimated multi-hundred million valuation). At Qualified, he built the category of conversational marketing and agentic AI for B2B enterprises, raising $163M in funding and growing to ~260 employees before the acquisition completed a full-circle return to Salesforce.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at Qualified (acquired by Salesforce)
- **Organizations:** Qualified, Salesforce, GetFeedback, Kieden, Campaign Monitor
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS in Engineering, UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded Kieden, acquired by Salesforce in 2006 - one of the fastest acquisitions on record at just 6 months, Served as Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce under Marc Benioff, leading marketing during the company's hypergrowth phase, Founded GetFeedback (2012), acquired by Campaign Monitor (2014), later acquired by SurveyMonkey (2019)

## Career timeline

- **mid-1990s** — Software engineer at Oracle and SAP, witnessing enterprise technology transformation
- **late 1990s - early 2000s** — Roles at Grand Central and webMethods during the dot-com era
- **2005** — Co-founded Kieden with Sean Whiteley - a search marketing platform integrating Google AdWords with Salesforce CRM
- **2006** — Kieden acquired by Salesforce after just 6 months in operation
- **2006-2012** — Joined Salesforce post-acquisition; rose to SVP of Product Marketing then Chief Marketing Officer under Marc Benioff, leading Salesforce through hypergrowth
- **2012** — Left Salesforce to found GetFeedback, a mobile-first customer feedback and survey platform
- **2014** — GetFeedback acquired by Campaign Monitor; took on CMO role at Campaign Monitor
- **2018** — Co-founded Qualified with Sean Whiteley as a Salesforce-native conversational marketing platform
- **2020** — Qualified raised $12M Series A
- **2022** — Qualified raised $95M Series C led by Sapphire and Tiger Global; total funding reached $163M
- **2024** — Launched Piper the AI SDR; Qualified ranked #8 on Top 50 AI Products
- **December 2025** — Salesforce signed definitive agreement to acquire Qualified
- **April 2026** — Salesforce completed acquisition of Qualified, bringing Swensrud full circle

## Achievements

- Co-founded Kieden, acquired by Salesforce in 2006 - one of the fastest acquisitions on record at just 6 months
- Served as Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce under Marc Benioff, leading marketing during the company's hypergrowth phase
- Founded GetFeedback (2012), acquired by Campaign Monitor (2014), later acquired by SurveyMonkey (2019)
- Co-founded Qualified, which became the #1 rated app on the Salesforce AppExchange
- Raised $163M in funding for Qualified across Series A, B, and C rounds
- Grew Qualified to ~260 employees and $37.5M annual revenue before acquisition
- Launched Piper the AI SDR, which ranked #8 on the Top 50 AI Products list (2024)
- Achieved 400% year-over-year revenue growth at Qualified
- Ranked in the top 5% of CEOs for companies with 51-200 employees on Comparably
- Successfully sold Qualified to Salesforce in April 2026 for an estimated multi-hundred million valuation

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Salesforce completed acquisition of Qualified, with Swensrud joining Salesforce leadership
- **2026-03** — Hosted Piperfest '26 showcasing agentic marketing innovations and the latest Piper AI SDR capabilities
- **2025-12** — Salesforce signed definitive agreement to acquire Qualified
- **2024-04** — Launched Piper the AI SDR, described as a 24/7 autonomous pipeline generation agent
- **2024-01** — Qualified ranked #8 on G2's Top 50 AI Products list

## Links

- Website: https://qualified.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kraigswensrud/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/kswensrud
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kswensrud/videos
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/tryqualified/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kraig-swensrud
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-25