Editing SugarCRM (section)

== History ==
[[File:SugarCRM-Founders.png|thumb|right|From left to right, Jacob Taylor, John Roberts and Clint Oram in 2004]]
John Roberts conceived of the idea and name of SugarCRM while riding his mountain bike named Sugar in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Clint Oram, John Roberts, and Jacob Taylor started full-time work on the SugarCRM [[Open-source model|open source]] project in April 2004, and incorporated the company in [[California]] in June 2004. Roberts served as the CEO from 2004 to 2009, Oram was the vice president, and Taylor was the CTO & vice president of engineering.

In June 2004, [[Josh B. Stein]] of DFJ invested $2 million into the startup and became a board member. With the help of this investment, Sugar expanded quickly and by September 2004, potential users had downloaded 25,000 copies of the application, then named Sugar Open Source. In October 2004, the company was named "Project of the Month" on SourceForge.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sourceforge.net/potm/potm-2004-10.php |title=SourceForge.net: Project of the Month|date=October 2004|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070529173535/http://sourceforge.net/potm/potm-2004-10.php|archivedate=May 29, 2007}}</ref>

The popularity of this project allowed the company to raise $86 million of venture capital from [[Draper Fisher Jurvetson]], [[Walden International]], [[New Enterprise Associates]] and [[Goldman Sachs]].<ref>
{{Cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2008/02/07/sugarcrm-raises-20m-more-for-open-source-crm/|title=SugarCRM raises $20M more for open source CRM|date=2008-02-07|website=VentureBeat|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-10}}
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In 2006, SugarCRM launched SugarCon, a conference for Sugar customers, users and developers. It has since become an annual conference, held in the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crm-reviews.com/news/sugarcrm-announces-sugarcon-2009|title=SugarCRM Announces SugarCon 2009|publisher=|accessdate=July 25, 2015}}</ref> to begin with but in 2018 the conference was moved to Las Vegas.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sugarcrm.com/blog/2018/04/30/vegas-anyone/|title=SugarCRM Announces SugarCon 2018|date=April 30, 2018 |publisher=|accessdate=December 12, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ron |first=Miller |date=September 10, 2018 |title=Zendesk expands into CRM with Base acquisition |url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/10/zendesk-expands-into-crm-with-base-acquisition/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEHbcKav2npd7Qof1bD-vmKuqrR-vJT-hgTufRKHND82rZD16T3BictKuwOx2792yxYkrwilC4XwZU1CMX4bNlnEwF_8rA7xNvLXD0DsGYcuVZy4LNrkYkZgSGEDeFVL5eHMxLAl4n8zaSQM_t5Gl_YJtcbXANzugjGMuHe9BKeY |access-date=July 1, 2023 |website=[[TechCrunch]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Schubarth |first=Cromwell |date=August 15, 2018 |title=Accel-KKR buys majority stake in SugarCRM with 9-figure investment |website=Silicon Valley Business Journal |publisher=[[American City Business Journals]] |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/08/15/sugarcrm-funding-investment-growth-accel-kkr.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=July 1, 2023}}</ref>

By 2008, SugarCRM employed over 150 people.<ref>
[http://www.crn.com/software/206106218 SugarCRM Nets $20 Million Investment – Software – IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209101714/http://www.crn.com/software/206106218 |date=February 9, 2008 }}
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In June 2008, co-founder Taylor left the company, during what technology website ''[[The Register]]'' called "a mysterious exodus of senior and experienced business staff" from SugarCRM.<ref name="sudden exit">[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/07/john_roberts_sugarcrm/ Sudden exit for SugarCRM co-founder and CEO], Gavin Clarke, ''[[The Register]]'', May 7, 2009</ref> Clint Oram replaced him as the CTO.<ref>{{Cite web|title=SugarCRM is a software company based in Cupertino, California. It produces the web application Sugar, a customer relationship management system. SugarCRMs funct|url=https://amp.ww.en.freejournal.org/1588264/1/sugarcrm.html|access-date=2021-05-21|website=ww.en.freejournal.org|language=en}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=May 2014}}

In May 2009, co-founder and CEO Roberts left the company. He was replaced as CEO by SugarCRM board member [[Larry Augustin]], who had previously founded and served as the CEO of VA Linux (now known as [[Geeknet]]).<ref name="sudden exit" />

In June 2010, Sugar launched Sugar 6, a major upgrade emphasizing ease of use and introducing a complete UI overhaul of Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/sugar-6-offers-simplified-ui-and-information-access/6844|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717121310/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/sugar-6-offers-simplified-ui-and-information-access/6844|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 17, 2010|title=Sugar 6 offers simplified UI and information access|first=Paula|last=Rooney|work=ZDNet|accessdate=July 25, 2015}}</ref>

In June 2017, SugarCRM released SugarCRM Hint, a new product<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.martechadvisor.com/news/crm/sugarcrm-releases-relationship-intelligence-service-hint/|title=SugarCRM Releases Relationship Intelligence Service, Hint|access-date=2018-07-02|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/84642.html|title=SugarCRM Launches Hint, 1st in Relationship Intelligence Line {{!}} Products {{!}} CRM Buyer|website=www.crmbuyer.com|date=June 28, 2017 |language=en|access-date=2018-07-02}}</ref> which searches the web for additional information on users in SugarCRM.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://martechtoday.com/sugarcrm-launches-first-product-help-provide-full-view-customer-200188|title=SugarCRM launches first product to help provide a 'full view of customer' - MarTech Today|date=2017-06-27|work=MarTech Today|access-date=2018-07-02|language=en-US}}</ref>

Private equity firm Accel-KKR became a single investor in August 2018, describing the investment as being "nine figures".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/645383/software-vendor-sugarcrm-has-new-single-investor/|title=Software vendor SugarCRM has a new, single investor|date=2017-06-27|work=MarTech Today|access-date=2018-12-12|language=en-US}}</ref>