Nimble CEO to Salesforce: We’re bringing a new brand of disruptive ‘social CRM’

Nimble, the startup that burst into the enterprise with the bold statement “customer relationship management sucks,” is going strong. Today, it announced a series of product updates that will help salespeople more effectively manage their contacts.

The company is integrating with all the major social networks, so salespeople will be able to view a dashboard that no longer resembles a flat, business card. When you add a contact, the technology will automatically pull in information and links from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and more. “Your customers aren’t just communicating on email,” said Jon Ferrara, Nimble’s CEO during today’s presentation at DEMO, the conference in Santa Clara.

The founders hope that their sales customers will no longer need to make those awkward cold calls. Instead, the process will become far more personal. For instance, when a potential sales prospect makes a “check-in” nearby on Foursquare, you’ll be notified and could join them for a cup of coffee. Thanks to the integration with their social media, you’ll be able to search through their status updates for potential conversation topics.

“Nimble is today to Salesforce what Salesforce was in the 90s and 2000s to Seibel,” said Ferrara. “[It is] a much easier to use, disruptive product.” Prior to launching Nimble, Ferrera founded Goldmine, a predecessor to today’s CRM technology that sold for over $100 million without ever having taken a dime of venture money.

The company has already shown some signs of traction — Ferrara told me it currently has 45,000 users, 250 fully committed value-added resellers, and 40,000 unique visitors per month.

Ferrera has poured millions of dollars of his own funds into the company and has raised a small seed round from friends and investors, including Mark Cuban, Dharmesh Shah (the cofounder of HubSpot), Don Dodge, Matt Ocko (the managing partner of Data Collective), Eric Dobkin (the advisory director to Goldman Sachs), and Eric Roberts (the founder and chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center).

Last year, the company launched at DEMO, the startup conference that is taking place this week in Santa Clara, Calif. It emerged as the judge’s favorite and was announced the winner of the DEMOgod award.