➡️ Summary ➡️

Chris Gilzean, owner and Salesforce architect of Appable CRM and co-leader of the Sacramento Salesforce User Group, joins to share the story behind Searchable. A self-described "intentional admin," Chris started as a reluctant call-center end user in 2011 before falling in love with the platform and building a consulting career in financial services. After building custom search components for clients again and again, he turned the pattern into a product — a configurable search app that began as a financial services tool and ended up working with any industry cloud, standard object, or custom object. Chris explains how he treated the IdeaExchange's dedicated search category as a crowdsourced product roadmap, why Searchable complements rather than competes with global search, and the free Agentforce add-on that delivers AI record summaries and can even configure Search Manager for you. He also shares candid lessons from his first 45 days on the AppExchange: why personal network beat cold marketing, how his security review passed in just a week, why you should submit your listing long before the code is done, and what's next for Appable — including a second native app, Stageable, and the shift from hourly billing to scalable products.

➡️ Guest ➡️

Chris Gilzean https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-gilzean-64046920/ [email protected]

Appable CRM https://www.appablecrm.com/

➡️ Takeaways ➡️

An "intentional admin" story: Chris's first experience with Salesforce as a 2011 call-center end user was that he wouldn't touch it — fourteen years later he builds products on it

Asking end users "What do you hate about Salesforce?" puts them at ease and surfaces the root of their day-to-day challenges better than any requirements doc

If you keep rebuilding the same custom component across consulting clients, that recurring pattern is product validation in itself

Start in the niche you know — Searchable launched with financial services messaging because Chris's personal network lives there, with plans to cast a wider net later

The IdeaExchange has an entire category for search — treat it as a crowdsourced product roadmap of well-written requirements collected by the community

Salesforce shipping native functionality doesn't kill an app idea: there's room for a better-together story, like helping customers configure global search while extending it

Salesforce PMs are accessible at community conferences and True to the Core — they'll share what customers are asking for and what they'll never build

An Agentforce extension package doesn't have to be about flashy features — using AI to automate setup and configuration reduces onboarding friction and support load

Expect Salesforce to eventually absorb some of your features; keep building the use cases your customers ask for and improve alongside the platform

Chris's security review for a paid native app took just one week — thorough documentation, Code Analyzer, and Checkmarx scans made it smoother than expected

Submit your AppExchange listing early: listing review and security review run in parallel, and drafting the listing forces you to sharpen your target market and messaging before writing code

Don't wait until the month before Dreamforce to submit — everyone else is submitting then too

Cold marketing didn't launch Searchable — five years of showing up at user groups and Dreamin' events did; build your personal brand before you enter the ISV space

Moving from hourly billing to configurable apps is how a consulting company escapes the 24-hours-in-a-day ceiling

➡️ Youtube ➡️

Watch this episode on our Youtube channel

➡️ Keywords ➡️

Searchable, Appable CRM, Chris Gilzean, Salesforce search, global search, Search Manager, financial services, AppExchange, ISV, Agentforce, IdeaExchange, security review, Dreamin' events, user groups, Sacramento Salesforce User Group, native apps, consulting to product, Stageable

➡️ Hashtags ➡️

#AppsemblyLine #Salesforce #ISV #Searchable #AppExchange #Agentforce #Community

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Today's guest is Chris Gilzean, owner and Salesforce architect of Appable CRM, the company behind Searchable. And Chris is also the co-leader of the Sacramento Salesforce User Group. He has 20 years experience in financial services, meaning he's been first on the front lines in branches and operations, and now is helping banks, credit unions, and insurers transform their CRMs. Few people know both sides of that equation like he does. Chris, welcome to App sembly Line.

Thank you so much, Scott. I'm excited to be here today.

I am too. I'm really looking forward to learning more about searchable and appable CRM. So let's just get right into it. Maybe you could share with listeners how you entered into the Salesforce ecosystem as well as explain searchable who the app is for and what problems it solves.

Great. so getting started, I guess my Salesforce story is really more of an intentional admin, maybe not what you always hear. so getting getting started in Salesforce, I was an end user in 2011. And my first experience was I didn't like Salesforce. I was working in a call center, I was the call center team lead, and to me it was extra logging that was unnecessary, and I didn't really understand from a training perspective. I think I thought it was a very different time then, and so

just my my experiences and and over time learning more and more about the Salesforce platform and really just falling in love with the tool and and finding out that I could could really build anything on this this platform really changed my mind. But I I think it's it's just kinda funny that I I started out and my first experience with Salesforce is I wouldn't touch it.

And and now look at you now, right? Yeah.

Right, yes. what what's that fourteen years later? So

That's funny. I've I hadn't heard that of course I've heard the accidental admin terms so many times, but intentional admin, I love it. Okay, and and so bring us maybe to more recent more recent memories. So how did you decide to build out searchable?

yeah, so I've been working as a Salesforce consultant for about six or seven years now. So the majority of my work is in the financial services space, specifically wealth management, consumer banking, and commercial banking. and so searchable really started out as a financial services specific tool. I I've had this kind of recurring challenge with users or or you know complaints that

That users were just confused and they couldn't find the specific records in Salesforce that they were looking for. Salesforce Global Search, by the way, has come a long way as this one size fits all search and can be really amazing. But what I was finding from users is there's so many times that we're looking for something exact. And the the you know, users like I was, the the call center user frontline that has that person on the phone with them right now and needs to find find a record quickly, we really didn't have any tools out there. And so

the idea really you know started as something that I built custom lightning web components or screen flows multiple times where companies would need a specific search where their their users wanted to search by say the card number, account number, social security number social security number, and phone number. So those four things, and really that was all a user was ever going to search by. And so being able to create these kind of reusable searches, set your own filter criteria.

Choose what objects, what you know, what record type specifically we want to search. and then kind of as the process went along and and building this app, I wanted it to be able to work with financial services cloud or without. And so in in

Hmm.

doing that, Searchable also needed to be able to work with Salesforce standard objects and your custom objects. And by the time it was done, it ended up being so configurable that it works with any industry clouds. And so rather than being a financial services specific tool, it's now been

released to the market and and is something that can be used for all kinds of use cases. So really exciting to see you know the the use cases that that our early customers are using and and building these searches that are are things that honestly I wouldn't have even cer wouldn't have even thought of.

Yeah. Well search is certainly a a a feature that everybody needs, right? even outside the Salesforce ecosystem, it's huge. but that's it's interesting that you started in a niche and then realized hey this has general applicability to all industries. But I'm curious,

Today are you in terms of your marketing, are you casting a wider net or are you still kind of focusing in the financial industry more with your messaging, despite the fact that it it has general applicability?

Yeah, I think that the you know, earl early on for for any app, the the most successful messaging is going to be personal network, which for me just happens to be financial services. and so while the the marketing go-to-market strategy is a little bit more more general and you know, really I I guess starting to get stronger as others build and and find additional use cases and kind of short start to show the the product, but

Really with with the initial, you know, we've we've been live for about forty five days now. And so with the initial marketing, it it is targeted towards the financial services industry with a an expectation later that that may branch out.

Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense honestly to s to stay laser targeted, especially in the early days and then eventually cast a wider and wider net. so we we initially met at Texas Dreamin', back gosh, when was that? June was that June or July, I can't recall now. But but at any rate, I know since then, I went on home. You went on to two more Dreamin' events. so you've really been running the the Salesforce Dreamin' circuit here.

Yeah, really amazing. I mean, so let's see, Texas Dreaming, I believe, was the first week in July, and then had the opportunity to make it out to Midwest Dreaming in in Minneapolis and Buckeye Dreaming in Ohio all in the month of July. And so I for for myself, I I'm in Northern California. So I've been fortunate that I am pretty close to the Salesforce offices and and have been able to to attend Dreamforce in the past and then

Every year I I always make sure to do TDX. in San Francisco,

Mm.

that's my kind of kind of favorite conference of the year as a as a developer myself. and so yeah, I I since I I got started on the Salesforce ecosystem and and made that kind of intentional switch to be full-time Salesforce consultant and developer, I have made it a point to get as involved as possible. And so there's a Norkal Dream in, or it was previously in.

South

Lake Tahoe soon to be in Reno this next year. And so just kind of amazing how many people you meet at these local conferences and how helpful that's been to me as I go through this process. Just, you know, people like you that I met that have kind of gone down the same path before. And I I think it was just really amazing to me seeing how helpful other partners in the ecosystem are and just in in general how lively the Salesforce community still is.

Yeah. Yeah, so we're I mean we're recording this now mid August, so about a month away from Dreamforce twenty twenty six. Are you are you planning to also attend Dreamforce in a month? Okay.

I am going to be attending. I won't

we won't have a booth out there, but I will will definitely be attending.

Very cool. Okay. Yeah, because the Dream events are great because you know the the big show Dreamforce and and then the World Tours and of course I I I'm a big fan of T DX as well. but there's also something nice about the Dreaming events where they're the the fact that they're smaller is kind of a feature, not a bug.

Yes.

'cause sometimes you can you can have more those water cooler conversations a little bit easier when it's a a slightly smaller smaller group. very cool. so you mentioned how you started

This this idea kinda was born out of consulting projects. I've had a lot of folks on the show with a similar background. They basically a problem that they see again and again and among clients and realize that maybe this should just be solved using a product versus services one by one. did you

did you just build this the solution immediately because you'd done it multiple times? Did you do any more product validation or or try and like, you know, chat with anyone that you weren't or that wasn't already working with Appable CRM to see if there was kind of a desire in the general market?

Yeah, and and so it definitely kind of morphed as the the process went on again. So early on, I I think, you know, starting Appable, I had a list of ideas. And I I think like most builders, we probably have more ideas than time for things that we've you know considered building over the years. And and so search was just something that that kept coming up, but I couldn't quite put my finger on one problem to solve. The the complaint from users was

you know, I can't find it you know, I can't find anything in my Salesforce work. There wasn't really a specific actionable insight so much. And so I I got so much out of just sitting with with end users and you know, asking, I mean well, I I forget who I stole this from, but a a better Salesforce consultant than myself would would always ask, What do you hate about Salesforce? and you get so much out of that that

Hmm.

initial questions with with users it really puts them at ease and plushes out kind of just, you know, the root of

The root of their challenges that they experience on a on a day-to-day basis. And over the last couple of years, I've gotten a lot more into the search search manager functionality. And the native out-of-the-box search manager has really drastically improved based on the feedback from the Salesforce community. And so if you go on the idea exchange, there's actually a an entire category just for search, where

Well.

the Salesforce community has been submitting these ideas. And so a lot of these ideas have actually been

delivered or partially delivered over the years. Some of them are are still out there, but it's been just amazingly helpful to me to be able to to go out and and essentially read these really great requirements that have been collected by the Salesforce ecosystem and and submitted and being able to include these features in the searchable app. And so yeah it's really been it's been a lot of of things. So from the beginning I had a

you

know, so really supportive early clients that that you know knew exactly what what they wanted. but it's it it was important to be able to get as many different ideas as possible and bring in as many users early in the process. and yeah, just just start start those interviews early and and talk to anybody that that you know was open.

Yeah. That's that that's so smart, I think, that you did that. And I love the idea of treating the idea exchange as basically your own personal crowdsourced product roadmap. tha that's a that's a great great resource that I think a lot of ISVs sh could could make better use of probably. I didn't even realize that had an entire category for search. So it's it's beautiful. It's

Yeah.

like curated for you.

And it's not it's not one thing. A lot of I mean, at first it seemed like, okay, well, these are a lot of very diverse ideas from, for example, the lookup or the out-of-the-box lookup field on a record page. you know, and and initially I I thought, well, that's not really search. but you know, by by the end of it, that that just it was the number one idea that was in that category. And so it just had had to be included in the searchable app. And so just yeah, it's really, really amazing that.

even even now as Salesforce has continued to release features within the native search manager. And so you can actually do query customizations based and have a search configuration that is built for each profile in your org. the

Mm.

challenge is we've been trying to get people away from profiles and moving towards permission sets for a long time. So you may only have two profiles in your org, maybe it's system administrator and something like a base user or standard user. and so the the

configurations that that you're building aren't necessarily that you could do on a team by team basis. and so I have the yeah the you know amazing fortune of being able to take this feedback that users are submitting about the out of the box product and see how we can cater that to the the searchable app. and you know essentially be able to take something that's what that's one size fits all and then and obviously like with searchable we're not trying to release or replace global search. we want to help you

use global search better as well, and set up your your query configurations in your org, setting your your top objects to to search and and there are a lot of easy things that that orgs could do to make make their Salesforce org more searchable out of the box. and so yeah really really amazing just how how the product has come over the last couple of years and just being able to key on that feedback and and yeah the Salesforce

community is is really good at collecting that feedback and being able to turn it into something actionable.

Yeah. That's so it's interesting because I think some ISVs

Have an idea for a product and if they see that Salesforce in any way, shape or form plays in that space at all, they immediately feel like they need to shut down that idea because how could I compete with this eight hundred pound gorilla in the room? but you know, I like that you point out, you know, there's there's room for both. Even there's there's room for of course like multiple vendors in any given space. And there's even room for for vendors to play in a space

even when there's some native functionality supported. Either because the native functionality leaves something to be desired or like you know, there's some sort of like better together story that the ISV can tell by leveraging both the native features that Salesforce offers as well as their product. So I think I think it's I think it's good for a lot of listeners out there to r to recall that or or to to remember that just because Salesforce is

in the space with some sort of native feature doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing.

Absolutely.

And there are you know, we were talking about the idea exchange, and there's so many ideas out there, and obviously every every release, new items are are being covered. But yeah, I mean the it's amazing what you can do in Salesforce, and there's just not enough hours in the day to deliver every feature out there. So as an ISV, there is always a risk that when you when you go to market with a original idea that it could be something that Salesforce

Yeah.

includes in a future release. And that would be great for customers, being able to, you know, we we always talk about like build verse buy. and so with the app exchange and being able to find free or paid apps that you're you're doing on a paying on a monthly basis, being able to essentially rent and and solve a a really, you know, basic problem. Not not to say that the the issue is simple, but it it's

issues that that a lot of orgs deal with and and being able to essentially rent a solution to solve that that issue for you. And yeah and and the Salesforce product is obviously going to continue to grow. And over time, I'm sure that some of the features that Searchable offers are are going to later be covered in in Salesforce global search. And we'll we'll keep building and keep covering the the additional use case use cases that our customers are asking for. And so

as global search improves, we're going to improve. But yeah, like I said, it's it's not really in competition with Salesforce. The the goal is really to help make your your whole org searchable using global search better and also using searchable to create those those very specific searches that you need in your org, being able to

Yeah.

extend your your flows to to include complex multiple object searches. And so just so many different things that that you can do and and and

The use cases really are are just going to keep growing over the years, I think.

Yeah. Because I've I've spoken with ISV founders

that just connect outright with the PMs of the native functionality. I'm not sure if this is a a strategy that y you all have employed at at Appable with with your searchable products but you know a lot of these PMs at Salesforce

they're they're very open to having discussions with ISVs and vendors about, hey, these are the things that customers are asking for that we're thinking about building and these are the things that we know we'll never build. So maybe you want to go build this. Yeah, there are a lot of PMs that are very open to having those kinds of conversations.

Yeah,

that's a really great idea. And so far, not really something that that we've focused on, but we were talking about the Salesforce community conferences and kind of being smaller. And and I have met so many Salesforce employees and product managers that are just out talking to people at these community conferences or hanging out at TDX after True to the Core. And so the Salesforce team has really made themselves very accessible to

Customers,

partners, builders. And so that's yeah, that's honestly a really great idea to just get out and talk to the product owners at Salesforce more. And maybe there's, you know, something on the roadmap that that you can get insights about or or just kind of yeah, getting ideas for the future, what what what they're hearing. So yeah, really, really great ideas, Ka.

Yeah. Well and even y you mentioned the idea exchange, like they I know they do a whole you can follow the points, right? And you then they can I forget now what they call it, but you can tell I I think they just call it prioritizing. You can see the ideas they prioritize. So even without a conversation, I guess you can get some insights, into their their roadmap

using the idea exchange like you mentioned. I I wanna also just kinda double click on the whole community aspect because earlier in the show I mentioned how you are serve as the co leader of the Sacramento Salesforce group. I wonder if you could speak a little bit more about your involvement there and how how that came about and how that's been a resource for the Appable team and for building out searchable.

Great. well and that's I I guess a little bit separate from from Apple and just I don't know. So I've been attending the group for about five or so years. And so early in my my Salesforce journey between the Sacramento Salesforce group and Nor Cal Dreaman, that was you know, kind of when when I was getting started, I had done a whole bunch of trailhead, got a couple of certifications. and then as a consultant, you're kinda just, you know, thrown to the wolves and and you know, figured out. And so

it was was really great being able to go to these events and not just meet other people, but you know, so many helpful people that if I was experiencing a problem or or stuck with something, I could, you know, show you know show somebody at at these events or you know kind of just bounce ideas off of people. So I I guess this this last year I got the the opportunity. So one of the

Co-leaders of the Sacramento Salesforce group got a a job working at Salesforce. And so that meant that she needed to kind of step down from her position. And so I yeah, was asked if if it was something that I would would be interested in joining. And so we we get together every couple months. Actually, next Tuesday we're going to be meeting at log off brewery in Ranch Cordova. if anybody's listening and wants to join. So a little bit different than usual. This time we're going to be talking about MuleSoft. and so it should be a really awesome presentation and

This it we we have a user group, but it is honestly all like applicable to all levels, admins, developers, architects, and really there's you know there's something there for everybody. And so at this point, I you know have have had the opportunity to talk about Salesforce in in these events. You know, we we usually will go over kind of

what's coming out with the most recent Salesforce releases, and then you know, some kind of technical session. So like our most recent, I was talking about Agent Script and the kind of switch to the new agent builder and deterministic agent script processing and kind of and how that changes compared to what Agent Force looked like a year ago. and so you know the with the local groups topics were always different, but yeah really something for everybody. You can always learn something new and then

definitely like that's that's been the best networking opportunities. And so I I think for you know, for the ISVs out there that are kind of just getting started, the you know, cold marketing really wasn't successful for me

Hm.

launching searchable. It was all personal network. It was people that I met, you know, five years ago that it it you know, the way the Salesforce ecosystem works is just kind of you the people that put themselves out there and and create content.

end up doing well in the ecosystem. And and so that's not really something that's, you know, that's part of the Appable business, obviously. And and that, you know, that's something where, you know, as a as an ISV though, it it really is helpful to already have that that kind of personal brand built before before you even start working in the in the the ISV space.

Sure. Yeah. I've heard from so many founders how important it is to just embrace your network and lean into the community aspect, especially in the early days, but honestly all throughout.

So that's very cool. You mentioned speaking of early days, so you you mentioned that you're now about forty-five days since your listing went live. So it's still pretty early days for searchable.

Mm-hmm.

given that you're fairly new to the to the agent exchange, and you were just talking about agent script, which is great because I wanted to to steer the conversation toward Agent Force. I know that the listing is live for

the core app of searchable, but my understanding is you're also in the process of releasing a tie in to Agent Force, is that right?

Yeah, so we have a add-on for so the the base managed package searchable is a native Salesforce application. does not require Agent Force at all to use. And so it the the base application is Lightning Web Component based. the kind of add on searchable for Agent Force is a free add on and is

Yeah, so it's something that that we're hoping to have live before Dreamforce, but obviously it's it's August now. So yeah, we're kind of running on a a tight deadline there, so no g no guarantees. But with searchable for agent force, some of the things that we can do. So when you're when you're looking at the search results, using Agent Force, we can get a AI summary of of the record before clicking on it. So if you're looking at a list of contacts and accounts, being able to get that kind of quick summary where you can see

read all the the tasks, events, notes for for this specific record that you're looking at and get a little bit more context on the record before actually clicking into it. the other really cool use case, probably my favorite use case to be honest with searchable for Agent Force, is you can actually use Agent Force to set up your out-of-the-box search manager global search configurations and vice versa. So what I mean by that is

Hmm.

searchable comes with a builder where you can choose your own custom objects. You're picking

what fields you want to search on. You can even search on fields on parent parent records. So like if you want to search based on a field on the parent account. that's something that that you can do in in our app. so using our

Agentforce extension, we can actually take those configurations that you build and use that to improve your global out-of-the-box search configurations and and you know

using what what objects are most important to you, what fields you're keying on. And you know there are you know some things that that don't necessarily carry over egg exactly and and so like like for example we were talking about searching on parent fields is not something that you can do natively but you can do in in the searchable app. Another example would be searching on formula fields, just not something that's supported in global search at this time. But yeah so really you know really excited about that and then and just being able to help

Salesforce company or Salesforce customers use their global search better and and take all this work and and and use the the configurations that you've already created to to get the searchable app up and running quickly too.

That is so that is very cool. I think a lot of pretty much every every ISV out there right now, if they haven't already, is thinking about releasing an an extension package to support Agent Force. And I think everyone is con is thinking about that in terms of product features solely.

How can I expand my my current functionality using AI? And there are a number of applications out there that do require a good amount of hand holding and setup and config initially.

And that is a great idea to like maybe even your your Agent Force extension package is really more about just reducing your own support load and and reducing onboarding friction for your customers to make it easy to set up your application. of course, yeah like I know search searchable then also has functionality that's also provided from from Agent Force that you were going over. But even just just having help with the configuration, that's huge.

Ma it just makes it that much easier

Yeah.

for c for the subscriber to immediately start getting value out of the app.

Exactly. Yeah. And and you know, searchable comes with some some search templates. and so you can you can get started on the base app with in fifteen minutes. or I think the installation video and and basic setup, the entire video from start to finish is 18 minutes long. So not a very long process, but when you start building your your search configurations using Agent Force, we can check and see what you know

kind of what objects you're using, you know, check record counts, like your your, you know, based on your data storage and see you know, based on your data storage, what objects are kind of most important in your org, what fields are are you know typically have a value. And so this this information is really important and and valuable to be able to create searches on your custom objects. And so while using the builder it is easy to go through and and pick this if you already know

But if you if you don't and you just want a a way to really get up and up and running in five minutes, it's awesome for these kind of starter templates. And going back to something you were we were talking about earlier with with you know compete and you know not wanting to compete with Salesforce. And so when it comes to the first use case we talked about, record summaries and being able to look at like you know notes and tasks and events, I do think that's a a really useful use case. But at the same time, Salesforce also offers

record summaries and I I have

Mm-hmm.

a feeling that they're probably going to do it better at at some point. And and that's going to just you know continue to get better. And so while I think the the record summaries is something that is very useful right now. I do think that that you know that feature in the searchable for agent force app might be obsolete and and but the kind of employee setup tasks is something that yeah I just don't see a you know

I I don't really see that going away anytime soon. And with all the new stuff that's come out for Search Manager over the last couple of years just going to kind of be more and more important to you know, put put a a little bit of time into setting up these configurations for your users.

Yeah, that's cool. I'm I'm I'm I'm thinking now so with some viewers and listeners may recall last year, Salesforce was really making a big push to promote building out these extension packages that support Agent Force that y that y'all have done. and at the time one of the incentives they were promoting was

waive security review fees and prioritized security review in general. I know you you just said that the extension package

for searchable that supports agent forces free. so I I think that the kind of the the security review fee waivers is a bit moot. But you like you mentioned Gene Force is coming up. Y'all probably would would like to get a review soon. Are th do you know is Salesforce still prioritizing and bumping up in the queue these Agent Force extension packages? Is this something that ISV should be

laser focused on right now because it it they'll get eyeballs that much faster.

yeah, so I don't know as far as what the current what the current timeline is. Honestly, my experience with the security review is not what I expected, and that the the main searchable managed package went through security review six months ago and it actually only took a week. and that was for for a paid listing. So by the by the way, just to l avoid confusion, the searchable managed package is eight dollars per user per month. the agent force add-on is free.

And so it's my understanding that an Agent Force app generally you could apply for a fee waiver on the security review. But yeah, definitely check with somebody that knows more than I do on that. Or if it's a f a free listing, oftentimes you can you can get a waiver that way as well. So personally I'm I'm not really sure kind of what you know what the expected turnaround time is on an agent force app compared to a

I know, a native application that's not Salesforce, or if you have a non-native application, what you know, what that looks like as far as far as the timeline. But at least for a a native Salesforce application, my experience was actually a pretty quick turnaround. I think my my biggest key learning was that I should have submitted my listing quite a bit earlier. And so the

Hmm.

there was a time where the the security review I think was was taking a little bit longer and

And Salesforce has has really made it an effort to remove that bottle, at least from from my experience, I didn't really, you know, everything was well documented. I just submitted my documentation, did my my you know automated code analyzer and check marks and all that. and yeah, following following all the documentation that was out there, I I found the the experience to kind of be easier than than what I had initially expected, to be quite honest.

That's great. And honestly, I do remember now you mentioning this at Texas Streaming when we chatted, and thinking that was incredible.

But I have heard from a few other vendors that they're really working through their queue a lot faster than they used to. and I think probably leaning on these tools, like you mentioned, code analyzer and then check marks has been around a long time of course, but only in the past few years has code analyzer been part of the documentation you need to upload as well. So I think those tools make it a little easier for the reviewers.

So that's but that's great. That's it's always nice

Yeah.

to get around get through it that fast.

but I would not recommend waiting until the month before Dreamforce to submit your app because I think everybody's submitting right now. So yeah, your results might vary.

Yeah.

But you mentioned that you wish you had submitted the listing a little earlier.

I think a lot of folks do focus on s purely the code aspect, right? And the the the the product, the tool, the the security review of the app itself and less about kind of the listing and business review that it gets involved with that. and I have heard from other people getting

getting in a in a waiting game for for approval there. So it sounds like I I think a lot of people don't realize you can be working on both in parallel.

Yes, exactly. And and I don't know if it's always been this way, but you can submit your your listing or your security review first. It you can actually do either one first. And so their

Mm-hmm.

the processes are kind of independent of each other. And so I think you know that would be you know one thing that I would have done differently is just early on in the process, creating the listing, it really helps to be able to just kind of think through your your

marketing language, what problem we're we're trying to solve for, and making sure that before before you I guess spend time and money on a on a security review, if you want to, you can, you can submit it and and you know get get feedback from Salesforce early in the process. And so that was something that I I you know just found found really helpful being able to work with the Salesforce ISV team and they had you know really good feedback that helped me to

get get my marketing language together. And so yeah, where I'd where I I'm just a developer at heart. So I kind of focused on the coding part and the documentation and all of that. And so I don't know. Others might might have different I I guess results from this. In in my case I probably spent more time than I needed to documenting. And so maybe that maybe that helped with the security review process and and just having you know having everything that I submitted. So yeah so I would I would say

There's there's nothing stopping you when you first start building from submitting your listing at that time and and just starting to think through who your ideal target market is and what problem you're you're solving for is is something that before you even write a line of code can can really be helpful to to start putting things together.

Sure, yeah, keeping that top of mind is so important. Makes a lot of sense. well we should probably wrap up soon, but before we do, you know, we've been chatting about kind of the journey so far and I'm curious about what's to come as well. So obviously you got your your first dream forest for searchable around the corner. I'm curious to know, you know, where you

seeing things going in the next year or so as you build out and hopefully get live your agent force plug in. I believe correct me if I'm wrong but I believe they're the Appable team may be working on a another complimentary application as well. Is that right?

Yeah, so another application or managed package is also Salesforce native, which is called stageable. No firm I guess launch date on on that one yet. So but yeah, really, you know, excited. I I you know the let's see. Apple is going to continue to build sales Salesforce native applications, most likely.

Mm-hmm.

So there are

enough

use cases that are coming up that are native on the platform that I I you know I think there's there's kind of a a lot to continue to work on. And so f Apple is going to continue to be a consulting business. but the the goal is really to move more towards solving problems with configurable apps rather than hourly billing. And so

Apple is not really the the traditional startup in the in the sense that there's you know no like investor backing the you know company is really just a consulting company that we had the opportunity to you know start building some reusable applications and and the goal is really just to you know continue getting those those initial customers in in it in new industries and so

While the financial services space is is fairly well covered, being able to can kind of continue to branch out and and get you know clients sharing their examples in say healthcare, nonprofit, or and yeah, really just you know, continuing down that path and and hopefully listen you know, listening to to users and and I guess you know staying true to the the idea exchange and the you know great work that the community is already putting out there and and letting us know exactly.

what it is that that your users need.

Yeah, very cool. Well, I I'm I'm really looking forward to to watching the the Apple team and it's it's you I talked with a lot of other ISVs that have made transitions from kind of an SI model and while that's a great model as well. some folks have ha have said, you know, there's always there's always only twenty four hours in a day, so if you can get away from hourly billing, then suddenly you can scale a lot better. So I know a lot of

consultants that have gone down the same path it sounds like the Appable team has, where they've built up a lot of great experience with SI projects, found a a a niche t market, you know, financial services in your case, and then been able to turn that into a product that they can then grow and scale and and and transition the company that way.

Yeah, absolutely. yeah, I'm just

Yeah.

excited about the the you know future and the changes that are coming with the the agent exchange and so honestly yeah it's been been a really great experience so far. We're we're still, you know, kind of new as a as an ISV partner and so yeah, I I think there's there's probably still a lot to to figure out, but we're we're excited about the future and and apps that we have in the in the pipeline that

are are not yet public to to users. And so just kinda yeah, kinda keep keep building and keep working with with our customers and and excited to see what comes out of this.

Awesome. Well, Chris, for any viewers or listeners out there that want to learn more about you or learn more about Searchable or Appable, the company, what's the best way for them to get in contact with you or learn more?

Absolutely. So the website is appablecrm.com. you can also find me on LinkedIn. I have a fairly unique last name, so probably not a not a ton of us out there. or you can email me directly at Chris at appablecrm.com.

Awesome. All right. Well, we will link all that in the show notes. Chris, thank you once again so much for coming on Appsembly Line. It's been great chatting with you, and I really look forward to watching your journey ahead. And best of luck with searchables for Stream Force in about a month. Cheers. Bye.

Thank you. Appreciate you, Scott. Cheers.