2008
A surprise investor has fresh ideas
No. 004
DESCRIPTION◆
Our seed round was closing when German angel investor Christoph Janz emailed. Mikkel and Christoph met—nonchalant, impulsive vs. moderate, precise. Janz was in for $500K. “We’d gone so far on a tenth of that. We’d gone so far on zero.”
ZENDESK VALUE: Purpose
2008
Zendesk gains speed on fertile soil
No. 005
DESCRIPTION◆
Before SF, before Boston: There was Mikkel’s in-laws’ farm in Jutland, Denmark. It’s the home of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkey—and that’s where Mikkel was, struggling to get online, when MSNBC, our first marquee customer, signed.
ZENDESK VALUE: Humblidence
2008
We really transcended phone support
No. 006
DESCRIPTION◆
The Buddha Machine was a music player by Beijing duo FM3, inspired by Buddhist temples. The Buddha Machine Wall was a site we made with 21 virtual Buddha Machines—any or all could play at once. The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones raved.
ZENDESK VALUE: Community
2009
A rolling stone gathers 1K
No. 007
DESCRIPTION◆
Momentum was building. Christoph Janz had made a key $500K investment. MSNBC was our first big name. And now we surpassed 1,000 customers, which included culture site and hosting service Laughing Squid, San Antonio’s TETCO, and WebExpenses.
ZENDESK VALUE: Purpose
2009
A phone # on the site has perks
No. 008
DESCRIPTION◆
When Devdutt Yellurkar of Charles River Ventures called, Mikkel’s cell was on Zendesk.com. He figured it was some rando. Not quite! Their first meeting took place at Alex’s 5th-floor SF walkup. A twisty road led to Series A funding.
ZENDESK VALUE: Purpose