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Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business
The real story of what it takes to risk it all and go for broke. Conventional wisdom says most startups need to be in Silicon Valley, started by young engineers around a sexy new idea, and backed by VC funding. But as Mikkel Svane reveals in Startupland, the story of founding Zendesk was anything but conventional. Founded in a Copenhagen loft by three thirty-something friends looking to break free from corporate doldrums, Zendesk Inc. is now one of the hottest enterprise software companies, still rapidly growing with customers in 150 countries. But its success was anything but predestined. With revealing stories both funny and frank, Mikkel shares how he and his friends bravely left secure jobs to start something on their own, how he almost went broke several times, how they picked up themselves and their families to travel across the world to California and the unknown, and how the three friends were miraculously still together for Zendesk's IPO and (still growing) success. Much like Zendesk's mission itself―to remove friction, barriers, and mystery in order to make customer service easier and more approachable― Startupland removes some of the myths about startups and startup founders. Mikkel's advice, hard-won through experience, often bucks conventional wisdom and entrepreneurial tropes. He shares why failure (whether fast or slow) is awful, why a seemingly boring product or idea can be the most exciting, why giving back to the community is as important as the bottom line. From how to hire right (look for people who are not offended by swearing) to which personas generate the highest response rates, Mikkel answers the most pressing questions from the perspective of someone still in the trenches and willing to share the hard truth, warts and all. While there are books by consultants who tell you how to build businesses, or by entrepreneurs now running billion-dollar businesses, there are few books from people still in the trenches who acutely remember the difficult daily decisions, the thrill (and fears) of the early days, the problems that scale with growing a business, and the reason why they all went on the adventure in the first place. Startupland is indispensable reading for all entrepreneurs who want to make their ideas the next big thing. The book will inspire and empower you to follow your own dream and create your own story.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 13, 2014
72 people are currently reading
1209 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
September 2, 2015
Many of my friends and colleagues tell me that video and movies are nowadays better than books for documenting real life. I still feel there is in books a depth I do not find anywhere else. A question of generations, probably. HBO’s Silicon Valley may be a funny and close-to-reality account of what high-tech entrepreneurship is but Startup Land is a great example of why I still prefer books. I did not find everything I was looking for – and I will give one example below – but I could feel the authenticity and even the emotion from Mikkel Svane’s account of what building a start-up and a product means. So let me share with you a few lessons from Startup Land.
The motivation to start - “We felt that we needed to make a change before it was too late. We all know that people grow more risk-averse over time. As we start to have houses and mortgages, and kids and cars, and schools and institutions, we start to settle. We invest a lot of time in relationships with friends and neighbors, and making big moves becomes harder. We become less and less willing to just flush everything down the drain and start all over.” [Page 1]
No recipe - “Along the way, I’ll share the unconventional advice you learn only in the trenches. I am allergic to pat business advice that aims to give some formula for success. I’ve learned there is no formula for success; the world moves too fast for any formula to last, and people are far too creative—always iterating and finding a better way.” [Page 6]
About failure - In Silicon Valley there’s a lot of talk about failure—there’s almost a celebration of failure. People recite mantras about “failing fast,” and successful people are always ready to tell you what they learned from their failures, claiming they wouldn’t be where they are today without their previous spectacular mess-ups. To me, having experienced the disappointment that comes with failure, all this cheer is a little odd. The truth is, in my experience, failure is a terrible thing. Not being able to pay your bills is a terrible thing. Letting people go and disappointing them and their families is a terrible thing. Not delivering on your promises to customers who believed in you is a terrible thing. Sure, you learn from these ordeals, but there is nothing positive about the failure that led you there. I learned there is an important distinction between promoting a culture that doesn’t make people afraid of making and admitting mistakes, and having a culture that says failure is great. Failure is not something to be proud of. But failure is something you can recover from. [Pages 15-16]
There are other nice thoughts about “boring is beautiful” [page 23], “working from home” [page 34], “money isn’t only in your bank account, it’s also in your head” [page 35], and an “unconventional (possibly illegal) hiring checklist” [page 127]. I will quote Svane about investors [page 61]: “I learned an important lesson in this experience – one that influenced all of the investor decision we’ve made since then. There is a vast spectrum of investors. Professional investors are extremely aware of the fact that they will be successful only if everyone else is successful. Great investors have unique relationships with founders, and they are dedicated to growing the company the right way. Mediocre and bad investors work around founders, and the company end in disaster. The problem is, early on many startups have few options, and they have to deal with amateur investors who are shortsighted and concerned with optimizing their own position.” [and page 93]: “Good investors understand that the founding team often is what carries the spirit of a company and makes it what it is.”
And about growth [page 74]: “Even after the seed round with Christoph Janz, we were still looking for investors. If you’ve never been in a startup this may seem odd, but when you’re a startup founder you’re basically always fund-raising. Building a company costs money, and the faster you grow, the more cash it requires. Of course, that’s not the case for all startups – there are definitely examples of companies that have come a long way on their own positive cash flow – but the general rule is that if you optimize for profitability, you sacrifice growth. And for a startup, it’s all about growth.”
In May 2014, Zendesk went public and the team was so extatic, many pictures were tweeted! The company raised $100M at $8 per share. They had a secondary offering at $22.75 raising more than $160M for the company. In 2014, Zendesk revenue was $127M!… and its loss $67M. There was one piece of information I never found neither in Startup Land nor in the IPO filings: Zendesk has three founders, Mikkel Svane, CEO and author of the book. Alexander Aghassipour, Chief Product Officer and Morten Primdahl, CTO. I am a fan of cap. tables (as you may know or can see here in Equity split in 305 high-tech start-ups with founders, employees and investors shares) and in particular studying how founders share equity at company foundation. But there is no information about Primdahl ‘s stock. I only have one explanation: On page 37, Svane writes: “the thing about money is, it’s happening in your head. Everyone processes it differently. Aghassipour adnSvane could live with no salary in the early days of Zendesk, but Primdahl could not. It’s possibly he had a salary against less stock. I would love to learn from Savne if I am right or wrong!
The motivation to start - “We felt that we needed to make a change before it was too late. We all know that people grow more risk-averse over time. As we start to have houses and mortgages, and kids and cars, and schools and institutions, we start to settle. We invest a lot of time in relationships with friends and neighbors, and making big moves becomes harder. We become less and less willing to just flush everything down the drain and start all over.” [Page 1]
No recipe - “Along the way, I’ll share the unconventional advice you learn only in the trenches. I am allergic to pat business advice that aims to give some formula for success. I’ve learned there is no formula for success; the world moves too fast for any formula to last, and people are far too creative—always iterating and finding a better way.” [Page 6]
About failure - In Silicon Valley there’s a lot of talk about failure—there’s almost a celebration of failure. People recite mantras about “failing fast,” and successful people are always ready to tell you what they learned from their failures, claiming they wouldn’t be where they are today without their previous spectacular mess-ups. To me, having experienced the disappointment that comes with failure, all this cheer is a little odd. The truth is, in my experience, failure is a terrible thing. Not being able to pay your bills is a terrible thing. Letting people go and disappointing them and their families is a terrible thing. Not delivering on your promises to customers who believed in you is a terrible thing. Sure, you learn from these ordeals, but there is nothing positive about the failure that led you there. I learned there is an important distinction between promoting a culture that doesn’t make people afraid of making and admitting mistakes, and having a culture that says failure is great. Failure is not something to be proud of. But failure is something you can recover from. [Pages 15-16]
There are other nice thoughts about “boring is beautiful” [page 23], “working from home” [page 34], “money isn’t only in your bank account, it’s also in your head” [page 35], and an “unconventional (possibly illegal) hiring checklist” [page 127]. I will quote Svane about investors [page 61]: “I learned an important lesson in this experience – one that influenced all of the investor decision we’ve made since then. There is a vast spectrum of investors. Professional investors are extremely aware of the fact that they will be successful only if everyone else is successful. Great investors have unique relationships with founders, and they are dedicated to growing the company the right way. Mediocre and bad investors work around founders, and the company end in disaster. The problem is, early on many startups have few options, and they have to deal with amateur investors who are shortsighted and concerned with optimizing their own position.” [and page 93]: “Good investors understand that the founding team often is what carries the spirit of a company and makes it what it is.”
And about growth [page 74]: “Even after the seed round with Christoph Janz, we were still looking for investors. If you’ve never been in a startup this may seem odd, but when you’re a startup founder you’re basically always fund-raising. Building a company costs money, and the faster you grow, the more cash it requires. Of course, that’s not the case for all startups – there are definitely examples of companies that have come a long way on their own positive cash flow – but the general rule is that if you optimize for profitability, you sacrifice growth. And for a startup, it’s all about growth.”
In May 2014, Zendesk went public and the team was so extatic, many pictures were tweeted! The company raised $100M at $8 per share. They had a secondary offering at $22.75 raising more than $160M for the company. In 2014, Zendesk revenue was $127M!… and its loss $67M. There was one piece of information I never found neither in Startup Land nor in the IPO filings: Zendesk has three founders, Mikkel Svane, CEO and author of the book. Alexander Aghassipour, Chief Product Officer and Morten Primdahl, CTO. I am a fan of cap. tables (as you may know or can see here in Equity split in 305 high-tech start-ups with founders, employees and investors shares) and in particular studying how founders share equity at company foundation. But there is no information about Primdahl ‘s stock. I only have one explanation: On page 37, Svane writes: “the thing about money is, it’s happening in your head. Everyone processes it differently. Aghassipour adnSvane could live with no salary in the early days of Zendesk, but Primdahl could not. It’s possibly he had a salary against less stock. I would love to learn from Savne if I am right or wrong!
March 14, 2018
Very easy read and some good lessons for start-ups overall
May 23, 2016
An inspirational true story of how Zendesk starts from nothing and reaches to this far.
Business related books are never my cup of tea because most of the authors telling the readers on how miracles happened to them, how they create miracles or only people with similar level with them can achieve what they had achieved.
This story is more realistic as it involves the story of the difficulties that he experiences when building his business. The most important thing is he gave the impression to us that he is just an ordinary person like us with variety of weaknesses such as lacking of communication skills, negotiation skills and other skills which he slowly obtained during the process of building the product. This makes the story more believable comparing to other business stories which are more focusing on their successes.
Also, the story never trying to indicate you need to be smart or need to think like him in order to succeed. He is just an ordinary person with strong determination to achieve his goal and passion in building a product that can change our lives for the better.
Business related books are never my cup of tea because most of the authors telling the readers on how miracles happened to them, how they create miracles or only people with similar level with them can achieve what they had achieved.
This story is more realistic as it involves the story of the difficulties that he experiences when building his business. The most important thing is he gave the impression to us that he is just an ordinary person like us with variety of weaknesses such as lacking of communication skills, negotiation skills and other skills which he slowly obtained during the process of building the product. This makes the story more believable comparing to other business stories which are more focusing on their successes.
Also, the story never trying to indicate you need to be smart or need to think like him in order to succeed. He is just an ordinary person with strong determination to achieve his goal and passion in building a product that can change our lives for the better.
December 22, 2015
average cool startup story
Building a start-up is all about developing new ideas and taking risks, so there’s no one formula for success. Get a strong team together, watch out for disingenuous investors, be prepared to make mistakes and adapt your strategy when things don’t go as planned. You’ll hit roadblocks you can’t prepare for, just like the author did when he built up Zendesk. But like the author, you can also grow your start-up if you stay flexible and committed to your vision.
Building a start-up is all about developing new ideas and taking risks, so there’s no one formula for success. Get a strong team together, watch out for disingenuous investors, be prepared to make mistakes and adapt your strategy when things don’t go as planned. You’ll hit roadblocks you can’t prepare for, just like the author did when he built up Zendesk. But like the author, you can also grow your start-up if you stay flexible and committed to your vision.
May 16, 2016
A short interesting read on how a small gang of ambitious Danish techies formed one of the successful businesses of the decade. Mikkel Svane keeps you engaged in his lucid writing which is devoid of contemporary business mumbo-jumbo. & the book feels like a well articulated medium article in itself. There are quite a handful takeaways like how being people-centric will be a game changer & other things that I wish I could mention here without spoiling the crux of the book.
May 21, 2015
inspiring and sobering for anyone building their business. great advice on staying true to yourself, your business & your customers.
February 14, 2021
A random find turned out to be a great find.
I ran (literally - as I ran 6K to the library) into this book at Queenstown library, Singapore and chose it over the book about Twitter. I hadn't really expected much as I had indeed thought "Zendesk? A bit boring business", just as Mikkel admitted in the book. But it is in those fields where people find "boring" or mundane that you may have a good startup idea.
The book turned out quite interesting and I completed within a weekend.
I feelt that Mikkel has shared with us an honest and "down-to-earth" account of his and his co-founders' journey in building Zendesk, with mistakes and learnings along the way. It is also interesting to learn about the Startupland, the Silicon Valley from the perspective of an outsider and later a newcomer.
The Danish "we'll figure it out" mentality and the Scandinavian "Law of Jante" mentality (which urges people to be modest), which Mikkel and his co-founders demonstrated on several occasions, also very resonate with me.
And since Zendesk is the company that disrupts customer service industry, it would be a miss if Mikkel did not share with us any thoughts on building relationships. Of course, he didn't make that mistake. Instead, he shared the lesson he learnt from experience that "the best product would be worth nothing without the right relationships."
I ran (literally - as I ran 6K to the library) into this book at Queenstown library, Singapore and chose it over the book about Twitter. I hadn't really expected much as I had indeed thought "Zendesk? A bit boring business", just as Mikkel admitted in the book. But it is in those fields where people find "boring" or mundane that you may have a good startup idea.
The book turned out quite interesting and I completed within a weekend.
I feelt that Mikkel has shared with us an honest and "down-to-earth" account of his and his co-founders' journey in building Zendesk, with mistakes and learnings along the way. It is also interesting to learn about the Startupland, the Silicon Valley from the perspective of an outsider and later a newcomer.
The Danish "we'll figure it out" mentality and the Scandinavian "Law of Jante" mentality (which urges people to be modest), which Mikkel and his co-founders demonstrated on several occasions, also very resonate with me.
And since Zendesk is the company that disrupts customer service industry, it would be a miss if Mikkel did not share with us any thoughts on building relationships. Of course, he didn't make that mistake. Instead, he shared the lesson he learnt from experience that "the best product would be worth nothing without the right relationships."
March 21, 2019
A good story, a non-pretentious tone, the butt-ugly truths, personal dramas, and honest personal pontification. The story of how Zendesk was built in a loft in Copenhagen, how Denmark failed them, not through talent, but through availability to venture funding. How the three founders made their way to the New World and found the Promised Land in San Francisco in its hey-day (when San Francisco was still cool) of 2009. Clearly not written by someone who's written a lot, but it doesn't matter, because it just gives it such a personal feel that it's easy to fly through. There are some good nuggets of wisdom in here, if you're wiling to dig them out—they're single sentences, nothing elaborate, but worth noting and putting somewhere more permanent to think about. Can't really tell if the 4th star (that makes it better than average) is because of that, or because I can relate so deeply to their observations of North American versus Danish culture.
December 17, 2017
More like a 3.5
Having used Zendesk in our startup, Startupland was an enriching read to understand how Zendesk shaped up. It is a very engaging read on the Danish guys who redefined customer support as we know it. Mikkel documents not only his early struggles with the product but also the personal challenges encountered in relocating to Boston and then Bay area. The perspective of a Danish founder and his rendezvous with the Silicon Valley challenges makes this book a must read.
This book is bit of "Delivering Happiness" and "Shoe Dog" but unlike these two books, most of Startupland skims through the most interesting parts. This is where it probably falls short of becoming an intense and a detailed read. Nevertheless, a great read to understand the philosophy and the passion behind the best customer support SaaS company of today.
Having used Zendesk in our startup, Startupland was an enriching read to understand how Zendesk shaped up. It is a very engaging read on the Danish guys who redefined customer support as we know it. Mikkel documents not only his early struggles with the product but also the personal challenges encountered in relocating to Boston and then Bay area. The perspective of a Danish founder and his rendezvous with the Silicon Valley challenges makes this book a must read.
This book is bit of "Delivering Happiness" and "Shoe Dog" but unlike these two books, most of Startupland skims through the most interesting parts. This is where it probably falls short of becoming an intense and a detailed read. Nevertheless, a great read to understand the philosophy and the passion behind the best customer support SaaS company of today.
July 2, 2018
Zendesk is a popular cloud-based helpdesk software which was revolutionary when it was released. I was interested to hear from the founder. Each section in the book contains a short story detailing the progression of the company and a few "tips" at the end.
Unfortunately, this book feels like a pure cash in - it's like someone said to the author "you could make a lot of money writing a book about this" and he took it literally. It's one of the only books I can say I feel genuinely cheated out of the purchase.
It's also not really detailing - the book is exceptionally short for the price (it took me only around 2 hours to finish it) and the most interesting tips are the blurb on the back.
Unfortunately, this book feels like a pure cash in - it's like someone said to the author "you could make a lot of money writing a book about this" and he took it literally. It's one of the only books I can say I feel genuinely cheated out of the purchase.
It's also not really detailing - the book is exceptionally short for the price (it took me only around 2 hours to finish it) and the most interesting tips are the blurb on the back.
October 28, 2024
“Startupland” is an inspirational story and a practical guide for aspiring entrepreneurs. Svane’s experiences illustrate that while the startup journey is demanding and unpredictable, combining passion with perseverance can lead to extraordinary outcomes. The book underscores that success is not just about a brilliant idea but also about execution, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of solving meaningful problems.
This is a cool story about starting a company as a side hustle, working from one's apartment in Copenhagen to its IPO. The only complaint I have is that I would appreciate a little more detail about each phase. Instead, we mostly got a few anecdotes. I still recommend it!
A few notes:
- "Hire for attitude, train for skill"
- Look for the "Eye of the Tiger: figure shit out and get things done" person
- focus on BORING real-problem FTW!
- CTO/VP of engineering should have experience in running teams/projects and most importantly shipping products
This is a cool story about starting a company as a side hustle, working from one's apartment in Copenhagen to its IPO. The only complaint I have is that I would appreciate a little more detail about each phase. Instead, we mostly got a few anecdotes. I still recommend it!
A few notes:
- "Hire for attitude, train for skill"
- Look for the "Eye of the Tiger: figure shit out and get things done" person
- focus on BORING real-problem FTW!
- CTO/VP of engineering should have experience in running teams/projects and most importantly shipping products
November 26, 2020
I really enjoy reading the story of Zendesk.
It's full of good anecdotes. Like firing DHH ( Ruby on Rails creator ), I found that connection to be very nice.
The founders are Danish and they started the company in Copenhagen and later moved to San Francisco.
“To be successful business today, you must understand how relationships actually work and how to build them.”
I loved this quote and I think it was the key of the book. That relationships are the heart of a good business.
It's full of good anecdotes. Like firing DHH ( Ruby on Rails creator ), I found that connection to be very nice.
The founders are Danish and they started the company in Copenhagen and later moved to San Francisco.
“To be successful business today, you must understand how relationships actually work and how to build them.”
I loved this quote and I think it was the key of the book. That relationships are the heart of a good business.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2022
- Riches are in niches: boring idea are often the most profitable idea, because people usually don't equate profitable with boring
- For most of the Tech Entrepreneurs, the risk-reward simply isn't worth it: the chance of failing is high, and even if successful, the personal sacrifice comes with it is immense: it's almost like founders are working for free for the investors just so they can have a tiny bragging rights
- For most of the Tech Entrepreneurs, the risk-reward simply isn't worth it: the chance of failing is high, and even if successful, the personal sacrifice comes with it is immense: it's almost like founders are working for free for the investors just so they can have a tiny bragging rights
February 19, 2019
My favourite quotes in this book:
“If you want to make something look easy, you have to put a lot of effort into it. Only by embracing the fact that nothing is easy and that the most important things are so incredibly hard can you approach work (and life) with the right humility that can set you up for success.”
“If you want to make something look easy, you have to put a lot of effort into it. Only by embracing the fact that nothing is easy and that the most important things are so incredibly hard can you approach work (and life) with the right humility that can set you up for success.”
June 29, 2018
Origin story of Zendesk, and how they transformed an industry which is not "sexy". I am not giving this a 5 stars because I expected to learn a little more about the difficulty in growing a saas business while this book just focussed on the beginning of Zendesk.
September 17, 2018
Heartfelt story of an entrepreneurial journey
This is a really inspiring story about a small company from Denmark creating a global product company. Recommended for all startup enthusiasts
This is a really inspiring story about a small company from Denmark creating a global product company. Recommended for all startup enthusiasts
October 8, 2018
This book explains, better than maybe any I’ve read, the stresses and challenges of growing an entrepreneurial venture, not only from things that go wrong, but even challenges that come from growth and success. Well worth reading.
April 11, 2020
I thought this was such an interesting and fun read. It was very insightful reading about how Zendesk started and how it grew into such a successful company. It's written with some humor too. I found it hard to put down!
February 18, 2021
An Amazing book, i felt It was my life, I'm the combination of the founders, but I don't have an IPO yet, but I swear by Elvis I will.
Robert Fire
www.robertfire.com
@irobertfire (US)
@frobertfire (ESP)
Robert Fire
www.robertfire.com
@irobertfire (US)
@frobertfire (ESP)
May 10, 2017
from garage to IPO, nice story about building products with love and passion.
February 18, 2018
Very inspiring and filled with great advises. Being a startup owner myself, I could relate to many of the stories mentioned.
March 4, 2019
An amazingand unconventional story
December 8, 2019
I liked the book because of its simplicity in describing what challenges are met to launch a real product used by thousands. The idea of the book was conveyed beautifully by the end of the book.
November 10, 2022
Kas to būtu domājis, ka grāmata par biznesu var būt tik aizraujoša!
October 4, 2023
Reads like a podcast. Not much meat, but great insight into how Svane thinks and an overview of the journey. It's like a culture handbook for new employees.
July 20, 2024
Very readable story of the beginnings and growth of a successful internet startup, Zendesk. Published in 2015 so “now” is then, but it’s a history and story so holds up well still.
June 20, 2025
Leitura fácil e com piada
Boas histórias e lições 👍
Boas histórias e lições 👍
January 2, 2023
Nice startup story of Zendesk from its founder and CEO. Coming with a couple of interesting lessons however on a lower level than many other startup storybooks.
March 1, 2022
I probably enjoyed this book more than most would since Mikkel Svane is the CEO of my current company. It seemed a pretty accurate portrayal of startup life —> IPO in the 2000s
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews