Mikkel Svane

Mikkel Svane
Born1971[1]
Copenhagen, Denmark
EducationBachelor's in Economics
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur and author
EmployerZendesk
Notable workStartupland
TitleFounder

Mikkel Svane is the co-founder and former CEO of the software company Zendesk. He has written Startupland,[2] documenting his experiences of starting his company.

Early life and education

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Svane was born in Copenhagen, Denmark[3] in 1971.[1] He became interested in computer programming when he was 11 years-old.[3] As a child, he created basic computer games.[2]: 29  He served in the Danish military[4] and earned a degree in economics in the early 1990s.[3][2]: 8 

Career

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After college, Svane started a business creating stereograms.[2]: 8  He authored a book and created software to help others make stereograms themselves.[2]: 8–9  Svane also created a website for free news and event listings called Forum.dk.[2]: 11  Forum.dk was purchased by a newspaper, but Svane retained ownership of the software that ran it.[2]: 12–13 

The Forum.dk software became the basis of Caput A/S, a startup Svane created in 1996 that sold software to run the websites of media companies.[2]: 12–13 [4] Caput went out of business as a result of the crash following the dot-com bubble.[2]: 15  In 2002, Svane got his first traditional job when he was recruited as General Manager at a German business consulting firm called Materna.[2]: 17 [4] He left that position in the Summer of 2005 and started doing his own freelance consulting work.[2]: 20 

Svane was in his mid-30s when he founded Zendesk with two of his friends, Alexander Aghassipour and Morten Primdahl.[3][5] Initially, the founders funded the company themselves, while working consulting gigs on the side.[3][5] They developed the software in Svane's apartment in Copenhagen, Denmark.[6]

Svane moved the company to California in 2009.[4] Svane led the company's ongoing expansion[3] and its initial public offering in 2014.[4][7] In 2014, Svane published a book about his life and starting Zendesk called "Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business."[4][7] The book details Svane's early work creating the company and raising venture capital.[2] In June 2022, Zendesk was acquired by a group of investment firms including Hellman & Friedman and Permira, in a deal that valued Zendesk at $10.2 billion.[8] On November 28, 2022, Svane stepped down as CEO of Zendesk.[9]

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b Clancy, Heather (June 29, 2016). "Why Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane Obsesses Over Customer Service". Fortune. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Svane, Mikkel; Adler, Carlye (2014). Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118980866.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Locke, Laura (July 30, 2014). "The tech firm helping a tough area". BBC News. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Parker, Garrett (January 17, 2018). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane". Money Inc. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Rao, Leena (November 16, 2013). "From its Beginnings in a Denmark Loft, Zendesk's Steady Rise to the Top of the Helpdesk Heap". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  6. ^ Kim, Eugene (December 16, 2014). "How This CEO Was Able To Take His Company Public When Everybody Else Was Panicking". Business Insider. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Brown, Kristen V. (December 25, 2014). "Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane on being an outsider in 'Startupland'". SFGate. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  8. ^ Deveau, Scott; Davis, Michelle F (June 23, 2022). "Software Maker Zendesk to Be Bought by Investor Group in $9.5 Billion Cash Deal". Bloomberg.
  9. ^ https://www.zendesk.com/blog/our-north-star/
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