Zendesk, one of the hottest and fastest growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies just filed their S-1 to go public. Zendesk makes help desk software for support teams to interface with customers in an efficient manner. Zendesk started at the same time as Pardot back in 2007, so I have a sense of nostalgia watching our respective companies grow up at the same time as a class of second-generation SaaS companies providing broad-based solutions for a specific market.
Here are a few notes from the Zendesk S-1 IPO filing:
- Over 40,000 customer accounts (pg. 1)
- Zendesk approach (pg. 3)
Beautifully Simple
Omni-Channel and Contextual
Affordable
Natively Mobile
Cloud-Based Architecture
Open Platform
Proactive Engagement
Strategic Analytics - Revenue (pg. 9)
2011 – $15.6M
2012 – $38.2M
2013 – $72M - Losses (pg. 9)
2011 – $7.2M
2012 – $24.4M
2013 – $22.6M - 473 employees (pg. 13)
- Has experienced several security breaches including one in February 2013 where three accounts were compromised and personal information was stolen (pg. 15)
- Owes $23.8M on their line of credit (pg. 34)
- Three things that successful businesses do well (pg. 42)
– Have great products
– Care for your customers
– Attract a great team - Acquired Zopim, a live chat company, for the purchase price of approximately $15.9 million (pg. 69)
- Equity ownership (pg. 119)
Co-founder/CEO – 7.1%
Co-founder/CPO – 7.2%
Charles River Ventures – 24.5%
Benchmark Capital – 18.7%
Matrix Partners – 8.8%
Zendesk, with over $100 million in annual recurring revenue and an amazing growth rate, will do extremely well in the public markets. Ultimately, I expect Zendesk and HubSpot to merge in the future and take Salesforce.com head-on as the second-generation cloud platform of record for businesses.
What else? What are some other thoughts on the Zendesk IPO filing?
David Cummings on Startups 