Mikkel Svane & Carlye Adler 
Startupland [PDF ebook] 
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.

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