Skip to content
All articles
Enterprise15 February 2021·3 min read

How Zendesk used enterprise features to grow from $1 million to $1 billion in 12 years

The gap between selling to teams and selling to companies is not a pricing change.

Paycux engineering

The gap between selling to teams and selling to companies is not a pricing change. It is a different set of people, a different set of questions, and a set of features nobody on your roadmap asked for.

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

Zendesk: A Brief History

That brings us to zendesk: a brief history. The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.

The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.

For the web-savvy, by the web-savvy

Consider for the web-savvy, by the web-savvy. The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.

The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.

  • Map each requirement to the failure it prevents
  • Count the long tail, not the first integration
  • Decide who owns the plumbing for the next three years
  • Make the buy-versus-build trade explicitly

An unheard-of love for enterprise software

An unheard-of love for enterprise software is where this gets concrete. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.

Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

Success despite the odds

That brings us to success despite the odds. Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

Price the work honestly.

Zendesk moves upmarket without abandoning SMBs

Zendesk moves upmarket without abandoning SMBs deserves its own treatment. Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

4 enterprise-ready features that enabled Zendesk’s growth

That brings us to 4 enterprise-ready features that enabled zendesk’s growth. Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.

The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Consider single sign-on (sso). The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.

The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.

Where this leaves us

None of this is exotic. It is the ordinary discipline of deciding what you own, writing down what you assume, and making the failures loud enough to notice.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

Everything here, already built

Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API. Start with the quickstart and have a working sign-in this afternoon.

Start selling to enterprise customers

Create an account, point sign-in at Paycux, and get back to the part of the product that is actually yours.