This story is part of a CNET special report that examines the controversy gripping San Francisco as a massive influx of techies feeds an unprecedented economic boom -- and backlash.
SAN FRANCISCO -- From the sixth-floor boardroom where Zendesk holds its most important meetings, CEO Mikkel Svane has a unique view of San Francisco. It's not the iconic snapshot of the city -- no Golden Gate Bridge or Transamerica Pyramid. Instead he sees a jumble of grit and gild: a housing project, the gold-trimmed dome of City Hall, and a cryptic, crudely spray-painted message scrawled atop a nearby building: "Snakes get out or we flood."
"I still don't know what it means," says Svane, laughing while peering out the window on a clear day in late July.
The enigmatic view is a fitting one for the leader of a company doing business on relatively unfamiliar terrain. Instead of settling in Silicon Valley, some 40 miles south of the city, the customer service software firm decided to set up shop in San Francisco.
