> Yes, we both use the “zen” moniker as part of our names, yes both are SaaS. But we’re not targeting the same customers or solving the same problem.
> On the contrary: Both I and many of my customers use zendesk alongside zenbilling.
There is an overlap between what they do and both using 'zen' can easily be interpreted as affiliation between the 2 companies.
I don’t assume there is an affiliation between the zencoder and zendesk. Personally I wouldn’t think there was much overlap between Billing and Customer Support, either - and I would not be confused in the least. (From the names - branding could clearly connect the 2)
Plus the number of startups with Zen in their name is huge: http://www.crunchbase.com/search?query=zen (which is a bad query as it excludes zen embedded in the name like we are discussing - but good as the number of relevant results is still ~30. And it’s the best I could find on short notice.)