Why 80% of the Fortune 100 Chose Qualtrics | Ryan Smith
AI may change software overnight, but company building still takes time.
Ryan Smith explains why, despite the pace of AI, “the race is going to be way longer than anyone thinks.”
He reflects on Qualtrics surviving multiple market cycles and ultimately being acquired by SAP for $8 billion days before going public.
Guest: Ryan Smith, co-founder Qualtrics
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The High School Dropout Who Made $2B & Bought an NBA Team
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Episode 761: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) sits down with Ryan Smith ( https://x.com/ryanqualtrics ) – the high school dropout who built an $8B company and bought an NBA team.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) 1.9 GPA to $2B
(9:47) Starting Qualtrics
(14:02) Focus
(24:00) How to be top 1% at sales
(26:17) Turning down $500M
(31:37) Working backwards
(3814) Buying an NBA team
(43:51) The 9 most important minutes of the day
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Links:
• Qualtrics - https://www.qualtrics.com/
• Utah Jazz - https://www.nba.com/jazz/
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• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
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My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
EP 77: Ryan Smith (Utah Jazz Owner, Qualtrics Co-Founder): HS Dropout Turned Tech Founder Bought His Hometown NBA Team
Ryan Smith is the owner of the Utah Jazz, as well as the founder and former CEO of Qualtrics (recently acquired for $12B).
In the episode, Ryan reveals why he bought his hometown NBA team, and what it’s like to own the Utah Jazz. He shares his unconventional path to founding Qualtrics, including how he dropped out of high school, ended up in South Korea with nothing, and later started the company with his dad and brother. Ryan also gives practical insights on productivity and work-life balance.
(0:00) Intro
(1:00) Buying the Utah Jazz
(8:09) Customer base of a fan versus customer base of enterprise software
(10:42) Applying lessons in tech to basketball
(18:26) Trading and relationships
(21:15) Getting rid of the RSN deal
(28:33) Starting a non-profit
(19:59) Views on productivity and work-from-home
(37:07) Becoming a CEO
(40:01) Bill Gates exercise strategy
(45:51) Dropping out of high school and going to South Korea
(50:03) LDS Mission in Mexico
(55:49) Starting Qualtrics with your dad
(1:00:26) Working at Ford
(1:03:37) Northwestern Field Study
(1:05:32) Cheaper, faster, better
(1:08:24) Not selling for $500 million
(1:12:38) No venture capital
(1:16:25) Getting acquired
(1:24:07) Product market fit
(1:34:35) Brother’s time at Google
(1:39:21) Plan for things to take a little bit longer than you expect
(1:42:51) The infamous horse story
Show Notes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN0FAhzD-WI
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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Ryan Smith on buying the Utah Jazz, evolving Qualtrics, AI’s early days, and more | E1782
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Today’s show:
Ryan Smith joins Jason to discuss buying the Utah Jazz while simultaneously prepping for an IPO (3:19), Qualtrics going from IPO prep to acquired to spin out IPO to a take-private in under five years (58:56), his thoughts on AI’s impact (49:12), and much more!
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Time stamps:
(00:00) Qualtics Co-Founder Ryan Smith joins Jason
(3:19) Ryan’s decision to buy the Utah Jazz NBA team
(9:05) The Rudy Gorbet Utah Jazz deal
(12:05) Fin - Try Fin, Intercom's new AI customer support chatbot, at https://intercom.com/f
(12:46) The process of owning an NBA team while prepping for an IPO
(21:09) The impact of the midseason tournament
(23:30) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(24:50) Providing a better user experience with free-to-watch games in Utah
(26:37) Paradigm shifts in media and building an NBA media giant
(36:10) The importance of going direct in media
(39:52) Superside - Go to https://superside.com/twist to get $2000 off with Superside's Startup Accelerator package
(41:24) Qualtrics’ product evolution
(49:12) Ryan’s thoughts on AI’s impact on business
(54:49) Job displacement as a result of AI
(58:56) Qualtrics going from IPO prep to acquired to spin out IPO to a take-private in under five years
(1:03:31) The change in approach to private vs public businesses
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Check out Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/
Follow Ryan: https://twitter.com/RyanQualtrics
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20VC: Qualtrics Founder, Ryan Smith on The 2 Hour Decision Whether To Sell Qualtrics for $8Bn in Cash, Why Tying Your Identity To Your Company Will Never Make You Happy and His Relationship To Risk, Wealth and Responsibility as a Result
Ryan Smith is the Founder and Executive Chairman @ Qualtrics, the leader in customer experience and creator of the experience management (XM) category. Ryan has grown the company from a basement startup to one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world, with 25 offices globally and more than 13,000 customers. Qualtrics raised $400M in funding from Accel, Sequoia, and Insight Venture Partners. Three days before the company was initially scheduled to go public, SAP announced its intent to acquire Qualtrics for $8B, which was the largest private enterprise software acquisition ever. In 2020, Qualtrics and SAP announced plans to take Qualtrics public as an independently operated company.
In Today's Episode with Ryan Smith You Will Learn:
1.) How Ryan made his way into the world of startups having travelled the world and came to found Qualtrics in his basement over 21 years ago?
2.) How does Ryan think about his relationship to happiness and what it means to "be happy"? How does Ryan think about identity and founders aligning their identities to their company? How does Ryan think, if not careful, tech can eat you up? What does Ryan mean when he says he would rather be "opportunistic than an entrepreneur"?
3.) How does Ryan approach decision-making today? In what situations does Ryan think with his head vs his heart? How does Ryan approach risk today? How has his relationship to risk changed over time? What did the sale process to SAP look like? What was that decision-making process to sell to SAP for $8BN in cash vs IPO? What advice did his wife give him?
4.) How does Ryan evaluate his relationship to money today? How did it feel when Ryan sold Qualtrics to SAP for $8BN in cash? How does Ryan think about giving his children the right mentality and upbringing while being brought up in extreme wealth? What are the challenges of doing so?
5.) How does Ryan think about the weight of responsibility? Ryan and his brother Jared, did a lot very young, did Ryan feel the pressure of having to grow up faster than one usually would? How did that impact his mentality? How did Ryan's travels to Mexico and Japan change the person he is today?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Ryan Smith
Ryan's Favourite Book: Alchemist: A Fable about Following Your Dream
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
SaaStr 215: Qualtrics Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Smith on The Things Nobody Tells You About an $8 Billion Acquisition
Qualtrics Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Smith sits down with SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin as Ryan reflects on the survey software maker's acquisition by SAP this year. The company was acquired this November in an $8B deal ahead of its planned IPO. This is SaaStr's founder favorites series where you can hear some of the best of the best of SaaStr Annual's Speakers.
Missed the session? Here's what Jason and Ryan talk about:
Why did Qualtrics turn down a $500M acquisition offer in 2012?
What did Qualtrics' path to fundraising look like?
How to build lifelong customers
Capital efficiency (and dilution)
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
SaaStr
SaaStr 083: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Bootstrapping To A $Bn Valuation, Why Radical Transparency Is Fundamental & What Makes The Truly Great CEOs
Ryan Smith is the Founder & CEO @ Qualtrics, an online survey company with 1,200 employees and a valuation of more than $1bn. They have backing from some of the world's best investors including the likes of Sequoia, Accel and Insight Venture Partners having raised a $150m Series B in 2014. As for Ryan, there are many awesome things, first, he has built Qualtrics from Utah allowing him to gain perspective outside of the traditional tech bubbles, second, he held off on attain VC funding for many years despite the common belief that it is necessary for unicorn growth and finally he has the most incredible work life balance I have seen and if you have not already you must check out this piece on him in Forbes, it really is a must.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ryan made his way into startups and came to found Qualtrics?
2.) Sequoia's Bryan Schreier states that Ryan's success is due to running the company on 'first business principles'. What does he mean by this? How does this affect the way Ryan runs Qualtrics?
3.) Why did Ryan decide to bootstrap the company for such a long time with the likes of Accel and Sequoia looking to invest? What are the benefits of retaining such control? What are the financial requirements to do so?
4.) What makes the best CEO's? How do they view the internal structure of the company? How do they perceive their role? How do they manage their day and optimise their time?
5.) How does Ryan look to instill 'radical transparency' in the organisation? What are the benefits of doing so? Can an organisation ever be too transparent? What are the challenges of such transparency?
20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel
Ryan Smith is the Founder & CEO @ Qualtrics, an online survey company with 1,200 employees and a valuation of more than $1bn. They have backing from some of the world's best investors including the likes of Sequoia, Accel and Insight Venture Partners having raised a $150m Series B in 2014. As for Ryan, there are many awesome things, first, he has built Qualtrics from Utah allowing him to gain perspective outside of the traditional tech bubbles, second, he held off on attain VC funding for many years despite the common belief that it is necessary for unicorn growth and finally he has the most incredible work life balance I have seen and if you have not already you must check out this piece on him in Forbes, it really is a must.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ryan made his way into startups and came to found Qualtrics?
2.) Sequoia's Bryan Schreier states that Ryan's success is due to running the company on 'first business principles'. What does he mean by this? How does this affect the way Ryan runs Qualtrics?
3.) Why did Ryan decide to bootstrap the company for such a long time with the likes of Accel and Sequoia looking to invest? What are the benefits of retaining such control? What are the financial requirements to do so?
4.) What makes the best CEO's? How do they view the internal structure of the company? How do they perceive their role? How do they manage their day and optimise their time?
5.) How does Ryan look to instill 'radical transparency' in the organisation? What are the benefits of doing so? Can an organisation ever be too transparent? What are the challenges of such transparency?
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ryan on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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