Collision 2015 - Ryan Smith of Qualtrics & Bryan Scheirer of Sequoia with Bruce Upbin of Forbes
summary
Company starts in a parents basement and builds a survey platform that lands every university in the world, then pivots in 2008–09 into enterprise insights across customer employee market products. It bootstraps to profitability, raises $220M raised from Sequoia and Excel while staying based in Utah, uses funds to open Dublin (26,000 sq ft, 100 people in Dublin), Sydney, Seattle, Dallas and DC, grows headcount from ~350 to 700 employees, hires 115 last quarter, and plans revenue-generating acquisitions while avoiding sloppy ad spend.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction to speakers
- 1:23The Qualtrics journey
- 2:45Forming the partnership
- 5:43Strategic board collaboration
- 9:23Growth and capital efficiency
- 13:46The ethics of fundraising
- 17:33Building endurance companies
- 21:10M&A and industry outlook
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02mOpening remarks