Ryan Smith

Everything Ryan Smith said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

SAASTR Assertion Supported

Smith: Qualtrics rejected a $500M buyout offer at a $50M run rate

“The backstory here is we turned down an acquisition offer for five hundred million dollars in 2012. And I had done, I mean, we were about a fifty million dollar sales run rate, but I'd never done a media interview.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 2:48 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Insight

Smith: Building software for demanding PhDs prepared Qualtrics for enterprise

“We actually learned to develop great products in that phase because, you know, if you've got to develop a product where a PhD or researcher calls in, Imagine the support system you've got to have on the other side to support Dan Ariely, who is a behavioral eco…”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 11:19 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Assertion Not checkable as stated

Ryan Smith: Qualtrics' valuation grew $100M each year they delayed funding

“From 2009, 10 and 11, Every year we waited, our valuation went up a hundred million dollars back then.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 13:29 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR What-if

Smith: Qualtrics wouldn't have targeted academia if it had venture capital

“If we would have had capital, we would have never gone after the academic market.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 14:29 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Assertion Contradicted

Smith: Qualtrics grew 47% to $500M in sales prior to SAP deal

“I mean, we grew up 47% last year, five hundred million in sales.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 21:36 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Prediction Not checkable as stated

Ryan Smith: Qualtrics staff will earn more post-acquisition than prior 17 years

“Outside of about six or seven people, every single person in the company will make more money over the next five years than they did the prior 17.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 33:21 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Assertion Supported

Smith: Qualtrics maintained 122% net retention overall and 140% in enterprise

“And a 122% net retention, and then the enterprise, it's a 140. That, that means that you've got a solid foundation, a solid engine, where people are living and it's mission critical to them.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 35:16 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

SAASTR Prediction Not checkable as stated

Smith: Rising market caps will push mega-SaaS acquisition sizes to $15B

“Well 15, it's got to be the new, it's got to be the new number. I mean as market caps keep increasing, then I think the number goes up.”

Ryan Smith Feb 17, 2019 ▶ 37:42 The Things Nobody Tells You About An $8B Acquisition with Ryan Smith from Qualtrics

TOP FOUNDERS Assertion Supported

Smith: Qualtrics has 9,000 brand customers paying up to $6M annually

“Yeah, paying customers, and these are brands. These are, I mean, we have a lot more customers in the brands, but they, you know, if you look at 9000, then you look at, you know, they're paying anywhere from 12,000 all the way up to, You know, five, six millio…”

Ryan Smith Feb 10, 2018 ▶ 6:39 931 Qualtrics "Well Past" $250m in ARR, When Will The Go Public?

TOP FOUNDERS Assertion Supported

Smith: Qualtrics has already surpassed $250M in ARR

“I think we already have. Good. I asked that question very specifically. What I found is if I underestimate a little, a founder feels much more comfortable going, we just broke that versus. We're good. That's in the rear of your view mirror.”

Ryan Smith Feb 10, 2018 ▶ 7:11 931 Qualtrics "Well Past" $250m in ARR, When Will The Go Public?

20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2056

Smith: Qualtrics is being built to last 40 to 50 years

“We're trying to build something that's going to be around for the next 40 years, 50 years, and if you're building that way, it's actually a totally different playbook than if you're building something that it's got to work for you.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 7:13 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

20VC Opinion

Smith: Accel's Ryan Sweeney has set an unprecedented standard in late-stage investing

“Ryan Sweeney's in Excel, they put on a clinic in late stage investing that I don't think anyone in tech has ever seen before.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 11:28 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

20VC Assertion Partly supported

Qualtrics reached nearly $50M revenue with 50% profit margins while bootstrapped

“We were close to coming up on fifty million dollars in, in sales and, you know, 50% profit margins, a hundred percent bootstrap.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 12:40 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

20VC Assertion Supported

Qualtrics' 2012 Series A was the largest first-time VC investment since 2008

“And it was the largest series a or first time investment since 2008.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 14:26 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

20VC Insight

Smith: A startup CEO's job changes every three months

“My job as CEO changes every three months. And so does the way I go about the job. What used to work for me two or three years ago does not work for me now.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 20:03 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

20VC Insight

Ryan Smith: Most people have only three or four productive hours daily

“Most people only have three or four productive hours in the day where they're actually getting stuff done.”

Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 26:05 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel

MAD Disclosure

Ryan Smith: Qualtrics powers user feedback for Healthcare.gov

“We're powering all the feedback right now for healthcare.gov, right?”

Ryan Smith Apr 2, 2015 ▶ 14:59 Ryan Smith, Qualtrics // The Qualtrics Story // Data Driven NYC (FirstMark Capital)

MAD Insight

Ryan Smith: Surveys are fundamentally forms with workflows around them

“That's surveys, it's just a form with a workflow around it”

Ryan Smith Apr 2, 2015 ▶ 18:15 Ryan Smith, Qualtrics // The Qualtrics Story // Data Driven NYC (FirstMark Capital)

MAD Assertion Not checkable as stated

Ryan Smith: Mobile survey respondents answer significantly differently than PC users

“The mobile respondents feel totally different than the people taking it through, you know, their PC.”

Ryan Smith Apr 2, 2015 ▶ 19:26 Ryan Smith, Qualtrics // The Qualtrics Story // Data Driven NYC (FirstMark Capital)

MAD Insight

Ryan Smith: Corporate research data needs to live longer in one place

“Typically research has had a really short shelf life, and we think for as much as organizations are spending on this, that data needs to live a lot longer, and part of that is to get in one simple spot in the right language for people to use.”

Ryan Smith Apr 2, 2015 ▶ 22:33 Ryan Smith, Qualtrics // The Qualtrics Story // Data Driven NYC (FirstMark Capital)

MAD Disclosure

Smith: Qualtrics turned down early revenue to avoid building non-scalable custom features

“One of the early disciplines we had is that if we can't hard code it, and it can't be point and click functionality, we're not going to develop it. And we had to turn down a lot of revenue which is part of the bootstrapping.”

Ryan Smith Apr 2, 2015 ▶ 31:37 Ryan Smith, Qualtrics // The Qualtrics Story // Data Driven NYC (FirstMark Capital)

MY FIRST MILLION Assertion Supported

Jared Smith co-ran Google China with Kai-Fu Lee before joining Qualtrics

“And he had been assigned to go run China for Google. So he was living in Beijing. He was working with Kai-Fu Lee and like running Google China.”

Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 15:25 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

MY FIRST MILLION Assertion Supported

A Qualtrics competitor raised $40M with a cheaper, better product in 2004

“Our competition had just raised a bunch of money. The product was cheaper than ours. They raised forty million dollars, and their product was better than ours.”

Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 21:31 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

MY FIRST MILLION Disclosure

Ryan Smith compared Sequoia and Accel co-investing to Yankees and Red Sox

“And then, you know, we decided to go raise money from Sequoia and Excel. And at the time it was like taking money from the Red Sox and the Yankees.”

Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 31:10 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

Show 17statements(17 left)

The other half of the tape: Ryan Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 67 times in 32 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 12Frank Quattrone 10Harry Stebbings 8Jason Lemkin 6Alfonso de la Nuez 5Rob Nelson 4Stewart Butterfield 3Matt Turck 3

Statements about Ryan Smith, by other people (6)

SAASTR Assertion Partly supported

Cummings: Qualtrics scaled to $500M ARR without primary balance sheet capital

“Ryan Smith from Qualtrics, and he told the amazing story of going from zero to five hundred million of revenue And not requiring any primary capital. Five hundred million in recurring revenue, and they never raised any money that went to the balance sheet.”

David Cummings Nov 11, 2019 ▶ 10:21 7 Lessons Helping Start Pardot, SalesLoft, and Calendly

TOP FOUNDERS Assertion Not checkable as stated

Latka: The most successful SaaS companies originated out of agencies

“And the most successful SAS companies I've ever seen all came out of agencies. Qualtrics with Ryan Smith Ryan Holmes at Hootsuite. I mean, the most successful SaaS company started as agencies.”

Nathan Latka Aug 1, 2018 ▶ 19:46 1103 When should he quit his agency and go all in on software?

20VC Assertion Partly supported

Lemkin: Ryan Smith's Utah Jazz investment quadrupled, outpacing software returns

“When Ryan Smith sold Qualtrics, I think he made about a billion dollars. After 20 years or so and I believe that billion, most of it went back into the jazz, and it has quadrupled... He's up three billion on the jazz or something like that versus the 20 years …”

Jason Lemkin Apr 30, 2026 ▶ 1:15:38 Anthropic Raises $45B but Falls Short on Compute & Thoma Bravo Hand Back Medallia Keys to Creditors · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

TOP FOUNDERS Assertion Not checkable as stated

Latka: Early-stage interviews get 3x more downloads than pre-IPO founders

“The interviews I do with people that are at your level get almost three times the downloads as when I have Ryan on from Qualtrics and they're about to IPO.”

Nathan Latka Nov 8, 2018 ▶ 8:27 1202 He Raised $20m+ in First Company, Now Bootstrapping in B2B Sales Tech Space, $1m in ARR

SAASTR Assertion Supported

Lemkin: SaaS founders led Front's $600M valuation round

“The last round in front, which I think was at six or seven hundred million, was all founders. Okay, it was Ryan Smith from Qualtrics, I forget who else, the other billion, our friends, the billionaires of SaaS, but they all, I think, led that round instead of …”

Jason Lemkin Nov 17, 2021 ▶ 36:10 The Highs and Lows of Fundraising from Founders That Have Raised $1B w/ Calendly, Coda, LaunchDarkly

20VC Disclosure

Accel sourced Qualtrics early by building relationships in Salt Lake City

“Qualtrics, is a good example of that. Hiding in Salt Lake, you didn't think that there was going to be a multi-billion dollar company in the area of market research surveys, but we were lucky enough to find that company relatively early on and spend the time b…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 6:40 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Every mention by year

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ryan's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
20VCLEDGER	Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics	2	31	38% 3/8	full record on 20VC →
SAASTRLEDGER	Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics	1	24	80% 4/5	full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast →
MADLEDGER	Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics	1	12	—	full record on the MAD Podcast →
MY FIRST MILLIONLEDGER	Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics	1	12	75% 3/4	full record on My First Million →
TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER	Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics	1	10	100% 4/4	full record on Top Founders →