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Ryan Smith

Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Qualtrics · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@RyanQualtrics ↗LinkedIn ↗qualtrics.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Ryan Smith is the co-founder and executive chairman of Qualtrics, which he bootstrapped and later sold to SAP for $8 billion. He also serves as chairman and CEO of Smith Entertainment Group, through which he owns the Utah Jazz.

12statements → 7claims → 4claims resolved → 75%fully supported → 3.92/5average certainty → 1.17/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

3 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ryan argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Dave Goldberg's SurveyMonkey attempted to acquire Qualtrics before its Series A
“You know, the gentleman who was doing it ran a company, I'll just be honest, it was called Survey Monkey at the time.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 26:53 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Qualtrics raised the largest tech Series A since 2008 in 2012
“We've taken this money from Excel, this is the largest Series A raised in 2000, in 12, since 2008, in all of tech, it's outside of the Bay Area”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 19:37 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ryan Smith on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ryan Smith said on My First Million that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia demanded Qualtrics formally name a single CEO to secure its investment
“When we took money in 2011, Sequoia, I remember, was like, We're only doing this if there's a CEO. Which one of you is the CEO?”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 18:33 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Contradicted
Qualtrics raised the largest tech Series A since 2008 in 2012
“We've taken this money from Excel, this is the largest Series A raised in 2000, in 12, since 2008, in all of tech, it's outside of the Bay Area”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 19:37 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Insight
Ryan Smith requires sales reps to be able to demo products blind
“This is where I've always told our reps, like, do you know your product? I could do the demo on the phone in a car with a link walking them through. Without me looking at the screen. And explain to them every single thing that's going on.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 23:43 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Supported
Dave Goldberg's SurveyMonkey attempted to acquire Qualtrics before its Series A
“You know, the gentleman who was doing it ran a company, I'll just be honest, it was called Survey Monkey at the time.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 26:53 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Opinion
Ryan Smith calls selling Qualtrics one of his most underwhelming days
“And when Qualtrics sold, it was probably one of the most underwhelming days of my life.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 36:17 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ryan Smith based his Utah Jazz offer on a Forbes mobile valuation
“It was literally a meeting where it was like, well, are you serious? Make us an offer. And we pulled up the Forbes valuation on the phone and I said, well, how's this?”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 41:19 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
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
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
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
Disclosure
Ryan Smith avoided investing, boards, and real estate for 20 years
“I didn't do anything else when I was doing Qualtrics. I didn't invest. I didn't sit on boards. I didn't buy real estate. I was literally like Qualtrics for 20 years heads down.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 38:55 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Disclosure
Ryan Smith avoids work calls during his children's daily transition routines
“Not all three, maybe, but like, if I can schedule a call, I'm not doing it in one of those moments.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 44:24 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ryan Smith earned $1,000 monthly teaching English in South Korea at 17
“And then I started getting a schedule and like literally like a month later, I was making like a thousand dollars a month is a 17 year old teaching English.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 9:32 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team Nov 5, 2025 32m
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