Ryan Smith: High School Dropout to Qualtrics

Ryan Smith dropped out of high school, then built Qualtrics with his dad in a basement and sold it to SAP for $8 billion. This is his full fireside chat at iHub with iHub founder Corbin Church. Ryan Smith is the co-founder of Qualtrics ("the experience management company") and owns the Utah Jazz. In this conversation: Dropping out of Provo High with a 1.9 GPA, then finishing high school in three months to get to Seoul at 17 The basement office, a generator off eBay, and his dad's one rule: no venture capital Six term sheets in one week, a $500 million offer, and the question from a mentor that kept Qualtrics independent Selling to SAP for $8 billion, then taking Qualtrics public with Silver Lake Audience Q&A: Utah's problems, "nothing happens in the dock," and the power to convene Recorded September 11, 2025, at iHub in Provo, Utah. Building a startup in Utah? Apply to iHub: https://ihubutah.org/new-company-appl... Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to iHub 3:12 Corbin introduces Ryan Smith 5:13 Ryan's message after the UVU shooting 8:30 High school and a 1.9 GPA 10:27 Alone in Seoul at 17 16:27 Korean flyers and $7,000 a month 18:02 Getting into BYU with a GED 20:09 His dad's cancer and the first Qualtrics customers 21:29 The basement office and no venture capital 24:21 Qualtrics today and his brother Jared 26:29 Six term sheets and a $500 million offer 30:26 Saying no to SurveyMonkey 32:51 Raising money from Sequoia and Accel 34:22 Creating experience management 35:31 Selling to SAP for $8 billion 38:09 Silver Lake and the IPO 43:04 A sports and tech fund with Accel 51:58 Running the Jazz vs running a tech company 56:38 The NBA's AI committee 59:31 Why Utah can own innovation 1:05:12 "If you're so good, go do it" 1:07:53 Moving a hockey team to Utah 1:09:54 Audience Q&A 1:10:32 Q&A: security at the arena 1:13:38 Q&A: getting in front of the Jazz 1:16:18 The phones never rang 1:17:01 Q&A: Utah's problems 1:21:04 Q&A: stuck overthinking 1:25:19 Q&A: the power to convene