Brendan: About half of the Fortune 100 companies are currently using your products. Can you talk a little bit more about that shift from academia to getting these businesses on board? How that happened, and was that a big challenge? That’s really where the growth is, right?
Smith: Yeah, it’s definitely where the growth has been. We love our academic upbringing and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think we learned a lot. In 2007 and 2008, that’s where the big shift came, for us.
The companies that we were calling in 2004 weren’t listening to us, or didn’t have a need, or didn’t see the value of it. It’s kind of a weird time, because that’s when the recession started happening. I used to wear a pin that said, “I will not participate in the recession.” It’s not for us.
It’s almost like it was high fives and chest bumps all around in 2005 because everyone was making money. Companies really started to struggle, and ask why. They couldn’t throw mud at the wall and see what sticks. It was a shotgun approach. They had to hit.
If you just think about every company, if they were able to execute 100% of the time, and be right, it would be a phenomenal place. We started seeing companies, who historically had not wanted to pay attention to the data, become extremely data oriented in the downturn, and our business took off.
I think that those companies who have maintained that scrappiness and just wanted to measure a couple more times before they cut, and then cut very aggressively, have historically done very well.
Brendan: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs, either young, old, that are starting a company? Or, what’s the best advice that you have received?
Smith: There’s two things. No. 1 is, a lot of entrepreneurs I talk about are trying to scale before they have a clear idea of where they’re going. I think that there’s a balance there that needs to be looked at, because once you’ve got a better idea you’ll be able to scale very quickly. Now, that’s not always the case.
The second is hard work is a competitive advantage. Recently, I’m here in New York City with a client event. We had 150 corporate customers in a room yesterday.
Four years ago, I was riding on the subway with my trade show booth between my legs and my bags on the train, coming from the airport because I didn’t have enough money to get a cab. We were printing our business cards at Kinko’s, while we were out here.
It was hard not to think back and say, “We have this many customers filling a room in New York City, and we just did the same thing in Chicago. Hard work pays off.” We’re a 10-year overnight success, but I think if you look around, most companies who do succeed have been at it for a long time.
Don’t be impatient, and hard work will get you there. If you stay the course, then it’s amazing what execution can actually do.
Brendan: Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics. You guys going to go public any time soon? Are people going to be able to invest in you?
Smith: Well, I think the bigger we get, the more opportunity. We look at things, but for now we’re pretty heads-down focused on our growth.
Brendan: Great. Ryan Smith, thanks so much for your time.
Smith: Thank you.
The article An Interview With Ryan Smith originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Brendan Byrnes.
Brendan Byrnes has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google, LinkedIn, Netflix, Salesforce, and Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFM). The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, and Whole Foods Market.
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