Notes - Ryan Smith

December 7, 2025

Ryan Smith: From High School Dropout to Tech Billionaire and NBA Team Owner

I. Early Life, Challenges, and the Dropout Decision

Ryan Smith's journey is characterized by a significant leap from a 1.9 GPA high school dropout to a billionaire with a $2 billion net worth, owning an NBA team. His story is differentiated from those like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard with a clear vision.

His parents split up when he was about 14, causing his world to be "rocked," leading him to reject authority and adopt the mindset of "screw everything". Smith noted that he never developed the necessary skills for school and struggled with the concept of finishing things. Although he knew he was a good athlete, capable at golf and poker, he lacked hard work and focus. His life trajectory during his mid-teens was not hopeful and showed "no indication that there was a spark".

His decision to quit high school was forced because school staff felt the situation wasn't working out due to his lack of class attendance and studying. His parents set a low requirement: that he just graduate high school. At 16, he started working in the mail room for a tech company called IMAL, run by an uncle.

II. Character Building in South Korea

At 17, Smith secured his GED by dedicating himself to the coursework, completing it in a few months. This accomplishment was a moment of realization: "When I kind of set my mind to something I can do it".

He traveled to Seoul, South Korea, with a plan to work for a school, expecting a job and housing, but his contacts vanished upon arrival, leaving him with no job, no place to stay, and limited cash. While others he traveled with called their parents and flew home, Smith’s father told him, "You're not coming home," believing the upside was "way better". Smith described this experience as rock bottom—being homesick in a country with no English, no money, realizing he had to “find a gear that I've never used before”.

To survive, he found work teaching English for $10 an hour, three hours a day. He secured lodging by teaching English for one hour daily to a man who ran a Goshiwan (a study space likened to a locker room), where he slept and cooked ramen noodles on a small stove. He clarifies that this difficult period was not enjoyable; he was focused solely on finding a way to get home.

Smith found greater opportunity in private lessons. He paid someone to write a message in Korean and produced 5,000 flyers. He befriended security guards in high-rise buildings to distribute the flyers. His beeper "started hammering and blowing up" with responses, marking the first time in his life he realized he had a good idea and could execute it. Within a month, he was making $8,000 a month as a 17-year-old English teacher.

III. The Founding and Growth of Qualtrics

Origin and Early Struggles

The idea for Qualtrics originated with Smith’s father, who had developed technology for collecting research online. The business started when Ryan left an internship at Hewlett-Packard in LA and deferred school after his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer (though he eventually recovered).

Before Qualtrics, companies typically used paper/pencil surveys or collected no feedback, leading to "blind spots everywhere" regarding customer or employee satisfaction. The goal of Qualtrics was novel at the time: putting the customer at the table and making them part of the decision-making process.

Ryan suggested they start a business, going 50/50 despite his father’s inability to pay him. In the early days, while his father was undergoing treatment and unable to speak, Ryan would be on the phone making sales calls, and his father would write the answers to deep statistical questions on a board.

A major turning point occurred around 2004 when Smith, frustrated by competitors who had better, cheaper products and significant funding, argued with his father. His father slammed the table and asked, "Who's stopping you?" forcing Ryan to accept that they could not blame others and had to succeed without shortcuts.

Focus and Partnership

Qualtrics, founded in 2002, focused initially on selling only to universities around 2006/2007. This focus required saying "no" to many otherwise viable ideas.

Ryan recruited his older brother, Jared, an early Googler who was running Google China, to join the company in 2009. Jared served as an "incredible forcing function," demanding that Ryan stay focused and "finish something". Ryan realized he had to edit his plans and strategy, knowing that Jared would hold him accountable for progress on their calls.

The brotherly relationship allowed them to push each other much harder than typical executives, going 15 rounds on a difficult topic rather than 3 or 4, because they had to wake up and work together without drama. Jared focused on engineering, while Ryan focused on business, meeting on the product side to fill each other’s gaps and blind spots.

When Sequoia invested in 2011, they required a CEO. Jared stood up, pointed at Ryan, declared him the CEO, and insisted, "I won’t do media". This investment was notable as the largest Series A raise in all of tech since 2008 and was invested outside the Bay Area.

Sales Philosophy and Focus

Smith was highly successful at sales, doing calls "all day". He believed great sales required genuine belief in the product's value and that it would improve the customer's life. Qualtrics educated customers on running their businesses from the "outside in," using data frequently, which was faster, cheaper, and better, thus promoting the user’s personal career success. Smith quotes the philosophy that sales is “the generous act of letting the right person know that you might have a solution to their problem”.

During the 20-22 years spent building Qualtrics, Smith maintained an intense focus, engaging in no investing, real estate, sitting on boards, or side hustles, with the sole exception of playing basketball ("hoops").

IV. Strategic Decisions and the "Working Backwards" Approach

Turning Down $500 Million

The company turned down an offer of $500 million to sell the business—an amount considered absurd and life-changing. The offer was made by the head of SurveyMonkey. While most people advised them to "take it and run," one mentor, Duff Thompson, urged them not to sell too early, noting that Qualtrics was cash flow positive, cranking, and growing at 100%. Smith’s wife also encouraged him to continue, saying, “what are you going to do at home?”. This refusal served as a “recommitting point” that forced them to get serious and reinvest all money back into the business.

The Long Game and Working Backwards

Smith adopted a strategy he called "working backwards," starting with the end in mind and reverse-engineering the necessary steps. This was spurred by a journalist, Julie Bort, who wrote an article about Smith turning down the $500 million offer.

Two years later, when Qualtrics raised money again, Smith set the goal to raise at a $1 billion valuation to show they had doubled. He called Bort to give her the scoop, resulting in a new headline: "the folks that turned down 500 million just raised at it a billion". Following this, Smith urged his employees to ask, "What's her next article?" The constant drive was fueled by framing the next milestone as the subsequent headline Bort would write. The strategy continued until the company was sold, with Bort writing four such articles tracking their growth to a $2.5 billion valuation and finally the $8 billion sale.

V. NBA Ownership and Life Philosophy

The Sale and the Journey

Qualtrics was eventually sold for $8 billion. Smith describes the day the money hit the bank as "one of the most underwhelming days" of his life. The true joy came from watching his employees’ reactions to their financial success, confirming that the journey itself was the most important element, not the "Eureka moment". Smith intends to work until he is 80, believing that every young person should ask themselves if they intend to work their whole lives.

Owning the Utah Jazz

Basketball was the only interest Smith maintained outside of Qualtrics for 20 years. After the sale of Qualtrics, he immediately declared his intention to join the NBA. He had previously approached the Utah Jazz, who had been owned by the Miller family for 30-35 years, but the team was locked in a legacy trust and was not for sale.

Six months after failing to secure the Minnesota team, Smith was called back about the Jazz. He negotiated the purchase for $1.6 billion using the Forbes valuation, prioritizing the team staying in Utah. He acknowledged that owning an NBA team carries immense public responsibility, taking on "the hopes and dreams of a whole nation".

Life Advice

Smith offers two key philosophies:

1. The Nine Most Important Minutes: These minutes occur when children wake up, when they get home from school, and when they go to bed (three minutes for each). He advises scheduling around these moments to ensure presence.
2. Inversion: If you don't know what you want to do, figure out what you don't want to do.

Smith advises young people to focus on the attributes of a potential job rather than having a fixed picture of what they think they should do. His personal attributes for a career included: the sky being the limit, no age-based potential capping, ability to lead, exposure to many industries, and participation in new technology. If an opportunity fits those attributes, regardless of the industry (e.g., enterprise software or the auto industry), it is worth pursuing.