EP 77: Ryan Smith (Utah Jazz Owner, Qualtrics Co-Founder): HS Dropout Turned Tech Founder Bought His Hometown NBA Team

(0:00) Intro (1:00) Buying the Utah Jazz (8:09) Customer base of a fan versus customer base of enterprise software (10:42) Applying lessons in tech to basketball (18:26) Trading and relationships (21:15) Getting rid of the RSN deal (28:33) Starting a non-profit (19:59) Views on productivity and work-from-home (37:07) Becoming a CEO (40:01) Bill Gates exercise strategy (45:51) Dropping out of high school and going to South Korea (50:03) LDS Mission in Mexico (55:49) Starting Qualtrics with your dad (1:00:26) Working at Ford (1:03:37) Northwestern Field Study (1:05:32) Cheaper, faster, better (1:08:24) Not selling for $500 million (1:12:38) No venture capital (1:16:25) Getting acquired (1:24:07) Product market fit (1:34:35) Brother’s time at Google (1:39:21) Plan for things to take a little bit longer than you expect (1:42:51) The infamous horse story   Show Notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN0FAhzD-WI   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow   About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.