The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team

TL;DR

Ryan Smith dropped out of high school with a 1.9 GPA, no plan, and no money, then built Qualtrics from his family’s basement into an $8 billion company. He turned down a $500M acquisition offer, maintained intense focus (no side hustles, no boards, no real estate for 22 years), and eventually bought the Utah Jazz NBA franchise for $1.6B.

Key insights

• Smith’s father forced him to stay in Seoul when his friends flew home; Smith had to figure out a job and housing on his own with no English or money, which became a character-forcing moment.
• Teaching English via flyers in Korean high-rises was his first real experience of “good idea + execution” – he went from stranded to $8,000/month at age 17.
• Qualtrics started because Smith deferred school after his father’s cancer diagnosis and insisted they go 50/50 on commercializing his father’s online research idea.