Remove 2002 Remove Bootstrapping Remove Customer Development Remove Marketing
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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 38: Ryan Smith and Lane Merrifield

Steve Blank

Ryan Smith co-founded Qualtrics in 2002 with his father in the family basement. But in the corporate world in 2002, no one was ready for it. I specifically remember calling one airline, and they said, “Hey look, if our customers aren’t happy, they’ll just call us.” We bootstrapped it.

Cofounder 146
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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 38: Ryan Smith and Lane Merrifield

Steve Blank

Ryan Smith co-founded Qualtrics in 2002 with his father in the family basement. But in the corporate world in 2002, no one was ready for it. I specifically remember calling one airline, and they said, “Hey look, if our customers aren’t happy, they’ll just call us.” We bootstrapped it.

Cofounder 120
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The Lean Startup Workshop - now an O'Reilly Master Class

Startup Lessons Learned

Take a look: This full-day Master Class focuses on how to build a startup from the ground up to focus on customers, markets, and speed of iteration. Im working on a future post where Ill share the details of how I used customer development to shape both the content and packaging of this event, so look for that soon.

Lean 60