Ryan Smith on buying the Utah Jazz, evolving Qualtrics, AI’s early days, and more | E1782
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2023
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
Fin can’t burn its mouth on hot pizza. Or wave at someone who wasn’t waving at them. Fin can resolve half of your customer support tickets instantly before they reach your team. Meet Fin. A breakthrough AI bot by Intercom – ready to join your support team today. Visit https://intercom.com/fin
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Superside. Design and creative are crucial for growth. Tech companies like Shopify, Amazon, and Meta have found the perfect solution: Superside. Get $2000 off with Superside's Startup Accelerator package superside.com/TWIST.
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Today’s show:
Ryan Smith joins Jason to discuss buying the Utah Jazz while simultaneously prepping for an IPO (3:19), Qualtrics going from IPO prep to acquired to spin out IPO to a take-private in under five years (58:56), his thoughts on AI’s impact (49:12), and much more!
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Time stamps:
(00:00) Qualtics Co-Founder Ryan Smith joins Jason
(3:19) Ryan’s decision to buy the Utah Jazz NBA team
(9:05) The Rudy Gorbet Utah Jazz deal
(12:05) Fin - Try Fin, Intercom's new AI customer support chatbot, at https://intercom.com/f
(12:46) The process of owning an NBA team while prepping for an IPO
(21:09) The impact of the midseason tournament
(23:30) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(24:50) Providing a better user experience with free-to-watch games in Utah
(26:37) Paradigm shifts in media and building an NBA media giant
(36:10) The importance of going direct in media
(39:52) Superside - Go to https://superside.com/twist to get $2000 off with Superside's Startup Accelerator package
(41:24) Qualtrics’ product evolution
(49:12) Ryan’s thoughts on AI’s impact on business
(54:49) Job displacement as a result of AI
(58:56) Qualtrics going from IPO prep to acquired to spin out IPO to a take-private in under five years
(1:03:31) The change in approach to private vs public businesses
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Check out Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/
Follow Ryan: https://twitter.com/RyanQualtrics
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Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo: https://www.launch.co/four
Apply for Funding: https://www.launch.co/apply
Buy ANGEL: https://www.angelthebook.com
Great recent interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Follow Jason:
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's kind of nuts, you know, like I did podcasting for 10 years here this week and start |
| 0:03.6 | ups my passion and it's gone incredible and then you just do this like little tiny side project |
| 0:09.6 | and it gets to like broken to the top 10 episodes of the week over the last couple of weeks. |
| 0:15.1 | It's really bizarre. That's become so popular. It's crossed over into like colleges and |
| 0:20.5 | you know civilians and stuff like that. I think it's a really cool thing if like you've got like |
| 0:25.3 | people like I always tell our players or our coach like you want to understand tech just listen |
| 0:30.9 | everywhere. This week in start ups is brought to you by Finn can't burn its mouth on hot pizza |
| 0:37.2 | or wave at someone who wasn't waving at them. Finn can resolve half of your customer support |
| 0:42.7 | tickets instantly before they reach your team. Meet Finn, a breakthrough AI bot by Intercom. |
| 0:49.9 | Ready to join your support team today. Visit intercom.com slash Finn lemon dot IO need to speed up |
| 0:58.4 | your product development without draining your budget higher vetted engineers from Europe at lemon |
| 1:03.7 | dot IO go to lemon dot IO slash twist to get 15% off for the first four weeks and super side |
| 1:12.0 | design and creative are crucial for growth tech companies like Shopify Amazon and meta have found |
| 1:19.0 | the perfect solution. Super side get $2,000 off with supersides startup accelerator package |
| 1:26.6 | at superside.com slash twist. Hey everybody welcome back to this week in start ups. I am super |
| 1:32.5 | excited because friend of the pod who hasn't been on since pre COVID Ryan Smith the co-founder of |
| 1:39.6 | Qualtrics and now it's not just a fan of the Utah Jazz and both the team enjoyed it so much |
| 1:47.4 | they bought the team welcome back to the program Ryan Smith. Hey it's good to be back on I'm glad |
| 1:52.0 | you're still doing this man I remember 2019 yeah right before the pandemic before San Francisco |
| 1:59.6 | and the world got crazy it was a it's so weird the last I mean how do you look back on the last |
| 2:04.5 | four years so much has happened also for you buying the team etc but it is crazy how business has |
| 2:10.8 | changed and you also you had done the IPO at that time I guess or shortly thereafter maybe yeah we |
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