28. Qualtrics

Surveying the corporate landscape

Founders: Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith (CEO), Jared Smith, Stuart Orgill
Launched: 2002
Funding: $400 million
Valuation: $2.5 billion (PitchBook)
Disrupting: Consumer research
Rival: SurveyMonkey

George Kavallines

Collecting mountains of information about customer habits, employee satisfaction and market climate is good as far as it goes, but what if it could be brought all together for better business intelligence? That's the mission of Qualtrics, the Provo, Utah-based survey software company. Founded by CEO Ryan Smith, along with his dad and brother, the company's software makes it easy for its 8,500 customers worldwide to capture customer, employee and market insights on one platform.

Read More FULL LIST: 2017 DISRUPTOR 50

Qualtrics got its start in 2002 and bootstrapped its way until 2012, when it raised its first round of venture capital from Accel and Sequoia Capital. It recently raised a third round, of $180 million, bringing its total to around $400 million.

The company, which should do about $250 million in revenue from customers such as CVS, Microsoft, JetBlue, as well as nearly all the top 100 business schools, claims to be profitable. And with a valuation of $2.5 billion, according the PitchBook, the company looked like a strong IPO candidate coming into 2017. CEO Ryan Smith says a public offering is still on the table, but the recent money raised will most likely go toward acquisitions and further build-out of the executive team.

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