Matt is a partner at Sequoia focused on enterprise technology.  He works with Sequoia’s investments in Docker, Bit9 + Carbon Black, Hirevue, Skyhigh Networks, Nimble Storage and Barracuda Networks.  Prior to joining Sequoia in 2012, Matt worked at Goldman Sachs, where he launched the firm’s investment banking efforts in cloud computing.  Earlier, he founded and ran his own digital media startup while in college.  Matt received a BS in finance from Brigham Young University.   Ryan Smith co-founded Qualtrics in 2000 as a junior in college at a time when online surveys were a thing of the future. As CEO, he has led the company from a basement startup to the industry leader in online data collection and survey analytics. Qualtrics is one of the fastest-growing technology companies, experiencing triple-digit growth in the past four years. The company has more than 5,000 customers including 500 universities, BusinessWeek’s top 30 business schools and almost all of the Fortune 500. Smith is a frequent lecturer at the nation’s leading business schools and is a member of the advisory board for the Masters in Market Research (MSMR) Program at the University of Texas at Arlington. He also serves on the executive advisory board of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Before Qualtrics, he worked at HP and Ford Motor Company and studied at the Marriott School of Management.  

Interview by Derek Andersen

 

Founder & CEO, Startup Grind

We are pleased to announce that Derek Andersen will be in Detroit to lead the conversation with Matt on Sept 25th. Derek is the founder and CEO of Startup Grind. The organization currently has a 175 chapters around the world and is quickly growing.  Startup Grind is based in 60 countries with over 1,500 volunteers. It focuses in connecting, inspiring and mentoring entrepreneurs. Derek Andersen spent four years in product management at Electronic Arts working on games like the Godfather, Burnout, and Mirror's Edge. He left in 2009 to create Vaporware Labs which launched several failures and a couple of successes like Startup Grind, Commonred (Acquired by Income.com), and Steve Young Football (iOS). He's also a contributing author for Entrepreneur.com and Business Insider and lives in Palo Alto, California with his wife and three children. This promises to be a great evening that will help to better connect the Detroit ecosystem to both Silicon Valley and the global startup scene.