The High School Dropout Who Made $2B & Bought an NBA Team

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Ryan Smith, a guy who went from a 1.9 GPA high school dropout to a $2 billion net worth. But this isn't your normal dropout story. At some point, you have a conversation with yourself like, okay, I got to make this happen.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
Yeah, I got to find a gear that I've never used before.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:15)
When he dropped out, he had no plan, no money, and nowhere to live. There's a great story about the early days of Qualtrics and Focus.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
We were religious about it, and it was actually an incredible forcing function for me.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:26)
At some point, you could offer $500 million to sell the company, and you turned it down.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
Every other person I would talk to about this offer was like, take it and run.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:34)
You're building it from your family's basement all the way to the end zone. Basically, sell for $8 billion, you end up on public.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
I didn't do anything else when I was doing Qualtrics. I didn't invest, I didn't sit on boards.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:45)
No side hustles.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:46)
No side hustles, nothing except for hoops.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:50)
What's it like to now own an NBA team? That's insane.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:53)
My philosophy was don't bling, just go.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:09)
I want to start with this. Like, you know, you've done what kids like me dream up. It's like I build a successful company with my family, no less, become the super successful guy, billionaire NBA team owner. You live this really interesting life.
What's cool is that if we rewind the clock, you were a guy who dropped out of high school and had a 1.9 GPA in high school. So going from a 1.9 GPA to like, I don't know, a $2 billion net worth, that's a pretty big jump. We hear these stories where it's like, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, they were at Harvard, and then they dropped out with this big grand idea and it came to fruition. That's not your story at all. So let's do the origin. Can you take us back, you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old. What was going on in your life at that time?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:56)
Yeah, I mean, it's no secret. Like my parents split up when I was like 14, and the world was rocked. And I was very much like, okay, screw everything. No one can tell me what to do. And I think my parents were trying their hardest to keep us, I mean, we had five kids that were keeping us all kind of afloat. And I think to be honest with you, you know, I never really developed the skills for school. And I didn't think I was really good. I knew I was a good athlete. I knew I was good at golf and could play poker. And like, I knew there was something there, but I didn't work hard. I didn't finish anything. And it was really hard, like this concept of finishing. And it just never happened. And so I think the trajectory I was on at 14, 15, 16, 17 was not a very hopeful one. And there was no indication that there was a spark. There was no indication that there was good ideas in there.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:59)
Right. So what was your move? So you're not loving school, not doing that well, no spark there. What was the decision to quit, to drop out, to leave?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:09)
Yeah, I mean, it was just kind of forced. It was like, hey, school is like, this isn't working out for you. Like, you don't go to class, you don't study.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:15)
They're like, it's not us, it's you.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:18)
You know, there's probably another path for you. And I had an uncle who reached out and said, hey, Ryan, you're 16 We're doing a tech company, it was called iMall. You're not going to just screw off all day. You might as well come work. I'm running a sales team, come work. And I worked in the mailroom, and I worked with three older gentlemen. I mean, one was in his 40s, one was there, and the founder had just gotten back, or someone had just gotten back from Seoul, Korea. And I would always say, like, I'm going to go make money one day. I'm going to go work on the fishing boats in Alaska because they're paying 20 bucks an hour. I'm going to go do this. And my parents were like, go do whatever you want. Just graduate high school. Like, we don't care. The borrower was really low. And like, these guys were like, no, you should go to Korea. And I was like, that sounds good. And my dad was like, if you can pay for it and graduate high school, we'll do it. So I graduated high school. I got a GED when I was 17 I went to like a university and just like cranked it out.