Thursday, April 21, 2016

Qualtrics Adds Google, Apple Vet To Board

In a move which might indicate a step closer to an IPO, Salt Lake City-based software developer Qualtrics said late Wednesday evening that it has added Kim Scott, a former Google and Apple executive, to its board of directors. Qualtrics said she was previously a founding member of Apple University, at at Google had led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations. Scott also had served as an advisor to Dropbox and Twitter, according to the company. Qualtrics--one of a number of Utah "unicorns"--is backed by Insight Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. The appointment of well known, Silicon Valley veterans to a board of directors typically is one of the signals of a company's plans for an IPO; Utah's Fusion-io made a similar move right before its IPO when it appointed Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as an advisor and Chief Scientific Officer. Scott is currently working on a book, "Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing your Humanity".