Type of business Private Industry Online survey services CEO Zander Lurie (Jan 2016–) Founded 1999 Founders Ryan Finley, Chris Finley | Area served Worldwide Products Online survey tools Revenue 113 million USD Users 25,000,000 | |
Available in Dansk, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, 한국어, Italiano, Nederlands, 日本語, Norsk, Português, Русский, Suomi, Svenska, 中文(繁體), Türkçe No. of locations San Mateo, Portland, Seattle, Dublin, Ottawa, London, Sydney Headquarters San Mateo, California, United States Motto The best decisions start here Profiles | ||
SurveyMonkey is an online survey development cloud-based software as a service company, founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley. SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, as well as a suite of paid back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. In addition to providing free and paid plans for individual users, SurveyMonkey offers more large-scale enterprise options for companies interested in data analysis, brand management, and consumer-focused marketing. Since releasing its enterprise in 2013, business-focused services, SurveyMonkey has grown dramatically, opening a new headquarters in San Mateo.
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SurveyMonkey provides data collection, data analysis, brand management, and consumer marketing for Facebook, Virgin America, Salesforce.com, Samsung, and Kraft Foods, among others.
As of 2015, SurveyMonkey has 25 million users, and receives 90 million survey responses a month. The company was named to the Forbes Unicorn List in 2015. In 2016, SurveyMonkey was ranked #6 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list.
Founding
The company was majority-owned by Ryan and Chris Finley until 2009, when it was sold to a private equity consortium. SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg died suddenly on May 1, 2015 while on vacation abroad with his wife, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg.
Starting August 3, 2015 Bill Veghte replaced Goldberg as SurveyMonkey CEO. Veghte held top posts at HP and Microsoft, and attended Harvard with Goldberg. He credits the SurveyMonkey founder as a mentor. Veghte held the role for less than 6 months, due to strategic differences with investors, primarily on where to allocate talent and resources. He was replaced by Zander Lurie in January 2016.
In 2010, the company received US$100 million in debt financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
In 2013, the company raised $800 million in debt and equity valuing the company at $1.35 billion.
Expansion
In 2012, the company launched a self-serve analytics platform called Audience, allowing customers to send their survey to a select group of respondents.
As of 2013, SurveyMonkey had 15 million users.
In September 2013, the company announced HIPAA-compliant features for premium subscription holders. In November 2013, the company announced a new enterprise product with additional management capabilities.
In 2014, the company raised $250 million in equity financing from Google Capital (now CapitalG), Tiger Global Management, Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley.
In April 2015, the company announced a new data platform called Benchmarks. This allows users to compare their survey results against competitors.
Partnerships
In February 2013, SurveyMonkey announced their partnership with API management platform Mashery. This allows for the integration of third party apps and widgets into SurveyMonkey’s core tool. Currently, the company has partnerships with Eventbrite, MailChimp, Zendesk, Pick1 Zignal labs and others.
In 2014, SurveyMonkey announced partnerships with Salesforce and Marketo.
Acquisitions
The company has acquired three other survey tools, Precision Polling, Wufoo, and Zoomerang, as well as a 49.9 percent stake in the UK-based Clicktools. In August 2014, SurveyMonkey acquired Canadian company Fluidware, the creator of FluidSurveys.com and FluidReview.com.
Corporate
There are offices in San Mateo, California; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Dublin, Ireland; Ottawa, Ontario; and Luxembourg.
SurveyMonkey's Board of Directors includes Finley, former Facebook CFO David Ebersman, former Verisign CFO Dana L. Evan, Lee Fixel, Senior Vice President of Media at GoPro Zander Lurie, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Benjamin C. Spero. Lurie was named Chairman of the Board in July 2015.
The company runs on a freemium business model.