In January of this year, Ron Poelman of Jones Waldo was hired to work with Qualtrics, Utah’s newly-funded online research and analytics company. Provo’s Smith family, the founders and owners of Qualtrics, had been discussing investment options and offers for some time when Duff Thompson, Chairman of the Board, advised the Smith family to hire Poelman to facilitate a deal.

“When it became clear that Qualtrics was going to move forward with a financing, it was an easy decision to call Ron to put them to work on this matter,” said Thompson. “Ron is an expert in these matters. He is capable and competent in all aspects of these transactions, and he remains a perfect gentleman in the process.”  

Poelman has been with Jones Waldo for 25 years and leads the firm’s Corporate/Securities Practice Group which includes six partners and three associates with additional support from other members of the Jones Waldo team as needed. Poelman and his team provided guidance and expertise to the Smith’s and facilitated what is being reported as Utah’s largest first round venture capital financing deal ever – a deal that generated $70 million in equity capital for Qualtrics.

“Typically, first-round deals are $10 million or less,” said Poelman. “But because Qualtrics is a thriving and profitable company, there was little risk involved for the venture capital investors, which made the deal very appealing.”

Qualtrics provides a line of Service as a Software (Saas) products that allow their users to collect and analyze data. It has more than 4,000 enterprise customers including 600 universities worldwide, some of the biggest names in market research, and half of the Fortune 100.