Billion-dollar startup Qualtrics loaned a Tesla X to an Apple employee (but only for a few days)
Naturally, it surveys its attendees before they come all the way to Utah to find out what they want out of the show.
Some of them make some pretty unusual requests, mostly in jest. But Qualtrics' spiky-haired CEO Ryan Smith loves to make customers happy.
So he tries to get them what they want.
Last year, when one of his customers said he wanted Qualtrics to help him buy a wedding band for his fiance, the company bought the ring.
This year, they had some even more unusual requests, including one from Dan Rose, a market research analyst at Apple, who asked for a Tesla Model X.
It turns out Smith actually looked into it and discovered that there was only one Tesla Model X in all of the state of Utah and "it was just delivered last week" to Qualtrics cofounder, Stuart Orgill, Smith told the crowd onstage.
But he did arrange to loan Orgill's car to Rose as his personal "courtesy car" for the week, with Smith even admitting on stage, "Sorry, Stuart. This isn't the first time I've given away your car."
The other giveaways to customers who asked for unusal things included ...
- Giving a wannabe bobsled athlete a day at Utah's Olympic bobsled track, guided by a member of the Olympic bobsled team (complete with skinny lycra suit).
- Flying someone's mother in to the show so she could meet Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, the rock star who is giving a private performance at the show.
- Giving a coffee-lover a personal coffee concierge for the week, so she could drink all the coffee she wanted.
- Smith wanted to give an NCAA college athlete "everything he asked for" which was "benefits, gifts, and services," but Smith joked, "ee can't give it to you as that would be a NCAA violation." Instead, the college athlete is getting a personal meet-and-greet with Steven Tyler, too.
By the way, the guy who got the wedding ring last year? He came to the conference again this year, and brought his fiance.