1. We became a public company (SVMK).
On September 26, our CEO Zander Lurie rang the bell on the Nasdaq and brought the company that powers the curious to the public. To celebrate, we took over Times Square with help from Serena Williams, Arianna Huffington, Draymond Green, and Jeff Weiner.
Each influencer created a survey that we shared with the millions of people who take surveys on SurveyMonkey's platform every day, as well as with passersby in Times Square, who got prompts to take surveys through QR codes. Tens of thousands of people responded to their questions on topics like what motivates employees, how to create work/life balance, what constitutes a dream job, and the highs and lows of being a working parent.
On November 12, we had our first earnings call as a public company, and got to report exciting product growth, international expansion, and huge market potential as we help more businesses connect operational data with context that answers the “why.”
There’s never been a more thrilling time to be part of our Troop.
2. We took our social responsibility to the next level.
Charitable giving has always been a closely held value for SurveyMonkey, but this year we were able to take that principle even further, with a new corporate responsibility program. SurveyMonkey for Good aims to advance equality and positively impact society as a whole, and was initially funded with some of the proceeds from our IPO. We began by expanding our partnership with Listen for Good, Fund for Shared Insight’s feedback program, which amplifies the voices of the people most need to be heard.
3. We added some new awards to our trophy case.
It was a big year for awards, and SurveyMonkey scored honors for everything from our technology to our company culture to our Cannes-status video production team. Here’s just a few of the ways we were recognized in 2018:
- We were recognized for product innovation on the CNBC Disruptor 50
- Forbes’ Cloud 100 acknowledged our growth and business potential.
- We got credited for being a great employer in Fortune’s Best Small/Medium Workplaces.
- Our video team claimed a golden dolphin at Cannes’ Corporate Media and TV Awards
- Our CEO, Zander, was recognized for his outstanding leadership with the Jimmy Lee Leadership award, in honor of J.P. Morgan’s late vice Chairman of Investment Banking
- HR Dive named our Chief People Officer, Becky, Executive of the Year for her industry-leading HR initiatives
- Our CMO, Leela, earned a spot on the list of Forbes’ CMO Next 2018.
4. We performed some eye-opening new research.
Our research team is constantly exploring new ideas. This year, we looked into everything from political attitudes to consumer trust in marketing to how people like to watch their Netflix. Here are three especially illuminating findings that our team uncovered with in 2018:
- Employee engagement appears to be connected to customer centricity. People who work at companies with a customer-centric culture (think: foster customer empathy, show employees the impact of their work on customers, list customer satisfaction as a company value) are significantly more likely to have employees who find their jobs meaningful, and intend to stay for 2 years. You can read our whole report about the correlation here.
- Americans underestimate the wage gap between white men and both black women and Latinas. 70% of Americans are either unaware of, or underestimate the wage gap between white men and Latina. Six in ten say the gap between white men and black women isn’t an issue at their place of work. But awareness is starting to spread. SurveyMonkey researchers joined forces with Lean In to examine how people think about the gap and whether businesses are taking steps to change it.
- The ability to be curious at work is restricted to the top at many companies. While the vast majority of executives believe their company is a place where people can ask questions, only a minority of individual contributors agree. Most believe that they don’t get real answers when they ask questions. Yet curiosity is incredibly powerful, and can make employees and businesses stronger and more successful. Our own Jon Cohen delivered a talk on the topic at TEDx. You can watch the full talk here.
5. We committed to pursuing Diversity and Inclusion.
We worked with Paradigm, a firm that specializes in helping businesses pursue D&I, to create an Inclusion and Belonging survey template. The survey helps HR leaders understand how comfortable employees are, where there might be cultural challenges, and whether there are opportunities to empower internal communities.
We also brought our board of advisors to a 50/50 gender split, with the appointment of Dean Erika James, of Emory’s Goizueta Business School. James is a luminary in the field of business management, and a huge asset to SurveyMonkey. It’s exciting to have a board that better reflects the overall population as we continue to work toward our D&I goals.
If you’re curious about diversity and inclusion at SurveyMonkey, check out our page about it.
6. We expanded our family—in two different ways.
In October, we officially opened our new office in Ottawa, Canada, which already supports over 100 new additions to our Troop. Our Ottawa team used surveys to determine everything from the benefits they wanted to the best work out machines for the activity room. Sounds like a pretty great start, eh?
We also grew our family in a different way—by working with our vendor partners to improve benefits for our contract workers. SurveyMonkey employees are the lifeblood that keeps the company going, and the chefs, cleaning staff, and crunch-time support workers that we rely on on a day-to-day bring as much to the table as anyone else. We’re thrilled to have played a role in bringing them the support they deserve this year.
7. We upleveled the value that our product brings to customers.
SurveyMonkey products are constantly evolving (just like our customers’ needs!). Here are a few of the changes we introduced in 2018.
- Better ways to collaborate with your team: We launched new Teams plans and Shared Dashboards so that SurveyMonkey users everywhere can share surveys with multiple stakeholders, work on them in tandem, and share results.
- New ways to collect data and reach more people: SurveyMonkey Anywhere gives users the offline capabilities they need in order to use SurveyMonkey in places without WiFi (like crowded industry events or research on the street). We also gave survey makers the ability to deliver surveys through a QR Code instead of a link, so that people need only scan it with their phone to begin a survey. QR codes are great for event posters, product packaging, or anything non-digital that marketers use to promote their brand.
- Get paid—through surveys: Our new Integration with Stripe means our customers can now accept payments through surveys—a major opportunity for companies that are using surveys for marketing purposes or nonprofits collecting donations.
- Get Rewards for taking surveys: SurveyMonkey Rewards is a stand-alone app for anyone in the US interested in taking surveys for charity, or for gift card rewards. Rewards gives us another window into public mindsets and enables us to engage with consumers on a daily basis.
- Connect your survey data to your favorite business apps: We invested in our ecosystem with integrations with leading enterprise software application providers so our users can add survey data to the apps they already use to get their jobs done every day.
8. A year of People Powered Data—by the numbers.
It’s been a busy year, and the number of questions answered on SurveyMonkey, survey respondents, and survey makers have all seem some major growth. Here’s our new totals, as of the end of Q3.
- To date, we’ve answered more questions than the global population...6 times over: 47B+ questions answered on the SurveyMonkey platform.
- Our technology touches people all over the globe: 2M+ survey respondents per day.
- Our community of users is always growing: 16M+ active SurveyMonkey users.
You can get more detailed information about our business growth and revenue from our letter to shareholders.
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