Two years after “experience management” company Qualtrics set down roots in Seattle, the office has grown rapidly enough to become its co-headquarters.
Close to 200 people work out of the 47,000-square-foot office at the 505 First building south of downtown Seattle, its second largest outside of its other co-headquarters in Provo, Utah. The office started mainly as an engineering center but has diversified with people in design, marketing, product and recruiting roles in Seattle.
Several of the company’s key executives also work out of the Seattle office. It is led by John Thimsen, head of engineering, and Webb Stevens, head of product. Thimsen established the Seattle office back in 2015, coming from Amazon.com where he was a founding member of the team that developed the Echo. Stevens joined the Qualtrics team in 2016 after past roles at Avalara, Summit Partners and Deloitte Consulting.
When Qualtrics established its Seattle presence in 2015 it set up shop at 619 Western Ave. in a 10,000-square-foot space with room for about 100 employees. It quickly outgrow that space and moved into its new office a few blocks to the south last November.
The company originally planned to only occupy half the new space and sublease out the rest, but it grew so fast it decided to hold onto the entirety of the office. Qualtrics recently finished remodeling the space, which used to be home to Starbucks.
The company has 10 global offices and tries to localize each one. In the Seattle office, meeting rooms are named after musicians with Seattle ties, the kitchen was designed to look like Pike Place Market, there is a prominent coffee bar and wall that looks like a shipping container due to the proximity of the Port of Seattle.
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
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- A look inside the 47,000-square-foot Qualtrics Seattle co-headquarters, which is home to close to 200 employees in a variety of roles. (Qualtrics Photos)
Qualtrics made waves across the tech community earlier this year when it raised $180 million at a valuation of more than $2.5 billion. The company was founded in 2002 and bootstrapped for a decade before taking its first outside funding, a $70 million round. It followed up in 2014 with a $150 million round, valuing the company at more than $1 billion.
The funding round came shortly after Qualtrics launched its new a four-pronged platform to manage experiences for customers, employees, brands and products. Qualtrics customer roster totals more than 8,500 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools.
