Founder Profile

Ryan and Chris Finley

Founder

SurveyMonkey

Ryan and Chris Finley are entrepreneurs who co-founded SurveyMonkey and built it into a profitable company before raising any external funding.

United StatesBusinessGrowthBootstrapped

At A Glance

Current Focus

IndustryBusiness

CountryUnited States

StageGrowth

FundingBootstrapped

Business Model

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Background

Company Overview

SurveyMonkey is a SaaS platform that allows individuals and businesses to create, distribute, and analyze surveys at scale.

Full Bio

Ryan and Chris Finley started SurveyMonkey from a small music production company in Wisconsin with a simple idea—make online surveys easy.

They chose to bootstrap, focusing on a simple product, freemium model, and customer-driven growth. Over 11 years, they scaled to $28M in annual revenue without external funding.

In 2009, they raised capital from Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital, accelerating growth and pushing the company to a multi-billion-dollar valuation.

Current Focus

Latest Update

Written Stories

Startup Story

SurveyMonkey's Journey: From Zero to $3 Billion

While others chased funding, Ryan and Chris focused on customers. They built, grew, and reinvested—quietly scaling SurveyMonkey to $28M in revenue. By the time they raised money, they didn’t need validation—they already had it.

Profile Details

FounderRyan and Chris Finley

RoleFounder

CompanySurveyMonkey

CountryUnited States

IndustryBusiness

StageGrowth

FundingBootstrapped

Model