Pro-Palestinian protest at UT-Austin leads to at least 50 arrests. Here's what we know
FLASH BRIEFING

Survey company QuestionPro moves HQ from California to Austin

Kara Carlson, kcarlson@statesman.com
CEO Vivek Bhaskaran started survey and market research company QuestionPro in 2005 and now has moved the company’s headquarters to Austin. [Courtesy of QuestionPro]

Survey and market research company QuestionPro has moved its headquarters from California to Austin.

As part of the move, the company relocated 18 of its employees in Austin, with plans to grow up to about 60 local employees by the end of the year. The new positions will primarily be in marketing and sales, according to the company.

The company makes a survey platform that conducts surveys, builds templates, automates reports and other survey related services and competes with survey company giants including SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics.

QuestionPro CEO Vivek Bhaskaran started the company in 2005 in Seattle before moving it to the San Francisco area.

Bhaskaran started developing survey software while in college at Brigham Young University, after a professor approached his computer science class looking for someone to build a survey engine.

After graduation, Bhaskaran moved to Seattle where he worked in consulting before deciding to launch QuestionPro. The company’s customers include Mercedes-Benz, Google, Kohls, Microsoft, Amazon, Disney and Oracle.

The company charges a licensing fee for the use of its platform, and has grown without any outside funding, according to Bhaskaran.

The company employs 200 worldwide, and also has teams in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, India and Mexico. Bhaskaran said he moved the company’s headquarters to Austin to enable it to continue growing.

“We couldn’t build that big of a team without outside funding in the Bay Area,” Bhaskaran said. “It doesn’t add up. We’ve grown globally, but not as much in the U.S. That’s why we wanted to move here”

Bhaskaran said Austin’s cost of living makes it easier to scale up and hire talent. Austin’s talent pool, and the ability to attract people who live outside of Texas were also factors, he said.

“(The Bay Area) was not sustainable for us,” Bhaskaran said. ““For the same price we can find really amazing people in other areas.”

Want to hear Austin’s top news every weekday morning? Our Headline News Express podcast can be delivered to your home smart speaker or mobile device each weekday. Subscribe through Apple or Google Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify (or wherever you get your pods) or enable your Amazon Echo or Google Home smart speaker for news from the Austin American-Statesman.

Get our podcast for Austin’s latest headlines every morning