
The Slovak survey company built a business on the smiley faces you click after a support ticket closes - and Microsoft, Lenovo and HubSpot all pay attention to what those faces say.

Built in 2004 by Quality Unit to fix its own inbox, LiveAgent now runs customer support for more than 40,000 companies from offices in Bratislava, Kyiv and New York - without a cent of venture money.

Two Slovak developers couldn't find a support tool they liked, so they wrote their own. Twenty years later LiveAgent handles customer service for 40,000 companies - and Quality Unit still hasn't taken a cent of outside money.