Careers at Hubspot

Mission

Hubspot is a publicly-listed inbound marketing company that develops and markets a cloud-based marketing and sales software platform. The Company also provides integrated applications that help its customers with lead generation and social marketing.

History

Hubspot was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah and developed during their time at MIT. The pair reportedly conceived the concept behind the Company after recognising that, while technology has transformed the way in which people live, make purchases, work and interact with one another, businesses have not adopted new technologies in the same way.

Shah invested $500,000 of his own money in the Company in 2006, which he and Halligan used to develop the framework behind the Hubspot platform. After its software was released the Company grew considerably, increasing its revenue to $15.6 million by 2010 compared to $255,000 in its first year. The Company went on to raise almost $100 million in investment by 2012, from investors including Scale Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and General Catalyst Partners.

In 2014 Hubspot listed shares on the New York Stock Exchange, raising a further $125 million in capital, with a market valuation of $880 million. Today the Company has a market capitalisation of $1.6 billion.

Benefits at Hubspot

Business model of Hubspot

Customer Segments

Hubspot reportedly has around 18,000 active customers spanning more than 90 countries worldwide. It primarily serves advertising and marketing agencies, recruitment companies, e-commerce companies, education organisations, non-profits and business-to-business service providers, from small and medium-sized businesses to enterprise-level organisations.

While the Company’s primary market is the US, it also provides services to businesses across Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Among Hubspot’s partners are NEC, Heron Global Partners, Randstad, Granite State College, Shopify, Talent Clue and Bitdefender.

Value Propositions

Hubspot’s greatest value is that it allows users to manage and control all of their inbound marketing content, across multiple channels, from one place, making customer relationship management, sales and marketing processes more efficient and manageable.

This is supplemented by Hubspot’s integration with third-party applications and service providers, as well by as its sales of third-party extensions and templates through the Hubspot marketplace.

The Company also provides ongoing support, both through its own team and through the user community it has fostered, and provides training and learning resources to its customer free of charge.

Channels

Hubspot’s products can be viewed and its accounts managed through its mobile and desktop websites at www.hubspot.com. Purchases can be completed through direct contact with the Hubspot sales team.

The Company’s cloud-based platform can also be accessed via the Hubspot website, as well as through its iOS and Android mobile apps. Hubspot functionality can additionally be utilised through a range of third-party integrated products, including the Zendesk, Salesforce, Eventbrite and PandaDoc platforms.

Customer Relationships

Hubspot’s free trials and demos can be arranged through the Company’s website on a self-service basis. Free Hubspot CRM and Hubspot Marketing subscriptions can also be purchased with no direct interaction with members of the Hubspot team.

Paid subscriptions, however, require direct discussion with Hubspot sales representatives who can be contacted through online contact forms or over the phone. Once registration has been completed, users can access the Hubspot platform and manage their accounts autonomously through the Hubspot website and apps.

In addition to providing tutorials and FAQs, Hubspot also allows users to submit feature requests directly to the Company and initiate technical support request from its homepage. It also enables users to join local Hubspot user groups, where users can discuss the platform in person and learn how to best use the software.

Hubspot also hosts an online community through its customer forum. Additionally, Hubspot updates its customers through various blogs and social media accounts, as well as specific social media groups, such as the Inbound Marketers Group on LinkedIn.

Key Activities

Hubspot is an inbound marketing company that develops and markets customer relationship management, sales and marketing software products for business customers. It provides three cloud-based software products – Hubspot CRM, Hubspot Marketing and Hubspot Sales – through which users can view and manage and control their marketing content and channels, including social media activity, search engine optimization, blogging, website content management, marketing automation, e-mail communications, customer relationship management, analytics and reporting.

Hubspot also develops and sells applications on an add-on basis and offers ongoing technical support to its customers.

Hubspot works closely with a network of partner agencies, receiving marketing and advertising services in return for training, support and resources.

Key Partners

Hubspot operates a Partner Program through which it collaborates with a number of advertising, and marketing agencies. These agencies provide services including search engine optimisation, website design, social media marketing and lead generation, in return receiving support, inbound marketing training and exposure from the Hubspot team.

The Company’s partners are organised within a tiered system according to the amount of annual sales and revenue for which they individually account, with new partners at the bottom end and diamond partners at the top end. Silver, gold and platinum tiers are in between. Among the Company’s agency partners are Kuno Creative, New Breed Unified Marketing and Sales, Media Junction, Element Three and Impulse Creative.

Hubspot also partners with customer relationship management resellers which integrate their own proprietary software with Hubspot’s inbound marketing platform in order to provide a greater range of solutions to customers. These partners earn a share of revenue for each new customer they generate.

In addition, Hubspot partners with a number tech and software companies to provide third-party integration. The Company has collaborated in this way with companies such as FreshBooks, Wistia, Perfect Audience and SlideShare.      

Key Resources

Hubspot’s key resources are its software and technology, its IT infrastructure, its personnel – in particular its sales, support and development teams – and its agency and reseller partners.

Searches of records held by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified no patent applications filed in Hubspot’s name.

Cost Structure

Hubspot's principal costs come in relation to the development of its software products, the maintenance of its IT infrastructure network, the retention of its personnel and the management of its partnerships.

The Company employs a worldwide workforce of more than 1,000, all of whom account for costs relating to salaries and benefits. Hubspot also incurs operating costs through its network of offices across the US, Ireland, Singapore and Australia.

Revenue Streams

Hubspot generates revenue through the sale of subscriptions to its Hubspot Marketing Software and Hubspot Sales Software. In 2015 the Company recorded annual revenue of $181.9 million.

Subscriptions to the Hubspot’s marketing software are available in tiers, starting with the Basic package priced at $200 per month, billed annually. A more advanced Pro package is available for $800 per month, billed annually, while the Company’s top-end Enterprise package costs $2,400 per month. Hubspot also provides custom quotes to larger enterprises that require greater coverage.

Hubspot offers a free subscription to its sales software with the option to upgrade to a Pro package costing $50 per month, billed annually. The Company also generates revenue through the sale of additional extras such as custom reports, advertisements and website services which cost between $50 and $300 per month.

Our team

Brian Halligan,
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

info: Brian has served as Hubspot’s Chief Executive Officer since 2006. He is also a senior lecturer at MIT, where he teaches Entrepreneurial Product Development & Marketing. Halligan has held a number of executive positions in the technology sector. He joined Parametric Technology in 1990 where he held various positions, including Vice President of Sales, before leaving the company in 1999. He was appointed Vice President of Sales at Groove Networks (now part of Microsoft) in 2000, leaving the company to serve as a Sloan Fellow at MIT. From 2005 to 2006 Halligan was a venture partner at Longworth Ventures.

Dharmesh Shah,
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

info: Dharmesh has been the Chief Technology Officer at Hubspot since 2006. He has also been a contributor to the OnStartups blog since 2005. Shah began his career as a software developer at IT company SunGard in 1992. He left the company after two years to found Pyramid Digital Solutions, an enterprise software company operating within the financial services sector. He served as Chief Executive Officer at the company until 2005 when it was acquired by Sungard Business Systems.

JD Sherman,
President and Chief Operating Officer

info: JD was appointed Hubspot’s President and Chief Operating Officer in 2012. In addition to this dual role he also sits on the board of directors at technology provider Fiserv. Sherman was formerly a long-serving employee of IBM, which he joined in 1990 as a manager within its Financial Planning Department. He went on to hold a number of financial roles at the company, including Chief Financial Officer of subsidiary company Commquest, Assistant Controller of Financial Strategy and Budgets and Vice President of Financial Planning. He left IBM in 2005, joining Akamai Technologies as its Chief Financial Officer, his final executive role before joining Hubspot. Sherman also held directorships at 3Com from 2008 to 2009 and at Cypress Semiconductor from 2010 to 2015.