Brian Halligan: From 0 to 2 Billion

Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of Hubspot. Hubspot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. Brian has co-authored two books, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. Listen as Brian walks us through the transitions of being a VP for sales, going back to business school, working at a VC firm, then growing his own business which is now on a market cap of $2 Billion. Discover how culture played a significant role in scaling up his business and why Brian and his partner, Dharmesh Shah, were the perfect team to build HubSpot together. 

Time Stamped Show Notes: 

00:33 – Introducing Brian  01:11 – Brian has been working on Hubspot since 2005  01:17 – Hubspot’s market cap is somewhere around $2 Billion  03:53 – Brian has never been married but has a 12-year old son  04:22 – He was a VP of sales at Groove Networks  05:10 – Brian’s transitions  05:12 – Brian started with a company called PTC  05:22 – He was there for 10 years and he left 5000 people  05:42 – Brian learned to hire and scale at PTC  05:49 – He joined and grew Groove Networks which was later sold to Microsoft  06:09 – He went to business school and spent a year in a VC firm  06:37 – In 2005, Brian was 15 years into his career, but still went to school full-time  07:23 – Brian gained 3 things from his “procrastination period”  09:41 – Brian is a huge fan of the EO Network  10:32 – Brian and his partner, Dharmesh, met in business school  10:41 – HubSpot was the product of two “Ah-Ha” moments for Brian and Dharmesh  12:18 – Brian never thought he’d start a company  13:06 – He had 3 choices: go for VP position in sales, be a CEO for some crap company, or start HubSpot  14:12 – Brian didn’t have any reservations in having a partner  14:31 – Dharmesh was the smartest in their class  14:39 – His weaknesses lined up well with Brian’s strengths  14:46 – Brian thought they were a perfect match  15:17 – HubSpot’s struggles  15:57 – Both Brian and the company have evolved a lot  16:24 – He prefers to scale up because Brian loves to impact people  17:15 – Early on, the issue of scaling or keeping small had been a discussion  17:39 – The conscious decision they made was to get venture capital to scale up  18:47 – They hired a COO to help Brian with his duties  19:16 – Brian is having fun working in HubSpot  19:31 – Brian talks about: Public or Private?   21:10 – Brian shares a story regarding HubSpot’s culture  21:55 – “Culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room”  22:10 – Brian surveyed their employees on why they would recommend HubSpot to their friends  22:29 – The result of the survey was that their employees loved the culture  23:31 – HubSpot’s credo has been the magnet for the types of employees they want to hire  24:32 – “We created a place where we like to work”  25:06 – HubSpot’s hiring process  25:19 – They focus on skills  25:20 – Interviews vary depending on the position  26:10 – Potential employees weed themselves out if they see they are not a fit for the company’s culture  26:50 – Brian’s vacation policy and story  27:35 – People are now working all the time  27:45 – HubSpot stopped tracking vacations and is just trusting employees  29:07 – The worst hire Brian ever had  29:31 – The person criticized the company in all aspects including the logo  29:50 – They took the criticisms for what they were  30:47 – Quantifying culture  31:38 – You need to create a great culture  32:05 – HubSpot surveys their employees once every quarter and measures their level of happiness  32:20 – Recruiting costs have gone down because of the referrals they’re getting  

3 Key Points: 

Partner up with people who complement your weaknesses and work together.  Creating a culture in your workplace where people want to work needs to be a priority. "Culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room."

Resources Mentioned: 

Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network  HubSpot – Brian’s company  Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs – Two books Brian co-authored

Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of Hubspot. Hubspot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. Brian has co-authored two books, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. Listen as Brian walks us through the transitions of being a VP for sales, going back to business school, working at a VC firm, then growing his own business which is now on a market cap of $2 Billion. Discover how culture played a significant role in scaling up his business and why Brian and his partner, Dharmesh Shah, were the perfect team to build HubSpot together. 

Time Stamped Show Notes: 

00:33 – Introducing Brian  01:11 – Brian has been working on Hubspot since 2005  01:17 – Hubspot’s market cap is somewhere around $2 Billion  03:53 – Brian has never been married but has a 12-year old son  04:22 – He was a VP of sales at Groove Networks  05:10 – Brian’s transitions  05:12 – Brian started with a company called PTC  05:22 – He was there for 10 years and he left 5000 people  05:42 – Brian learned to hire and scale at PTC  05:49 – He joined and grew Groove Networks which was later sold to Microsoft  06:09 – He went to business school and spent a year in a VC firm  06:37 – In 2005, Brian was 15 years into his career, but still went to school full-time  07:23 – Brian gained 3 things from his “procrastination period”  09:41 – Brian is a huge fan of the EO Network  10:32 – Brian and his partner, Dharmesh, met in business school  10:41 – HubSpot was the product of two “Ah-Ha” moments for Brian and Dharmesh  12:18 – Brian never thought he’d start a company  13:06 – He had 3 choices: go for VP position in sales, be a CEO for some crap company, or start HubSpot  14:12 – Brian didn’t have any reservations in having a partner  14:31 – Dharmesh was the smartest in their class  14:39 – His weaknesses lined up well with Brian’s strengths  14:46 – Brian thought they were a perfect match  15:17 – HubSpot’s struggles  15:57 – Both Brian and the company have evolved a lot  16:24 – He prefers to scale up because Brian loves to impact people  17:15 – Early on, the issue of scaling or keeping small had been a discussion  17:39 – The conscious decision they made was to get venture capital to scale up  18:47 – They hired a COO to help Brian with his duties  19:16 – Brian is having fun working in HubSpot  19:31 – Brian talks about: Public or Private?   21:10 – Brian shares a story regarding HubSpot’s culture  21:55 – “Culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room”  22:10 – Brian surveyed their employees on why they would recommend HubSpot to their friends  22:29 – The result of the survey was that their employees loved the culture  23:31 – HubSpot’s credo has been the magnet for the types of employees they want to hire  24:32 – “We created a place where we like to work”  25:06 – HubSpot’s hiring process  25:19 – They focus on skills  25:20 – Interviews vary depending on the position  26:10 – Potential employees weed themselves out if they see they are not a fit for the company’s culture  26:50 – Brian’s vacation policy and story  27:35 – People are now working all the time  27:45 – HubSpot stopped tracking vacations and is just trusting employees  29:07 – The worst hire Brian ever had  29:31 – The person criticized the company in all aspects including the logo  29:50 – They took the criticisms for what they were  30:47 – Quantifying culture  31:38 – You need to create a great culture  32:05 – HubSpot surveys their employees once every quarter and measures their level of happiness  32:20 – Recruiting costs have gone down because of the referrals they’re getting  

3 Key Points: 

Partner up with people who complement your weaknesses and work together.  Creating a culture in your workplace where people want to work needs to be a priority. "Culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room."

Resources Mentioned: 

Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network  HubSpot – Brian’s company  Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs – Two books Brian co-authored