HubSpot

HubSpot is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. Hubspot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.

HubSpot, Inc.
TypePublic
NYSE: HUBS
Russell 2000 Component
IndustrySoftware
FoundedJune 2006
FoundersBrian Halligan
Dharmesh Shah
Headquarters
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Key people
Brian Halligan (CEO)
JD Sherman COO
Kate Bueker CFO
Kipp Bodnar CMO
Dharmesh Shah (CTO)
Revenue
  • US$674.9 million (2019)[1]
  • US$-40.1 million (2017)[2]
  • US$-63.83 million (2018)[3]
Total assets
  • US$712 million (2017)[2]
Total equity
  • US$210.3 million (2017)[2]
Number of employees
3,387 (2020)[4]
Websitewww.hubspot.com

Its products and services aim to provide tools for customer relationship management, social media marketing, content management, lead generation, web analytics, search engine optimization, live chat, and customer support.

History
Interior view of HubSpot's office space

HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2006.[5]

The company grew from $255,000 in revenues in 2007, to $15.6 million in 2010.[5][6] Later that year HubSpot acquired Oneforty, the Twitter app store founded by Laura Fitton.[7][8] The company also introduced new software for personalizing websites for each visitor.[9] According to Forbes, HubSpot started out targeting small companies but "moved steadily upmarket to serve larger businesses of up to 1000 employees."[10][11] HubSpot filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 25, 2014, requesting they be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HUBS.[12] In July 2017, HubSpot acquired Kemvi, which applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to help sales teams.[13] The company reported revenues of $674.9 million in 2019.[14]

In February 2021, Axios reported that HubSpot would be acquiring The Hustle, a content and email newsletter company focused on small business owners and entrepreneurs.[15] [16]

Software and services

HubSpot provides tools for social media marketing, content management, web analytics, landing pages, customer support, and search engine optimization.[5][17][18][19][20] HubSpot has integration features for salesforce.com, SugarCRM, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and others.[21] There are also third-party services such as templates, and extensions.[22] Additionally, HubSpot offers consulting services and an online resource academy for learning inbound marketing tactics.[23][24] It also hosts user group conferences and inbound marketing and certification programs.[24] HubSpot promotes their inbound marketing concepts through their own marketing,[18] and has been called "a prolific creator of content" such as blogs, social media, webinars and white papers.[10]

In 2010, an article in the Harvard Business Review said that HubSpot's most effective inbound marketing feature was its free online tools.[25] One such tool, the Marketing Grader, assessed and scored website performance.[26][27] The company introduced a Twitter tracking feature in 2011.[28][29]

In November 2016, HubSpot launched HubSpot Academy, an online training platform that provides various digital marketing training programs.[30]

In 2018, Hubspot integrated Taboola on the dashboard, a global pay-per-click native ad network.

In November 2019, Hubspot acquired PieSync, a customer data synchronization platform.[31]

HubSpot CRM Free

The company launched HubSpot CRM Free in 2014.[32] The CRM product tracks and manages interactions between a company and its customers and prospects. It enables companies to forecast revenue, measure sales team productivity, and report on revenue sources.[33][34][35] The software as a service product is free and integrates with Gmail, G Suite, Microsoft Office for Windows, and other software.[36]

Tech industry reviews

HubSpot has been described as unique because it strives to provide its customers with an all-in-one approach.[19][37] A 2012 review in CRM Search said HubSpot was not the best business solution in each category, but that taken as a whole, it was the best "marketing solution" that combined many tools into one package.[10] It identified HubSpot's "strengths" as the sophistication of its Call to Action (CTA) tool, its online ecosystem, and its "ease of use". Its weakness was described as having "more breadth than depth". The review said the lack of customization and design tools could be limiting and that it was missing advanced features such as business process management (BPM) tools to manage workflow.[10]

Conferences

HubSpot hosts an annual marketing conference for HubSpot users and partners called "INBOUND". The event is typically located in Boston. In 2019, Hubspot hosted its largest conference in the event's history, with a record of over 26,000 attendees from 110 countries.[38][39] The first INBOUND conference took place in 2012. Since then, speakers such as Michelle Obama, Tig Notaro, and Issa Rae have spoken at their events.

Controversy

In July 2015, Hubspot's CMO, Mike Volpe, was dismissed for violating HubSpot's code of business conduct. It was found that he tried to obtain a draft copy of the book Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start Up Bubble, written by his former employee Daniel Lyons.[40][41] According to an article in The Boston Globe, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicated that HubSpot executives considered the book "a financial threat to HubSpot" and Volpe used "tactics such as email hacking and extortion" in the attempt to prevent the book from being published.[42]

In April 2016, after his book was published, Lyons wrote in The New York Times that HubSpot had a "frat house" atmosphere. He also called the company a "digital sweatshop" in which workers had little job security.[43] Later that month, HubSpot's founders gave an official response to the book, in which they addressed several, but not all, of Lyons' claims.[44]

Reception

The Boston Business Journal named HubSpot a "Best Place to Work in 2012".[45] In 2015, the company was named the best large company to work for in Massachusetts by the The Boston Globe.[46][47] In 2017, Hubspot was named seventh by CNBC as one of the best places to work in 2018.[48] Glassdoor named Hubspot the best place to work in 2020.[49]

References
  1. "HubSpot Reports Full Year 2019 Results". Craft. Craft, Inc. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  2. "HubSpot Reports Strong Q4 and Full Year 2017 Results" (PDF). HubSpot. HubSpot, Inc. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  3. "HubSpot Reports Full Year 2018 Results". Craft. Craft, Inc. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  4. "HubSport Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  5. Stone, Avery (August 8, 2011). "HubSpot wants to be Salesforce.com for small business". Fortune Magazine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  6. Alspach, Kyle (December 15, 2011). "HubSpot: We plan to be like HP, a huge company that lasts 100 years. But in Cambridge". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  7. Rao, Leena (August 18, 2011). "HubSpot Buys Social Media Management Platform And App Directory Oneforty". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  8. O’Dell, Jolie (August 18, 2011). "Twitter app store Oneforty acquired by HubSpot". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  9. Alspach, Kyle (December 14, 2011). "HubSpot: What we're working on now will change the Internet". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  10. Schaeffer, Chuck. "HubSpot Marketing Software Review—An Independent Marketing Software Analysis". CRMSearch. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  11. Colao, J.J. (March 15, 2012). "HubSpot Looks to Pounce as Traditional Marketing Gets "Obliterated"". Forbes. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  12. "S-1".
  13. Ha, Anthony. "HubSpot acquires Kemvi to bring more AI into its sales and marketing platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  14. "HubSpot financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2019". Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  15. Fischer, Sara. "Scoop: HubSpot is acquiring The Hustle". Axios. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  16. "HubSpot acquires media startup The Hustle". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  17. Gage, Deborah (March 8, 2011). "Google Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Give HubSpot $32M". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  18. Steenburgh, Thomas; Avery, Jilly; Dahod, Naseem (January 24, 2011), HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0, retrieved December 30, 2013
  19. McCarthy, Kevin (May 26, 2011). "The Tech Behind HubSpot". BostInno. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  20. "HubSpot adds customer service tools to its marketing platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  21. Greenberg, Paul (January 24, 2012). "CRM Watchlist 2012 Winners – The Marketing Mavens". ZDNet. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  22. Marketplace, HubSpot, retrieved December 27, 2013
  23. Blackwell, Gerry (January 16, 2008). "HubSpot: The Evolution of Marketing". Small Business Computing. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  24. HubSpot Academy, May 18, 2009, retrieved December 26, 2013
  25. Psaty, Kyle (April 27, 2010). "HubSpot's New Alerts Grader Cures Social Media Email Overload". BostInno. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  26. Ha, Anthony (May 16, 2008). "Marketing software company HubSpot raises $12M". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  27. Gomer, Gregory (December 6, 2011). "HubSpot Marketing Grader Launches: We Put 30 Boston Startups Head to Head #Deathmatch". Bostinno. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  28. Gomer, Gregory (August 10, 2011). "HubSpot Powers Useful Tool to Track ReTweets, Suffers Unfortunate Name: WhoretweetedMe". BostonInno. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  29. Dugan, Lauren (August 16, 2011). "Find Out Which Influencers Retweeted You". MediaBistro. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  30. Flanagan, Ellie. "HubSpot Academy Launches New Content Marketing Certification With a Lesson on Topic Clusters". www.hubspot.com. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  31. "HubSpot Acquires PieSync". PR Newswire. November 4, 2019.
  32. Salager, Serge (10 December 2014). "The effect of HubSpot's CRM launch on Salesforce". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  33. Chad Brooks (12 July 2017). "HubSpot review: Best CRM software for startups". Business News Daily. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  34. Maloney, Kathleen (19 December 2016). "14 free business tools to make your startup more successful in 2017". HuffPost. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  35. Williams, Mike (13 July 2017). "Best CRMs for SMBs in 2017". TechRadar. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  36. T.J. Houpes (25 September 2015). "What to expect from the HubSpot CRM platform". TechTarget. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  37. Roush, Wade (August 24, 2007). "Online Marketing for Dummies—and for People with Better Things to Do". Xconomy.
  38. "Takeaways from HubSpot INBOUND 2018". CMS Newswire. February 7, 2019.
  39. "Recap: INBOUND 2019". 6 September 2019.
  40. "HubSpot fires marketing chief, sanctions CEO over an incident involving book about the company".
  41. My Year in Startup Hell, Dan Lyons in Fortune, April 2016
  42. Extortion, hacking claims sparked HubSpot investigation, FBI records show, The Boston Globe, 24 March 2016
  43. Lyons, Dan (9 April 2016). "Congratulations! You've Been Fired". The New York Times.
  44. Primack, Dan (12 April 2016). "HubSpot (Finally) Responds to Dan Lyons' Book". Fortune.
  45. Regan, Keith (June 10, 2011). "Hubspot's West Coast attitude gets talent". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  46. Sarah Shemkus,"HubSpot Tops List of Large Companies" The Boston Globe, 12 November 2015 (page visited 16 June 20,16)
  47. "8 companies with the best vacation perks". CNN Money. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  48. Dickler, Jessica (2017-12-06). "These are the best places to work in 2018". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  49. Best Places to Work 2020 Glassdoor

Further reading
  • Lyons, Daniel (2016). Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start Up Bubble. Hachette Books. ISBN 978-0316306089.
  • Halligan, Brian; David Meerman Scott; Dharmesh Shah (2010). Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-470-49931-3.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.