The company grew from $255,000 in revenues in 2007 to $15.6 million in 2010.[2][3] Later that year, HubSpot acquired One forty, the Twitter app store founded by Laura Fitton.[4][5] The company also introduced new software for personalizing websites for each visitor.[6] According to Forbes, HubSpot started out targeting small companies but "moved steadily upmarket to serve larger businesses of up to 1000 employees."[7][8]
HubSpot filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 25, 2014, requesting to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HUBS.[9] They raised more than $140 million by selling shares for $25, which then peaked at $840 in November 2021.
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.[12][13]
In September 2021, HubSpot announced Yamini Rangan as their new CEO,[14] while Brian Halligan stepped out of the role and became an Executive Chairman at the company.
On January 31, 2023, HubSpot announced the first layoffs in the company's history. Affecting approximately 500 employees, this layoff eliminated 7% of its total workforce. On the same day, HubSpot also announced plans to restructure its Cambridge campus, centralizing operations within a nearby office the company had already been leasing.[15][16]
Interior view of HubSpot's office space at its Cambridge HQ
Hubspot announced its acquisition of B2B intelligence firm Clearbit in November 2023.[17][18]
HubSpot has integration features for salesforce.com, SugarCRM, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and others.[23] There are also third-party services such as templates, and extensions.[24] Additionally, HubSpot offers consulting services and an online resource academy for learning inbound marketing tactics.[25][26] It also hosts user group conferences and inbound marketing and certification programs.[26] HubSpot promotes their inbound marketing concepts through their own marketing,[20] and has been called "a prolific creator of content" such as blogs, social media, webinars and white papers.[7]
In 2010, an article in the Harvard Business Review said that HubSpot's most effective inbound marketing feature was its free online tools.[27] One such tool, the Marketing Grader, assessed and scored website performance.[28][29] The company introduced a Twitter tracking feature in 2011.[30][31]
In November 2016, HubSpot launched HubSpot Academy, an online training platform that provides various digital marketing training programs and free certifications upon completion.[32]
In 2018, HubSpot integrated Taboola on the dashboard, a global pay-per-click native ad network.[33]
In November 2019, HubSpot acquired PieSync, a customer data synchronization platform.[34]
In August 2021, HubSpot partnered with Envato to launch hundreds of high-quality CMS Hub templates.[35][36]
HubSpot CRM Free
The company launched HubSpot CRM Free in 2014.[37] 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.[38][39][40] The software as a service product is free and integrates with Gmail, G Suite, Microsoft Office for Windows, and other software.[41]
Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates customer relationship and social media management,[42] campaign automation, and email marketing.[43] Usability features were added to the marketing tool in 2020.[44] As of 2021, there are four service tiers (Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise). Starter offers basic analytics, and Professional enables additional marketing automation options, custom workflows, A/B testing, more inboxes, and support for more currencies. The Enterprise version allows access to more contacts, revenue reporting, custom event automation, and campaign reporting.[43]
Operations Hub
HubSpot launched Operations Hub in 2021 as an extension of the customer relationship management tool. Available in multiple service tiers, Operations Hub helps customers use data in the CRM.[45][46]
Service Hub
HubSpot's customer service software, Service Hub ( previously known as Customer Hub )[47] was announced in 2017, moved out of beta testing in 2018,[48][49] and received a "refresh" in 2022. The contact center platform provides self-service automation, Twiliotelephony,[50] as well as "sentiment analysis and churn forecasting" and testimonial capturing, according to The Irish Times.[47]TechCrunch says Service Hub also includes a "universal inbox" for all customer communications, tools for developing a "company knowledge base" and surveys, and a dashboard for team tracking.[48]
HubSpot has been described as unique because it strives to provide its customers with an all-in-one approach.[21][55] 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.[7] It identified HubSpot's "strengths" as the sophistication of its call to action (marketing) 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.[7]
Conferences
INBOUND conference in 2018
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.[56][57] The first INBOUND conference took place in 2012. Since then, speakers such as Oprah Winfrey,[58]Michelle Obama, Barack Obama,[59]Tig Notaro, and Issa Rae have spoken at their events.[citation needed]
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.[63] Later that month, HubSpot's founders gave an official response to the book, in which they addressed several, but not all, of Lyons' claims.[64]
Reception
The Boston Business Journal named HubSpot a "Best Place to Work in 2012".[65] In 2015, the company was named the best large company to work for in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe.[66][67] In 2017, HubSpot was named seventh by CNBC as one of the best places to work.[68]Glassdoor named HubSpot the best place to work in 2020 and the #2 best place to work in 2022.[69][70]
Lyons, Daniel (2016). Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start Up Bubble. Hachette Books. ISBN978-0316306089.
Halligan, Brian; David Meerman Scott; Dharmesh Shah (2010). Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN978-0-470-49931-3.
US$2.17 billion (2023)
US$−208 million (2023)
