HubSpot is a shining example of a modern startup success story. Founded in 2004 by MIT graduate students Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah to provide sales and marketing support software, the company generated revenues of over USD 250,000 in its first year.
By 2010, HubSpot’s revenues exceeded USD 15m. Just four years later, the company raised over USD 140m by going public on the New York Stock Exchange, selling shares for USD 25 each. In 2021, HubSpot stock reached an all-time high of $841 per share. In the same year, the company reported revenues of over USD 1bn.
Behind this incredible success is HubSpot’s focus on inbound marketing and valuable content. Its founders spotted ahead of time that consumers were growing tired of being sold to directly. Instead, they wanted help solving their challenges. HubSpot’s mission, therefore, was to stop interrupting and instead start helping – by putting the customer at the centre of every interaction.
This fiercely customer-centric approach still drives the company today. HubSpot now offers several solutions, including its CRM Free product that helps track and manage customer interactions. This is on top of its hugely successful Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Operations Hub and Service Hub. Each is packed with resources, tools and software – much of it free – designed to help its clients deliver incredible experiences and add value to their customers.
Today, HubSpot serves over 177,000 customers across more than 120 countries. And its revenues are equally impressive. The company generated USD 489m from subscriptions and USD 12m from its other solutions in Q1 of 2023 alone, up almost 30% on the previous year. Total revenues for last year exceeded a whopping USD 1.73bn.
