Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah reveal how they took a blog and turned the ideas behind their hobby into a $20+ billion business.

In 2006, HubSpot upended traditional approaches to marketing by taking advantage of the nascent internet in a new way: By capitalizing on search engines and social media, they offered a way to pull customers in rather than pushing ads and mailers out. They coined the new category “inbound marketing.” They continued to defy conventional wisdom, deciding to serve small businesses over big enterprises, and taking on a Goliath in a new category. As the founders explain, zigging where others zag is the key to their success.

Brian Halligan
Brian Halligan is the co-founder and executive chairperson of HubSpot. In 2022 he founded Propeller Ventures, a climate tech venture fund, and serves on the boards of Navier and Aquatic Labs.

Dharmesh Shah
Dharmesh Shah is co-founder and CTO of HubSpot. Prior to founding HubSpot he founded Pyramid Digital Solutions, which was acquired by SunGard Data Systems in 2005.

Dannie Herzberg
Dannie Herzberg is a partner on the growth team at Sequoia. Prior to joining Sequoia she helped build and scale HubSpot and Slack.

Pat Grady
Pat Grady is a partner on the growth team at Sequoia. He sits on the board of companies like Amplitude, Attentive and Harvey.

Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/cr...