HubSpot ft. Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah - How an underdog helped invent modern marketing, and then took on Goliath
10/19/23 • 33 min
Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah reveal how they took a blog started as a hobby and turned the ideas behind it into a $20+ billion success. In 2006, HubSpot upended traditional approaches to marketing by taking advantage of the the nascent internet in a new way: By capitalizing on seach 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.
Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Featuring: Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, Pat Grady, Dannie Herzberg
Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-hubspot/
Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah reveal how they took a blog started as a hobby and turned the ideas behind it into a $20+ billion success. In 2006, HubSpot upended traditional approaches to marketing by taking advantage of the the nascent internet in a new way: By capitalizing on seach 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.
Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Featuring: Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, Pat Grady, Dannie Herzberg
Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-hubspot/
Previous Episode
Eventbrite ft. Julia Hartz - A thriving events company took 14 years to build and nearly disappeared in 14 days
What happens to an events company when every event is canceled? “Even if you have spent 14 years building something, it could truly be gone in 14 days.” After working tirelessly to revolutionize how live events are organized, this was the reality Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz faced in March of 2020 as pandemic lockdowns went into effect, extinguishing the lifeblood of her business. She brought the same strategic thinking and grit that had led the company through its previous inflection points to rally her team and reinvent Eventbrite in the middle of a global shutdown.
Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Featuring: Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz
Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-eventbrite/
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Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Featuring: Hosain Rahman, Alex Asseily, Yves Behar
Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-jawbone/
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