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HubSpot and AWS meetup: Partnerships, startups, and HubSpot ventures

HubSpot and AWS meetup: Partnerships, startups, and HubSpot ventures
Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah - HubSpot Ventures at AWS Pop-Up Loft in San Francisco Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, and Kim Walsh After spending Sunday night sleeping on a cot at the office, I headed down to the AWS Pop-up Loft on Market Street yesterday for a HubSpot meetup. The meetup's topic: A Conversation with HubSpot and AWS: How to Build a Successful Startup As a secretbonus, there were a couple of new announcement's last night:

 

Dharmesh Shah

Dharmesh Shah, Hoala Greevy - Paubox & HubSpot Selfie with Dharmesh Shah Shortly after arriving, I introduced myself to HubSpot CTO and co-founder Dharmesh Shah. I succinctly gave him the Paubox elevator pitch and he politely listened as I rattled off our KPIs. As we positioned ourselves for a selfie (not always easy to do with co-founders of public companies), Dharmesh saw that I lassoed my lanyard around my neck to get the Paubox logo correctly in the shot. He then deftly unzipped his sweater to reveal his HubSpot t-shirt. Paubox + HubSpot selfie. I gotta say, Dharmesh is a chill guy.

 

Brian Halligan

Brian Halligan & Hoala Greevy - Paubox HubSpot Selfie with Brian Halligan Shortly before the program began, I introduced myself to Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot. I mentioned I'd read his book Inbound Marketing and even did a synopsis on it. He asked me to tweet or email the link to him, which of course I will do shortly after publishing this post. Brian also asked if I'd read his other book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, which I had not heard of. I ordered it from my iPhone several minutes later.

 

A Conversation with HubSpot and AWS: How to Build a Successful Startup

AWS HubSpot Partnership: Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, Kim Walsh Here are my takeaways from last night's meetup:
  • Listen to your customers and think about how your business model may change around their needs
  • Co-founder conflict is the #2 reason for startup failure
  • For first 7 years of HubSpot, there was no self-service option. You had to talk to a human to buy something
  • HubSpot is obsessed with quantitative and qualitative feedback
  • HubSpot does NPS everywhere. Even HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan has an NPS score
  • Brian Halligan likes scotch, Casper beds and the Grateful Dead
  • According to Brian, the arbitrage opportunity in SaaS is creating remarkable customer experiences
  • “It’s never been easier to start a company... but it’s never been harder to scale.” Brian Halligan
  • There’s a lot of leverage in pricing and packaging
  • “The only thing worse than a sub-optimal price is no price." Dharmesh Shah
  • Brian doesn’t like Outbound Marketing: "Figure out how to scale your Inbound.. SEO scales like crazy.”
  • Inbound marketing still works
  • "I'm a goto market geek." Brian Halligan
  • Sequoia was very helpful to HubSpot
  • “You have to differentiate yourself, there’s so much noise in the market now.” Dharmesh Shah
  • HubSpot has roughly a 16 month payback period
  • It's possible to charge up to 25% of the first year's revenue in setup fees or professional services

 

SEE ALSO: Our Takeaways from The Sales Acceleration Formula

 
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