Show Notes:
In this week’s episode of the Breakout Growth Podcast, brought to you by Rise with SAP, Ethan Garr and Sean Ellis speak with Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot’s Senior Vice President of Marketing to learn what’s driving Hubspot’s unstoppable growth. With more than 100,000 customers and over $1 billion dollars in ARR, Hubspot is simply on fire.
Kieran has been a growth leader at the company for nearly ten years. During that time the business has gone through massive changes. From its giant bet on Freemium to a more recent shift from inbound marketing to inbound media, the company has continuously reinvented itself in its quest to become the #1 CRM for scaling businesses.
However, despite Hubspot’s enormous scale and $37 billion valuation (at the time of recording), the insights and learnings from this discussion relate to businesses both large and small. Yes, at this size, Kieran does explain that he and his team have to focus on big bets because small optimizations just won’t have enough impact, but his framework for making smart decisions, taking risks, and building a culture where innovation can thrive is applicable for any company looking to drive breakout growth success.
Kieran is also forthcoming about the moments when he felt stuck trying to tackle specific problems. The strategies he employed to overcome these challenges offer practical lessons to help listeners see their way forward when they encounter roadblocks to growth.
Before you jump into the episode, we encourage you to learn more about RISE with SAP S/4Hana Cloud. If you have ambitious goals, SAP is the technology partner you need to scale and drive innovation. Instead of relying on stitched together solutions to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations, leverage the flexibility of SAP’s cloud-based ERP solution to gain the insights that will help drive your breakout growth success.
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Thanks for tuning in to this episode with Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, and please share the Breakout Growth Podcast with your colleagues and friends.
We discussed:
* Hubspot’s evolution into a modern-day CRM built for the internet (03:12)
* From “inbound marketing” to “inbound media:” why Hubspot is betting on building a true media organization to power growth (06:50)
* Organizing for growth as a large organization: With more than a billion dollars in ARR, Hubspot’s marketing team must think on a much bigger scale to source demand (08:28)
* The changing world of content consumption and “community” as the next big thing (08:03)
* Hubspot’s shift from its original “Weekly Active Teams” North Star Metric (15:30)
* Inbound marketing, Freemium, and other pivotal moments in the growth journey (18:30)
* Taking bigger risks with a willingness to fail (27:45)
* What smaller companies can learn about building a culture of accountability and risk-taking (32:40)
* Historical context can power better experiments (38:00)
And much, much, more . . .
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