In 2006, two passionate MIT business school friends, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, saw a shift coming that most of the world missed entirely. Outbound, interrupt-driven marketing, including cold calls, bulk emails, and paid advertising, wasn’t working so well. Brian and Dharmesh realized the future belonged to the organizations and people who could attract customers rather than chase them.
HubSpot was born twenty years ago this week around a simple idea: “Inbound Marketing”.
I too noticed this change and in 2006 was putting the final touches on my book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, which would be published in June 2007.
I met Brian and Dharmesh in September 2007 after they read The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Even before our first meeting in the HubSpot conference room was over, we agreed to collaborate. Had I joined the company, I would have been employee number eight.
I’m grateful to have been along for almost the entire HubSpot ride. As an advisor since 2007, I’ve watched HubSpot grow from founders with a vision into a global force with thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of customers, and a mission that keeps expanding.
What’s impressed me year after year is the HubSpot culture of openness and learning. HubSpot is much more than a software provider. The team made education, sharing, and helping people core to everything they did.
From the very first HubSpot blog posts to the Inbound Marketing book (I wrote the foreword), to the still-growing Inbound (now Unbound) conference where I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to packed, passionate audiences, HubSpot has always believed the best way to help customers grow is to grow alongside them.
HubSpot success is based on people
From the beginning, HubSpot has had a strong focus on people, including employees, customers, and partners.
Empower Community
From day one, HubSpot’s online forums, certification programs, and user groups put knowledge and support into the hands of marketers at every level, from startup founders to Fortune 500 veterans. You don’t even need to be a HubSpot customer to learn from their amazing often free offerings.
Culture Matters
The HubSpot culture code, published for anyone to see, was a bet that transparency, autonomy, and flexibility belong at the core of 21st-century organizations.
Constant Reinvention
Inbound Marketing wasn’t a one-and-done insight. I’ve watched HubSpot serve people within companies by moving into sales, customer support, ecommerce, and embracing AI, all while never losing the human element.
Twenty years in, it’s easy to look at HubSpot's global success and forget just how radical these ideas were in 2006. Congratulations Brian, Dharmesh, and all HubSpotters past and present on your 20th anniversary. Thank you for daring to rewrite the playbook and for building a movement rooted in connection, generosity, and growth.
And thanks for bringing me along on the ride. This has been the most important business relationship of my career.
Here’s to twenty more years of helping people help each other, and for showing that business done right makes fans for life.
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