How HubSpot Achieved $1 Billion in ARR Through Innovation and Partnerships

HubSpot is one of the leading customer relationship management platforms in the industry and they have announced they have achieved a huge measure of success in 2021: surpassing 100,000 customers and earning more than $1B in annual recurring revenue.

Founded in 2004 by MIT students Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, this platform has evolved to become what it is today. While it started as an email marketing platform, they expanded the brand to include content management, website strategy, and now have a CRM software as part of their robust offering.

The question is: how did they get to the point where they were earning upwards of $1B annually?

New Breed argues that there are three key takeaways from their business strategy that made HubSpot a leader and that other SaaS companies can imitate.

1. Make Sure Product and Strategy are Aligned

When creating your product, you need to make sure that your product and marketing strategy are in perfect alignment. This is one area where HubSpot truly shines.

Halligan and Shah sell an inbound marketing platform and they market it via inbound marketing.

If you sell a platform as a SaaS company, how can you use what you are known for to market to your audience?

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Innovate.

One of the main reasons HubSpot was able to reach $1B in ARR is because they weren’t afraid to face new concepts and challenges in the marketplace. Their company is constantly implementing changes as they seek to improve user experience.

If you want to grow at the same rate that HubSpot does, you need to be willing to innovate. This is how they made the transition from email marketing to CRM, with a few stops in between.

Know who your buyers are and what the industry trends are for your unique SaaS company. This is how HubSpot gets an average visit duration of 12 minutes. They know what pain points their customers are facing and they provide realistic solutions.

3. Create Partnerships.

No man is an island, and the same adage holds true for businesses. HubSpot has a thriving partner program that invites developers and other companies to post on their open platform. They also provide special pricing to accelerators, incubators, and VCs who want to pay for HubSpot for their startups.

These partnerships are what help to keep HubSpot top of mind for everyone who needs their software. It is how they were able to obtain 303.1 million backlinks according to SEMRush stats.

Creating partnerships for your brand through marketing gives you more leads, exposure, and credibility as a brand.

How HubSpot Grew to $1B ARR

HubSpot grew to $1B ARR through remaining agile in a competitive marketplace. They leveraged their own service to market their company, weren’t afraid to innovate, and formed successful partnerships with an enormous number of startups, businesses, and individuals.

If your SaaS business is having a hard time getting launched or sustaining ARR at this level, these takeaways can give you fresh insight into what you need to do next.