The Secret Story Behind HubSpot's New Venture Fund

When my friend Brian Halligan and I started HubSpot 12 years ago, it was in many ways like any typical startup. But there was one way in which we were atypical. At the core of HubSpot wasn’t a revolutionary product -- but a combination of a product and a philosophy. We started the company to help companies market better with an approach that we called inbound marketing (we’ve since expanded to help companies market, sell and service better). Inbound marketing was about taking a more human-friendly, empathetic approach.

In our early years of growth, we had the idea to start a HubSpot venture fund. Rather than making purely “strategic” investments, we’d also make philosophical investments. We’d support companies that shared our core philosophy that the way for organizations to grow better in the modern world is to take a more human, empathetic approach to marketing, sales and service. (HubSpot’s mission is to help millions of organizations grow better).

Of course, being a startup ourselves, it didn’t really make sense for us to make investments in other startups. We didn’t think our venture capital investors would want us using our capital that way. But, every year or so, we’d revisit the idea and conclude, “Yes, there’s going to be a time when we’ll do this...but now is not that time.”

I’m thrilled to announce that now is that time. We just launched HubSpot Ventures -- a $30 million fund to invest in startups that align with our mission to help millions of organizations grow better.

We will not seek quick wins, early exits, or rapid returns on investment with this fund. That is not our approach. We are first and foremost focused on expanding the impact of companies that are committed to our philosophy of growing better. Through HubSpot Ventures, we will seek out companies that take the long view of success by putting customers first, investing in an inclusive company culture, and delivering a highly differentiated product.

We’ll be evaluating potential startups on a number of factors, but I’m particularly interested in the company’s commitment to the values articulated in the HubSpot Customer Code. And, we’ll be partial to investing in startups that are focused on helping small and medium-sized businesses. We think there’s a big market opportunity out there for companies who serve SMBs, and this space has received disproportionately lower investment historically than companies focusing on large, enterprise customers.

In addition to funding, portfolio companies will receive help and guidance from HubSpot’s leadership team. We will share some of the lessons we’ve learned growing HubSpot from a 2 person startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a publicly traded [NYSE:HUBS] company with over 2,800 employees and offices across the globe.

It took us a while to get here, but I’m looking forward to working with the next generation of companies that put customers first and believe in growing better.

Cheers.