Why HubSpot CRM

It’s not Salesforce.

(Source: LinkedIn Poll Comments)

No doubt, Salesforce has earned its dominance as the serious CRM for enterprises.

In fact, Hubspot CRM didn't even register enough market share in 2022 to make this IDC chart.

(Source: IDC Report via Salesforce news)

I was in the "Salesforce or bust" camp for a long time. I consider HubSpot CRM a nice little tool.

But more recently, I'm seeing a growing body of data that suggests HubSpot CRM is a legitimate option with a bright future.

I've also learned that HubSpot CRM users don't get enough love. While their ecosystem is growing fast, it's still relatively open. This is an opportunity for Keyplay and the next generation of sales & marketing tech.

In this post, I'll share some of the data that got me excited about HubSpot CRM's future, across 3 areas: 1.) HubSpot the company; 2.) HubSpot the CRM; 3.) The ecosystem opportunity.

HubSpot the Company

The $2B ARR Underdog

Many commentators consider HubSpot a dark horse when evaluating their potential beyond inbound marketing. Before we get into CRM, let’s just look at a few headlines about HubSpot as a SaaS role model:

• ~$2B ARR, still growing 30% Y/Y at scale.
• 184,000 customers
• Haven’t missed an earnings since going public.

• IPO’d at ~$900M, trading at ~$25B today.

• Track record of innovation, building themselves rather than acquiring a bundle.

(Source: HubSpot Q3 2023 Investor Presentation)

HubSpot the CRM

Nice inbound tool, but a real CRM?

Despite the company's incredible results, many doubters will still say:

1.) It’s just and inbound marketing tool.

2.) The CRM is just for tiny startups – not a serious platform.

But if you look deeper, HubSpot's CRM has come a long way. Here's the data that opened my eyes...

Undeniable customer love

While skeptics question its focus on SMBs, users are overwhelmingly positive about their experience.

I did a poll on LinkedIn last week with 1,200+ votes. This is not a scientific measure of market share, but the response surprised me:

Many of the commenters highlighted just how far HubSpot CRM has come.

HubSpot also receives high praise in G2 reviews. While not necessarily correlated with customer count or revenue, the CRM grid paints a nice picture:

(Source: G2 CRM Grid Report)

Seats, Seats, Seats

At last year’s analyst day, HubSpot reported seeing 100% growth in 100+ seat Sales Hub accounts. That's definitely more of the M in SMB. And seat growth in the sales product suggests increasingly strong traction beyond marketing.

(Source: HubSpot 2022 Analyst Day Deck)

Okta’s recent report on fastest growing apps supports this narrative. HubSpot was #1 in sales and marketing and amongst the top overall apps for user (seats) and customer growth:

“Hubspot, with 60% YoY customer growth and 96% YoY growth in unique users, leads the way in the sales and marketing category.”

(Source: Okta Businesses at Work Report 2023)

This kind of seat growth is another clue that HubSpot is succeeding a platform, moving beyond the marketing team.

The first CRM for the next generation

Using Keyplay tech signals, we analyzed job posts from tens of thousands of companies to compare HubSpot CRM with Salesforce CRM usage among growing B2B firms. I won’t claim that this data has the entire picture, but it’s an interesting sample.

When we slice by founding date, we see HubSpot increasing with each cohort of new startups. Their share in the 2014+ categories is impressive since the product was only launched in 2014.

HubSpot is well-positioned to be a startup’s first CRM. Many will eventually switch to Salesforce as they scale, but with each new wave of startups, HubSpot could gain a larger share of the market and higher likelihood of retaining these accounts as they grow. Jason Lemkin drew a similar conclusion in a SaaStr blog post last year.

Skeptics might peg HubSpot as a seed stage platform that requires "graduation" to Salesforce by series A or B. Our research shows HubSpot's relative position remaining strong into the $10-50M funding bucket.

Note: That 20%+ is a very higher number considering Salesforce's dominance in all the market share report.

The Ecosystem Opportunity

HubSpot's app ecosystem has come a long way. At last week's analyst day, they showed how the marketplace has reached 1,500 apps.

(Source: HubSpot 2023 Analyst Day Deck)

This is an impressive number in such a short timeframe. But, it remains a fraction of Salesforce's 4,000+ app listings.

Beyond the count of integrations, many vendors make HubSpot CRM second class integration. This is hard to quantify, but easy to see as a user.

Account-Based Marketing (Keyplay's category) is a great example of this. The big name vendors have very robust Salesforce integrations, but don't even both to do 2-way syncing with HubSpot's company object. How can you do account-based anything without proper account syncing?!

In my book this is a huge opportunity for the next generation of sales & marketing tech companies.

We are embracing the opportunity at Keyplay, delivering a 2-way, continuous integration for HubSpot CRM users.

The ABM category is not alone with this dynamic. There are countless opportunities to serve hungry HubSpot CRM users with serious GTM tools.

The Next Cloud CRM Juggernaut?

All of the above makes me super interested to watch HubSpot’s strategy unfold.

I don’t think their game is “replace Salesforce.” But I would bet on them to:

1. Win the startup and SMB segments.
2. Stay with their customers longer (i.e. fewer and slow “graduations” to Salesforce).
3. Achieve multi-billion dollar ARR business with Sales Hub + CRM.

This bet is part of the reason I’m excited to build Keyplay on the HubSpot platform.

What’s your take on HubSpot CRM?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.