SaaStr Annual 2025 is May 13-15 in SF Bay!! See You There!!
When did HubSpot start to go multiproduct? 1⃣ Around $100m ARR they launched CRM 2⃣ It took years of investment after that to generate any material revenue 3⃣ And today, at $2.5B total ARR, CRM is as big or bigger than Marketing Hub 4⃣ And growing faster If HubSpot has stayed 100% Marketing, it probably would be about a $1B ARR company ... growing 13% Probably worth 5x ARR, so $5B market cap Instead, it's a $27B market cap leader at $2.5B ARR ... 10x ARR Getting this right is so hard. And so, so critical to scale.
Wasn’t even really a “CRM” then things only got real in ‘18-‘19 so a lot more growth to come 🤞
Jason M. Lemkin - i’ve heard you say a bunch of times lately something like “you have to go multi-product sooner.” HubSpot went 8 years and $100M in revenue before going multi-product. But, that seemed to have been great for them! So, is this just a “new” criteria you see? When do you suggest a company should add their second product? (Please don’t use Rippling as an example, let’s assume Parker is a hyper-rare unicorn… no, even more rare, a pink pterodactyl.)
HubSpot's multiproduct strategy exemplifies the power of strategic diversification in SaaS. By expanding beyond their initial marketing focus, they not only multiplied their revenue but also created a more robust, interconnected ecosystem of products. This approach allowed them to tap into adjacent markets, increase customer lifetime value, and defend against potential competitors. The key takeaway is that well-executed product expansion can lead to exponential growth and market dominance, even if it requires significant upfront investment and patience.
I look like it like a puzzle. Hubspot continues adding pieces to build out the puzzle, and the overall picture just gets bigger and bigger. Strategic product launches can and already have turned it into a behemoth. Now the question is: what are their competitors doing, and what type of strategic acquisitions can they be making to try and compete? Ie. how can companies position ourselves to be gobbled up
The content complexity with each new product must have been wild. Going from pure marketing content to technical CRM documentation, then sales content, and now covering multiple specialized tools - while keeping everything connected and cohesive. That transition alone probably helped retain customers through each expansion phase.
Looks like Ops Hub was another giant dose of gasoline in 2021. Connecting all the hubs together with data cleansing and automation… a preview of non-negotiables today.
It's that tricky balance between expaning too soon and losing focus and too late and losing growth
CRM is the system of record for GTM organizations. They probably understood that it's more or less the required foundation to being the long term full stack for everything GTM.
It's a nice run and prone to attack...it just makes sense with compound agentic systems.
SaaStr Annual 2025 is May 13-15 in SF Bay!! See You There!!
1wMore here: https://www.saastr.com/5-more-interesting-learnings-from-hubspot-at-billion-in-arr/