HubSpot Inc. wants to make it perfectly clear it is not monetizing AI yet, and taking a measured approach. “We want to be the disruptor, not the disrupted.”
While nearly every other tech company is hurtling head-first into the AI fray for fear of being left out of the industry’s biggest moment ever, HubSpot wants to methodically create a unified data model for small businesses.
“The AI explosion is not happening as fast as people think,” Matt Sornson, general manager and vice president of product of HubSpot, said in an interview. “I’m not sure if we are at the peak of AI hype.”
HubSpot executives, in great measure, base their patience-is-a-virtue philosophy on business history. “We have a learn-it-all, not know-it-all, attitude,” Andy Pitre, executive vice president of product at HubSpot, said in an interview.
Pitre points to an inflection point in the steel industry, as chronicled in the seminal business book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen.
Rebar (or reinforcing bar), an indispensable material added to concrete to strengthen concrete under tension, was largely dismissed by Big Steel because it was a new, cheap alternative. But it endured, and prospered, as a material offered by a slew of startups — leaving large competitors in the proverbial dust. (For the tech industry, look no further than missed opportunities in early adoption of the internet [Microsoft] and mobile [Intel].)
Their takeaway? Slow but steady adoption of breakthrough technology rewards those with a solution that fits within their product portfolio. In HubSpot’s case, it’s goal is to be an AI native, and not start charging for it. “There is no AI add-on for us,” Pitre said.
HubSpot, ranked the seventh-largest enterprise software company in revenue ($2.5 billion in 2024 sales) by Futurum Group, has a prodigious market in which to sell. It defines its sweet spot as small businesses of 50 to 2,000 employees — or about 250,000 customers it has corralled.
Generative AI, for example, will streamline and accelerate marketing and sales service, the company believes. It starts with Breeze Intelligence, a new AI tool that conducts sales research in seconds vs. 15-30 minutes for a human.
“We’re excited about the potential that Breeze Intelligence will bring to Bitly, especially in helping us make smarter decisions around how we identify good-fit, high-intent customers and deliver personalized outreach for revenue driving activities,” Sam Oh, vice president of acquisition at Bit.ly, said in an email. “We already knew we needed a tool to help us understand the intent of our visitors and were thrilled to see HubSpot invest here so we can work within our already existing tech stack.”
HubSpot’s AI tools have directly resulted in a 25% jump in new prospect engagement for Sandler. Additionally, the company’s sales reps are getting 60% more SQLs from their marketing team that convert into the potential pipeline. “The effect this is going to have on our continued growth will be huge,” Emily Davidson, director of enterprise marketing at Sandler, said in an email.
More is on the way. HubSpot thinks agents can assist, if not do, entry-level sales, as well as produce blog posts with short video and content. “AI is about making humans more efficient,” Sornson said. “Tech almost always make people more productive within 10 years. And it creates more jobs.”
HubSpot is not rushing things because it envisions a long-time horizon on AI’s gestation — “We are still in the hype cycle,” Sornson said — before the inevitable bubble bursts in several years.
For now, company executives compare the current climate to the frothy days of the web in 1992. “We are at the Friendster stage before MySpace and Facebook,” Pitre said.
Sornson foresees another three to seven years of AI growth before a fallout reminiscent of the dot-com bomb, especially as companies with $10 million in annual revenue and crazy valuations must answer to investors and the market.
“HubSpot is disrupting the status quo” as the workplace development grows, Leandra Fishman, chief revenue officer at Apollo.io, said in an interview.
