Over my last 20 years in the Boston high-tech industry, what has kept me excited and gets me out of bed in the morning is the opportunity to join, lead, and transform high-performing teams. I’ve played a wide variety of roles ranging from founder to CTO to Chief Architect to VP of Engineering at some really amazing companies including NetGenesis, SPSS, Idiom, and most recently, Compete, and each of them has come with some incredible rewards and learning experiences.
For the next step in my career, I wanted a role that would challenge me to leverage all of those insights (and bruises) to contribute to a once in a generation company. For this reason, I’m ecstatic to announce that I’m joining HubSpot as a VP of Engineering, and I couldn’t be more excited for my next chapter.
But enough about me, let me tell you why I’m excited to be part of the HubSpot team:
1) Their unabashed, aggressive plans for world domination: Back in the late 90’s, I had the opportunity to work with companies like Netscape. When you walked into their offices, you could sense electricity in the air. They were growing at a frenetic pace and opportunities for greatness abounded. Their biggest challenges had to do with how to manage through this growth and stay on target. Walking into HubSpot you get the same feel. Their ambition is inspiring and they have no interest in hitting modest goals -- they are shooting for the moon. They are one of those companies that comes along in a blue moon where you say, “They are really special and I want to be a part of that.”
2) Their remarkable culture and team: I have long been a fan of the Silicon Valley books talking about amazing companies doing amazing things on the West Coast. Development teams who are performing high wire acts, innovating and pushing the edge of technology. About companies like Zappos who build their company with culture front and center. It is great to see a Boston-based company blazing these same paths. A development team who has taken continuous deployment and agile development to their extremes. A company who has literally written The Culture Book.
3) The transformative nature of their product: HubSpot is out to change the world -- both for marketers and for consumers. Moving from the adversarial relationship with marketers trying to figure out how to get their message in front of consumers who aren’t interested to a world in which marketers succeed by creating content that consumers want. Being a part of building a platform that empowers businesses to grow by earning the attention of their prospects and leads versus renting it is compelling to me. The HubSpot team helps companies create marketing people love, but they’ve also developed an integrated platform that is legitimately easy to use without sacrificing power.
4) Global growth: One of my favorite times in any company’s growing process is moving from being a U.S.-centric company to being a truly global company. The issues that a company has to tackle to become global are challenging, and exciting, and HubSpot is already heading down this path. HubSpot has 10,000 customers worldwide, and that number continues to grow each day. The company not only has talented engineers in Boston, but in Dublin as well. Creating a development organization and a platform that scale to the needs of a global customer base is imperative to HubSpot’s success, and it’s something I’m excited to contribute to and be a part of.
If you’re looking for me over the next several months, you’ll likely find me at 25 First Street getting to know our team and rolling my sleeves up to get to work. I know the sweat equity, time, and energy it will take to achieve the lofty goals our team has set for the months and years ahead, and I’m excited to get started. If you’re interested in joining our team too for the reasons above (or any of your own), we’re hiring.
