Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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photography by Eric LEvin Spot on Brian Halligan spearheads breakthrough marketing technology and the silicon Valley of the east with his company, hubspot. By ReBecca M. Knight photogRaphy By eRic levin Some people consider it a coincidence when, after researching a product online, they receive an e-mail offering exactly what they were just looking for. But Brian Halligan knows it's no f luke. It's the work of HubSpot, his Cambridge- based company, which provides marketing research software that has some industry insiders touting Halligan's baby as the next Google, Amazon, or eBay. But HubSpot and Halligan are headquartered far, far from the Golden State. "I'm tired of people talking about Silicon Valley," he says. "I want to bring Boston back." HubSpot's future looks bright. Founded in 2006 by Halligan, 47, and his MIT Sloan classmate Dharmesh Shah, 46, who now serves as the company's chief technology officer, HubSpot has to date raised $100 million. It boasts more than 11,000 customers in 56 countries and has 700 employees, working mainly in Kendall Square. Last year the company's revenue rose 48 percent to $77.6 million, and in late August HubSpot filed for a $100 million IPO. Of course, there's a reason for this: HubSpot is rapidly transforming the way small and medium- size companies attract, retain, and connect with customers. "Humans have radically changed the way they shop for things," says Halligan. "Cold- calling, mass e-mailing, advertisements—those don't work anymore. It's now a question of: How do you pull people in?" Brian Halligan's customer- centric vision of the future is transforming the world of marketing and turning the Hub into a tech hot spot. continued on page 66 bostoncommon-magazine.com 65 PEOPLE View from the Top