Full Video Transcript
Dharmesh Shah: Hi. I’m Dharmesh Shah, the founder and Chief Software Architect of HubSpot. HubSpot is an internet marketing platform intended for small businesses to do inbound marketing. So, it’s basically a software – hosted software service that small business marketers can purchase on a monthly basis to build an SEO-optimized website and to basically increase their chances that their best customers will find them.
So, just a little bit about why HubSpot is going after small businesses. So, prior to HubSpot, I’ve always been a startup guy. I write a startup blog. I’ve had two prior startups before. And one thing I’ve learned about high growth companies, small business and startups generally is that they’re really good at actually building a product. I have yet to come across a startup founder that says, “You know what, I’ve been up – you know, all night, trying to figure out how to build this widget.” They get the widget built. That’s not the issue.
The issue historically is always, “I’ve got this widget. There are people in the world that I know need whatever it is that I’ve built or whatever it is I have to offer and I just don’t know how to reach them.” So small businesses fundamentally, the challenge is not creating an offering that people actually care about but is actually finding those people that care and the way for a startup or a small business to do that or – has been historically very limited. You don’t have a marketing budget. You may or may not have, you know, venture funding dollars. How do you actually take this offering that you have that’s game-changing, exciting, cool, that lots of people are going to just fall over themselves writing you checks for. How do you find those people?
And we believe now with the internet, small businesses and startups can actually use the Web, use the blogosphere, use social media sites to actually reach customers in an efficient way that has never been possible before. So we’ve been playing around and we’re probably the best customers of the HubSpot software. We’ve been using it ourselves as a startup because we’re a growing startup and trying to find our best customers. Who will this message resonate with? And we believe that it actually works and so at HubSpot, we believe that the internet provides an unprecedented way for small businesses to actually reach potential customers efficiently.
So, instead of blasting the world with, you know, telemarketing and going to trade shows and sending out mailers and all the things we used to do back in the 80s and 90s to try and find customers, the internet now makes it possible for your best customers to actually find you, which seems like a much more efficient way to go about it. Instead of spending tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars blasting the world with your message, why not set up a website? Why not write a blog and talk about why your product is going to change the world and why customers will benefit from it?
And this is a much more kind of practical way to find customers that says, “Okay, well, there’s someone out there right now doing a search on Google, looking for game-changing widget X.” And the question is, who will they find? If they’re actually out there looking for the widget that you’ve built, it seems to me that that would be a person that you would want to reach.
So you have two choices. So let’s say there are 5000 of those people in the world that you’re trying to reach with your enterprise security software company or your biotech patent law service or whatever it happens to be, there’s a limited number of people out there which hopefully – there should be a limited number of people out there. Otherwise, you’re in a commoditized business. Question is how do you find them? And right now, the internet provides the most efficient mechanism for you to actually reach out to those ideal customers, the ones that are just perfect for your offering and actually have them find you.
So step one is to actually increase the chances that those people, when they’re looking through whatever mechanism they are looking for, whether it’s a search engine or they’re on Digg or they’re reading a blog, is that they actually come in contact with your company and its offering. And then once they find you, the internet provides them excellent mechanism for you to actually engage those potential customers, for them to learn about your offering, for them to really interact with you on terms that they’re comfortable with.
So if you think back on even the early days of the internet, the early days of, you know, pre-internet marketing, you know, you would put up on your brochure your website or call 1-800-ACNE and buy our widget. Well, I don’t know about you. I’m a tech guy. I will never pick up the phone and call a company to actually buy something. I want to learn more about it. I want to read more material. I want to see what other customers have to say. I’m looking for testimonials. I’m looking for all the data possible before I make what could be a relatively large purchasing decision.
So instead of just saying, you know, “Call us.” You know, “Here’s a postcard. Here’s our website with an 1-800 number on it,” what you really want to do is you want to allow different mechanisms for your potential customers to engage you at a level that they’re comfortable. Maybe they do want to call you. So, phone number needs to be there. Maybe they want to e-mail you so you put your e-mail address in but maybe they’re just really kind of sticking their toe in the water and not really ready to buy yet. So, just like you wouldn’t walk into a bar and ask someone to marry you, I don’t think it makes sense to say, “Hey, we’ve got this widget. Why don’t you buy it? Call us at 1-800-ACNE,” like a late night infomercial might do.
I think in most small businesses, particular ones that are selling to businesses, that have a complicated offering, that, you know, cost several thousand dollars if not more, we think that’s a relatively naïve way to try and close sales. What the internet makes possible is to let you engage your customers at levels that they’re actually comfortable. Makes sense, makes for happier customers, makes for higher revenues and it’s just a better way of going about business.
So, I’m Dharmesh Shah, founder and Chief Software Architect of HubSpot. Thanks for your time.
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