HubSpot

5.0

Sep 20, 2017

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

If you're dedicated and self-motivated, you'll do very well at HubSpot. It's not and never will be a place to blend into the scenery. You've got to do more than your job description and be eager and proud to do so, and I think that's where the "drink-the-kool-aid" comments come from. As you'll see, I'm solidly not that, but I love HubSpot, warts and all, and I firmly believe that the company has nowhere to go but up. I've seen people go from zero to near-C-level in under two years here. Is that everyone? Of course not. HubSpot absolutely means it when they say you can be a high-performing individual contributor your entire career (I am one). But for people who want to move up the org chart, and have the chops to do so, HubSpot absolutely provides the framework and the support to give someone that chance. The perks are nice. Beer and unlimited vacation and a barista and all that good stuff is nice, but it's actually secondary. Because we have those perks, it means we only have people who can have those perks and not abuse them. The caliber of the "average" HubSpotter is anything but average. Every single HubSpotter has something to learn from and be impressed by.

Cons

Remarkably few. One, because HubSpot is willing to take risks on people and helps them move up the ranks, people sometimes do get promoted before they're ready for it. There's nothing more demotivating than a bad manager, and I've seen entire teams underperform for months while a bad manager is either coached or replaced. I'm not sure there's an easy fix here. On the whole, it's a good thing that HubSpot gives those people those chances. There probably needs to be more guardrails and mentoring around this to identify where a newbie manager is potentially having cascading negative effects. Second, and this one is some tough love from me, but it needs to be said: You need to toe the line on some things. If you're politically conservative, keep it to yourself. If you're liberal, preach it from the rooftops. HubSpot, for all its diversity and inclusion efforts (which are admirable!), does not allow for certain political viewpoints to be shared at all, and certainly not respected. On the one hand, it's not surprising that the majority of the company is more liberal. However, the Women@HubSpot and LGBTQ Alliance use Hillary Clinton campaign slogans in their "official" materials. I get it, I'm solidly liberal, and I don't think it's done with any sort of malice, but I've seen people basically shouted down and degraded for expressing any view that isn't solidly on the left side of our political spectrum. I know a few conservative folks at HubSpot, and I know for a fact they fear for their careers to even engage in debate on certain issues. It's never good for anyone to feel silenced, and in this manner, it's happening here. It's a glaring dark spot on HubSpot's supposed openness, and it needs to change. I am sure that it will in time, but it's something to be aware of if you are in that set and are considering HubSpot to work for right now. Hopefully in a few years, this won't be the case.

HubSpot Response

Thanks for taking the time to write up a review, this one contains a lot of really valuable feedback and context for our candidates, so thanks for taking considerable time and energy to share it. On the pros, I agree with you entirely, and really like that you call out the individual contributor possibilities and the nature of the average here. On the cons, the note on managers and autonomy is well-taken. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to think hard on your push around conservative perspectives at HubSpot. We certainly are less externally political than many tech companies, so I would hope that that would create space for more constructive internal dialogues. I also think creating a diverse and inclusive workforce means we need to make our commitment to the inclusion and safety of all of our employees paramount, but I don't want to create a world where folks can constructively have discussions with alternate point of views. I'll have to think more about how we can make that more real in practice, but appreciate the push and the feedback, thanks for sharing it. On the 401k we've increased it the last two years, so I'm not sure we'll revisit that again soon, but you certainly have a few fans of the idea on our finance team--will pass along the feedback as we discuss plans for next year. Thanks for the review and helping Hubspot grow! Sincerely, Katie

Great place to thrive as a high performer - Anonymous employee HubSpot Employee Review

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