HubSpot Founder Dharmesh Shah: The Ultimate Guide to Company Culture | E896

(reversing beeps) Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. Dharmesh, my word, I couldn't be more thrilled to be doing this one. I've wanted to do it for quite a while. So thank you so much for joining me today first.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me. It's been, uh, years in the making. I've been thinking about this for a while now, but my introverted self, I keep pushing back on, uh, podcasts, so...

Listen, I am so thrilled that you agreed to it. I have no idea what made my British accent appealing to do. But, uh, I'm thrilled to make it happen. I wanna start also, I heard a little bit of a context that your wife, Kristen, is the reason that you and Brian got together in the first place, scouting him at an MIT Sloan cocktail party. So, can you take me to that party?

Sure.

What happened between you and Brian, and how that led to HubSpot?

Yeah. So, uh, it's, uh, it's- it's a fun story. So, uh, both Brian and I, um, joined this, uh, class at MIT for grad school, it's part of the business school. And they had this kinda mixer, social cocktail party thing, so the incoming students and the classmates could kinda meet each other, and- and significant others were invited. Um, and you don't know me that well, but the worst possible thing you can do to me is put me in a social environment with a bunch of people I don't know and have me make small talk about things, you know, that I don't know anything about or don't care about. And so, um, 'cause I'm the kinda hyper introvert, and- and there's no exaggeration here. Uh, my wife, on the other hand, is not. She's at the other end of that, uh, of that spectrum. She's super friendly, love- loves meeting people. And so what- what she'll do, um, at these kinds of events though, she'll kinda scout the room. And I'll be hiding in a corner somewhere, and she'll go scout the room, she'll talk to people, she'll be parts of little groups, and then she'll come back with a scouting report. It's like, "Oh, yeah, I met Priya over here, she's awesome, she's from tech, uh, I think you'll really like her." And then she came back, and this is interesting, uh, she came back and said, "Yeah, I met this guy, Brian. I don't know if the two of you are gonna hit it off because he's, you know, he's kinda got a sales background, he's really into sports and the Red Sox," and- and it's like, "You just don't have a lot in common." That was her first, you know... And I've known her, you know, now 25 years, and you know, at the time it has been, you know, 10 to 15 years, so... And I trust her judgment. Like, she knows me and- and she's been right pretty much 100% of the time, except this one time, right? So, um, so then classes start, and, um, and I get- kinda get to know Brian, and he's in there and, like, I remember him, you know, from- from the party because I did say hi that evening. Uh, but it was a very kind of... I wasn't curt, I'm still like a pathologically polite self, um, but, you know, we just, uh, you know, didn't connect more than that kind of very brief interaction at that cocktail party. But then we're taking classes, and- and the more classes I take, the more time ar- I'm around him. I'm like, "A, this guy is smart. Yeah, he may have kinda grown up in sales, but he's like no salesperson." And no disparagement intended to salespeople, they're just different, wired differently than I am. Um, and we just hit it off. And then, you know, about midway through, um, kinda graduating, we started noodling on the possibility of us, like, doing a company together. Um, and so... Which is really weird because the one thing I promised my wife is not that I wouldn't spend time with Brian, she was fine with that, but that I would never do another startup, right? Because I had done startups my entire career, that's all I pretty much knew, uh, and then she had known me even before I had done my first startup. And sh- you know, she likes to joke, uh, somewhat jokingly that it's like, "Oh, if I had known you were gonna be an entrepreneur, I'm not sure that this would've worked out." Because, you know, being married to an entrepreneur is not, uh, the easiest thing in the world. Anyway, so I promised her... And that's why I went back to MIT, I'm like, "I'm gonna go to grad school, I'll go get a PhD," and my kinda path was to kinda teach. That was the original idea. I was not gonna do another startup, I promised her I was not gonna do it. Uh, then Brian and I met and we really hit it off. And the reason HubSpot started was two reasons. One, uh, is just I wanted to work with Brian, and two, we both had a shared passion for SMBs. And we can talk more about that later. But that was the kind of the original, it's, you know, it comes down to a cliche, but it's- it's all about the people and it's like, "Okay, this is someone I want to, like, work with and do something with." Um, and it was kinda natural to do a startup, but anyway, that's the story.