#10: Kieran Flanagan, VP of Marketing @ Hubspot, on SaaS, Scaleups, and Startups - a podcast by Dave Rogenmoser

If there’s a company that knows the playbook for Growth, it very well might be Hubspot. In 13 years, they’ve scaled to one of the biggest names in marketing & sales and joined the ranks of successful tech IPOs. Kieran Flanagan, VP of Marketing and Growth, is charged with three of the most important parts of Hubspot’s flywheel: acquisition for the Sales product, the Freemium funnel, and the global web strategy. In his career, he’s worked for some of the biggest names in SaaS including Salesforce and Marketo. Plus, he’s helped many startups implement the strategies that power larger businesses.

In this episode, we’ll talk through how startups differ from scaleups, the inbound growth engine that has powered Hubspot’s success, why the funnel is dead, and the reasons more companies should invest in Customer Success.

0:00 Introduction

1:10 useproof.com/personalize

3:35 Kieran's career path to Hubspot’s VP of Marketing

4:23 Why the mission matter for SaaS

5:33 Scaleups are great when you want a new challenge every few years

7:37 What do the big companies do differently than small companies?

8:03 Check out our interview with Wade from Zapier on Season 1 Episode 6

9:12 100% sales are made from something we acquire

9:47 We have the advantage of being able to think 18 months down the line

11:46 How we experiment at Hubspot

13:00 Hubspot’s target persona — Marketing Mary

14:05 Hubspot startup discount

15:08 Going narrow at first is imperative for startups

16:00 Why the funnel is dead

16:40 Most companies are successful on 1 or 2 channels

18:16 Don't be underinvested in Customer Success

19:20 The Salty Six to know Kieran better

20:15 Inbound and Saastock

21:01 ReplyAll

21:10 Tim Ferriss

21:32 The Platform Revolution

22:48 @searchbrat

23:00 Growth TLDR Podcast

This is an actionable episode — we hope you enjoy! Get ready to #ScaleOrDie...

We're excited to have you along for Season 1 of #ScaleOrDie. Before you leave, be sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, post a comment, or share with your friends! Tune into more episodes at useproof.com/scaleordie and read more stories at blog.useproof.com. Follow Dave & Proof on Twitter — @DaveRogemoser and @UseProof. We publish episodes every week so be sure to check back often for more interviews with the internet’s best minds in growth!

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