How Partnerships Saved HubSpot with Scott Brinker, VP of Platform and Ecosystem

“Building an ecosystem is hard,” says Scott, VP of Platform and Ecosystem at HubSpot, “You got to think bigger than just the marketplace.”

In this episode, Scott and Dan dive deep into the inner workings of HubSpot’s partner strategies, how they have led them to create a dominant MarTech platform, and the tech stack they use to achieve their goals.

Key Takeaways

• Integration is vital to business success, and consolidating data into suites or platforms is a standard solution for companies with too many tools.
• To build a successful platform, focus on finding the right partners and tools and providing value to your company, customers, and partners.
• Genuine relationships and understanding the needs of your audience are crucial for success in an ecosystem like HubSpot’s.
• HubSpot’s winning partner strategy includes finding the most popular partners through customer research, ranking them, and bringing them in to help them succeed.
• To grow a marketplace, build a solid foundation across all product lines, and provide end-to-end support for partners on the platform.
• Building an ecosystem takes time and requires cohesion between the right tools. Choose a platform to experiment with different apps while breaking down stack silos.

Top Tools:

• HubSpot CRM: HubSpot’s central source of truth, where they track their partner’s journey and integrate all their other tools.
• Google Suite: everything from spreadsheets to slide presentations and documents. 
• Slack: To communicate with partners. 
• Asana: For tracking projects.
• Looker: For visualizing data.
• Snowflake: For data warehousing. 
• G2: For ranking potential partners.
• HubSpot’s App Directory: A directory of tools you can integrate with HubSpot.
• OrgChartHub: For building organizational charts in HubSpot.
• Sales Tracking Software: For tracking and monitoring sales journeys. 
• Crossbeam: Helping businesses connect with prospects, partners, and opportunities.

Join us as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack. You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level.