As Hubspot enters Japan, Brian Halligan talks culture, funding, bots, and sumo wrestling

Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan shows what jumping through hoops to get funding looks like. Photo credit: Tech in Asia / Michael Holmes.

In our line of work you tend to hear people talk a lot; whether they’re giving an interview, delivering a keynote, or participating in a panel, there’s a ton of tongue wagging.

So it’s refreshing when, every now and then, you get a little more show and a little less tell.

Case in point: Brian Halligan, CEO of marketing software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Hubspot, who yesterday announced the arrival of his company in Japan from the Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016 stage. Oh, and he did it by reenacting a famous sumo wrestling match.

Culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room.

Brian huffed and puffed and groaned as he impersonated the smaller wrestler Takanohana, against the much larger and heavier Konishiki. Takanohana ended up throwing Konishiki out of the ring, so Hubspot wants to empower the Takanohanas in Japan, Brian told a bewildered audience.

The company already has 103 clients in Japan, Brian told Tech in Asia on the sidelines. It plans to work more closely with agency partners in the country in order to better understand the culture and the way of doing business in Japan.

Culture beat

Culture has become an important point of emphasis for the Boston-born startup. Brian himself wasn’t a big believer in company culture when Hubspot started out in 2006. But two events coincided to change his mind.

One was a happiness survey of Hubspot’s employees, through which people revealed a very positive view of the company’s culture – even though there wasn’t one (or at least not one that had been consciously developed).

The other was a meeting of company CEOs in Boston. In that meeting – which was about culture, appropriately enough – Brian heard from Colin Angle, CEO of Roomba maker iRobot. “He said, ‘Brian, if you want to build a company with thousands of people, culture is how people make decisions when you’re not in the room,’” Brian recalled.

The next step was to put the company’s culture down in writing. As written-down codes go, Hubspot chose to be inspired by one of the most prominent ones; the United States Constitution. “The way we thought about it was, we put ourselves in the shoes of the founding fathers,” Brian said.

Brian talks to Tech in Asia’s David Corbin at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016. Photo credit: Tech in Asia / Michael Holmes.

Founding the United States was based on the principles of the Enlightenment, and the document was meant to be the ultimate expression of this unity. The Hubspot founders wanted to create something similar for their company at the age of the internet, which completely changes the relationship between a company and its employees, its customers, and the market.

Funding acrobatics

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