The big shift for HubSpot over the past year, according to CEO Brian Halligan, was from a marketing-centric company to a product-centric one. That’s apparently paying off, as HubSpot saw its revenues rise 82% in 2012 to $52.5 million. Its customer base also increased by 42% to 8,440 and its headcount jumped 41% to 429.
Halligan estimates that revenue per customer was up between 15-20%, which he attributes squarely to last year’s release of HubSpot 3, and customers’ ensuing desire to upgrade in order to utilize more features.
While Halligan made clear that there was no new news on the company’s anticipated IPO, he did note that the company has started to hire more finance, accounting, and compliance people in preparation. “We’re paying big bills to our auditors, so we’re getting ready,” he told me. “We’ll look to file maybe later this year, early next year, something like that.”
A big area of planned expansion in 2013 is the international market, as HubSpot plans to hire aggressively in its Dublin office. But Halligan estimates that roughly 80% of new hires this year will still be in Boston, particularly developers.
The company hasn’t started to tap into the $35 million it raised back in November, but Halligan says it will begin to do so this year, and reiterated his interest in more M&A activity. (Any thoughts on who HubSpot will want to acquire? Let us know in the comments.)
Whenever it does happen, the HubSpot IPO will be a huge moment for the Boston startup scene. If nothing else, it’ll hopefully mean an expanded crop of local angels. We’ll, of course, be keeping a close eye on this one, as we have for the past couple years. If you have thoughts or tips, leave them in the comments or email me: walter at bostinno.
Here are the slides from the HubSpot release:
