Organizational behavior is fascinating, especially as a startup grows quickly and evolves into a larger company. There’s a big difference in dynamics when a team moves from 5 people to 10, 50 to 100, and so forth. Take HubSpot, the second fastest growing SaaS company in history, as an example.
HubSpot has a reputation here in the Hub for continuing to attract great employees throughout their growth, and their culture is part of the reason they do so effectively. Their employee-created and -driven culture has led to a cycle of success for the company in terms of recruitment (and clearly in building their business). HubSpot has made their culture a staple of their business, and while you may have checked out The HubSpot Way, here are 12 more points you might not know about HubSpot’s culture:
1. The Anyone-Can-Organize-Anything Mantra
Starting the list out is simply the undercurrent at HubSpot that anyone can organize anything. Have an idea on how to make HubSpot a better place than it already is? All you need to do is dedicate some time and convince a few others it’s as awesome of an idea as you believe. In fact, most of the culture points listed below were created this way.
2. BizTalks
This is a bi-weekly knowledge-dropping event. A “Biz Talk” can be hosted by anyone at HubSpot during lunch on any business topic they wish. Employees come and listen to learn, and have included topics like “Startup Junkie: 11 Startups in 10 years,” “Difficult Conversations- How to Give Effective Feedback,” and “How to Pick the Right CRM for your Company.”
3. No Door Policy
You read right – it’s not an open-door policy; it’s a no door policy. At HubSpot execs sit with everyone else, and in many cases (including the CEO), the walls around cubes have actually been taken down completely. Sparse? Probably not considering all the birch trees and break out spaces at their new office space.
4. The Desk Shuffle
New environments breed new perspectives and creativity (read Iconoclast). At HubSpot, employees switch desks every few months to mix things up. This means new views, new people to meet and talk with daily, and often leads to great new ideas.
5. HubSpot Small Group Dinners
This monthly/bi-monthly initiative is another initiative to help employees to know one another, and ultimately then work better together. a monthly/bi-monthly small group dinner event where people in the company sign up to be paired in RANDOM groups of 5-7 people to go out to dinner and get to know each other better
6. The HubSpot Wiki
If you’ve had a beat on HubSpot since their beginnings or know anyone at the firm, you actually probably have heard about their famous wiki. The wiki allows anyone at HubSpot to comment and add thoughts around everything the company is doing – from commission structure to sales best practices to new business card designs to adding to the thread “If I were CEO of HubSpot, I Would…”
7. Beer and (Spiked)Slushies
The beer fridge is always stalked at HubSpot with some quality beers and those good red and blue labels, too. And on Fridays, the slushy machine is purportedly flowing with a bit of a kick. The only thing they’re missing is a delivery robot (first project for the 30 new devs perhaps?).
8. HubSpot Fellows Program
While HubSpot hires a lot of MBAs, they also provide their employees the opportunity to get a slightly less official one. HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan has partnered with Andrew McAfee (former Harvard prof now at MIT) to teach a “mini-MBA” to any HubSpotter who’s interested. Those enrolled are currently gearing up for their “second semester,” with the first semester bringing in people like Paul English from Kayak and Gail Goodman from Constant Contact. Read about it in full here.
9. HubSpot Food Festival
Have you seen a colleague with some delicious meal at lunch that you can’t help drooling over? Apparently it happens all the time at HubSpot, and enter the food festival. HubSpotters bring in homemade food important to their culture for a special lunch. This brings you right back to high school Spanish/French/etc. class when everyone would introduce and learn about yummy new foods.
10. Podjects
As mentioned, as an employee if you have an idea to make HubSpot better, roll with it. Dubbed “podjects” (pod+project), anyone can start or join a new initiative or experiment. These podjects keep HubSpot entrepreneurial, and many podjects have ended up as some of HubSpot’s most successful products. Part of the key to the their success has been the employee mixes in podjects, often each from different departments in the company.
11. No Vacation Policy
So like the wiki you’ve probably heard rumor of their Mad Men inspired vacation policy: take time when you need it. The company recognizes the all stars they hire work hard and are constantly plugged in. No forms. No rollover. Just go on vacation if you need it, please!
12. Ping Pong All Day, All Night
Healthy competition is, well, healthy. Pong games and tourneys go down all the time at HubSpot. And while I’ve only visited HubSpot at their old office in Kendall Sq., I can’t remember a time when someone wasn’t claiming next game.
Which culture point would you want to emulate at your company? Have you heard of other great initiatives at HubSpot? Leave them in the comments!
This post was put together with help from Adam Enbar, a HubSpot Inbound Marketing Specialist. Thank you, Adam, for sharing how HubSpot’s culture helps it win with other area companies!
