In this short segment of the Revenue Builders Podcast, HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan pulls back the curtain on the uncomfortable truth of scaling: there is no magic inflection point—only relentless progress, painful setbacks, and self-inflicted potholes. Brian shares how HubSpot embraced a “Pothole Report” mindset to identify unforced errors before they became existential threats, why most scaling failures are internal, and how long-term thinking—not quick exits—shaped HubSpot into a generational company. It’s a masterclass in founder mindset, operational discipline, and playing the long game in hypergrowth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[00:00:25 ] There is no magical hire, partnership, or customer that suddenly fixes everything—success is a grind, even in the best moments
[00:01:13 ] The road to scale is filled with setbacks, many of which are self-inflicted rather than caused by competition
[00:01:58 ] The “Pothole Report” helped HubSpot systematically identify mistakes, root causes, and missing metrics before small issues became big failures
[00:02:32 ] Promoting too fast without protecting core functions can quietly break critical systems like customer support
[00:03:27 ] In hypergrowth, people, systems, processes, and products don’t scale naturally—everything eventually breaks
[00:04:28 ] No system, process, or role lasts more than three years without needing to be rebuilt or replaced
[00:05:12 ] Contrary to startup mythology, acquisition opportunities are rare—even for successful, fast-growing companies
[00:06:20 ] Founders often optimize for “local maxima” instead of anchoring their ambition against truly global category leaders
[00:07:17 ] Aligning founder expectations early—especially around time horizon and exit scenarios—enables long-term conviction and focus

QUOTES

[00:00:25 ] “Every happy moment’s been a grind.”
[00:01:13 ] “So many setbacks along the way. So many unforced errors.”
[00:01:58 ] “Here’s all the potholes we have—and almost all of them we caused ourselves.”
[00:03:27 ] “In hypergrowth mode, nothing scales. Everything breaks.”
[00:04:44 ] “No person lasts longer than three years. No system, no process, no nothing.”
[00:06:42 ] “We wanted to build a company our grandkids would be proud of.”
[00:07:36 ] “We’d already made some money—so we decided to swing hard.”

Listen to the full conversation through the link below.
https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/innovating-and-iterating-for-growth-with-hubspot-co-founder-brian-halligan

Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox:
https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0

Check out John McMahon’s book here:
Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4

Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: 
https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.