HubSpot CEO: We would've struggled on the West Coast - Boston Business Journal

Cambridge-based inbound marketing software firm HubSpot may be all about throwing out the traditional wisdom on how to market your company.

But launching in the Boston area can offer advantages in terms of helping startups get attention in a more conventional way — through the press, HubSpot CEO and co-founder Brian Halligan said Friday at the TiECON East conference in Cambridge.

In Silicon Valley, you're a small fish in a huge pond, Halligan said. "It's hard to get written about and noticed. It's hard to get love out there," he said.

Whereas on the East Coast, launching a promising startup is a bigger deal and media outlets are more likely to cover you, Halligan said.

East Coast workers tend to be more committed over the long term to their companies than talent on the West Coast, he said.

"Socially people are more committed to your companies" on the East Coast, and will stay with the companies through the inevitable challenging times, Halligan said.

When Silicon Valley companies fall on tough times, "the whole company leaves to goes to work for competitors," he said.

"I think HubSpot would've really struggled to be successful on the West Coast," he said. "I would advise, do not go to the Valley. It's a very tough game."

Halligan, one of the keynote speakers for the conference, also spoke about his experience raising money from West Coast venture capitalists as an East Coast company. HubSpot waited until its later rounds, Series C and D, to raise funding from Silicon Valley, he said.

"For early-stage rounds they won't come East," Halligan said. "I would not flirt with the West Coast until you get bigger."

Halligan said he's had a "fantastic" experience working with East Coast venture firms General Catalyst Partners and Matrix Partners, and said East Coast VCs in general "catch a lot of flack" and "don't deserve it."

HubSpot's software is focused on helping customers to attract leads using Web content creation, social media and search-engine optimization.

The company's HubSpot 3 version aims to offer customers more ability to customize the Web, mobile and email experience of their visitors, using information stored about each visitor in a contacts database.

The firm has reported that its 2012 revenue came in at $52.5 million, climbing 82 percent above the prior year's tally. The company, which has raised $100 million in funding since its founding in 2006, is now eyeing the public markets.

"We might file later this year, or next year," Halligan said in a recent interview. "I think we're big enough and predictable enough to go (public) now, but we're not in a big hurry."

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