Best and worst traits of all startups - Services HubSpot Employee Review

1.0
5 Sept 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very subjective pros: Beer fridge, frat house environment, East Coast pioneers in brogramming, work-related parties, work-related after-hours hackathons, work-related dinners, work-branded swag.

Cons

Take the reviews of HubSpot that suggest that hard work and enterprise are the path to success and advancement in context: it depends on the department and your management. That culture is not company-wide, and despite the rah-rah about transparency, most decisions are made behind closed doors, and most job/advancement openings are filled silently because someone pitched it directly to a decision-maker. There's no infrastructure for advancement on merit if you do not play the office politics. If your management, especially your VP-level management, doesn't like you or your ideas, you're not moving. You don't have control over your own advancement unless you have some degree of suction with management. Company culture reinforces that HubSpot comes first; you socialize through HubSpot, you eat at HubSpot, you play at HubSpot, you bath at HubSpot, you exercise with HubSpotters, you drink with HubSpotters. If this is a problem, or if you want a life outside of work that doesn't include HubSpot, company culture reinforces that there are tons of other startups in Cambridge, which is a very, very good point. For Services, morale is bottomed out; people who are staying are doing so for the IPO or because they can get away with a level of achievement commiserate to their pay. Don't join HubSpot for the options, don't join it for the culture, don't join it for the career trajectory unless you already know someone who knows someone already there. Please don't join if you're an introvert. Join if you're an ace at office politics, if you can wrap any level of work in a nice presentation, or if you're interested in marketing or sales. Join if you don't mind promoting your employer and anyone your employer is affiliated with on your personal social media channels. This is a marketing company, no matter what they sell now or decide to sell later--they will sell marketing to anyone. If you aren't interested in marketing, no matter what position you're applying for, no matter how far away from marketing you think you'll be, stay away.

Explore other reviews about HubSpot

5.0
1 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

this company had great benefits

Cons

no cons that I can think of

2.0
22 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The teams you work with are phenomenal. The knowledge combination between an internal customer facing teams, engineering product development teams, and Sales are unmatched.

Cons

Excessive use of PIPs to oust employees after multiple high revenue launches, with no explanation, actual documentation, or factual data. Reviews have been adjusted to allow for terminations post pre-approved leaves. Salaries are a joke. You are always in a cover yourself mode 24/7. Management reviews are consistently a 2 or 3 out of 5 no matter what. If a team decides you aren’t in the group, management will put you on a “unofficial” PIP without telling you, in order to surprise you at a later date. Even if they are unfounded. Beware of possibility of negative backlash post launches. They will feel the need to assign blame ( such as for timelines or issues related to bugs). Regardless of performance or level of involvement. This is an enormous company with many large paths for career advancement. But micro management is rampant, leaving little room for doing the daily expectations of your actual role. This degrades your opportunities for career advancement.

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