A month or so ago Saul started a small position in HubSpot (HUBS). To the people who bought in – beware.
A new book by Dan Lyons, “Disrupted” – “My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble” published on April 5, 2016, may want you to rethink your investment.
Dan Lyons – long time Newsweek technology reporter. Know best for the blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” he wrote back in the ‘aughts’. In here he had 90 pounds of satire with 10 ounces of truth. After getting laid off in 2012 he decided to work for the other side and became a blogger for HubSpot.
It did not go well.
In the book he describes what HubSpot does; Help small to medium size companies write and issue billions of spam emails. (His term, not the Company’s)
Their cult-like attitude. (Right down to the term Drinking the Kool-Aid. Actually that’s a whole Silicon Valley term)
The Bozo Explosion – When hiring new talent, get someone not as smart as you so as to not threaten your position.
It goes on from there.
Of course the book is an opinion of one fifty-something year-old guy is a sea of twenty somethings with a different point of view.
Just Beware.
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long time Newsweek technology reporter.
Wrong spelling, it’s “newsWEAK.”
Denny Schlesinger
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Well let’s see:
Their Revenue (in millions) the last eight quarters:
27
30
34
38
43
48
53
59
Up AT LEAST 10% SEQUENTIALLY every quarter! This quarter over a year ago: $59 million/$38 million = up 55%! That’s Revenue!
And their trailing 12 month Operating Cash Flow:
-12.5
-10.7
-6.8
-4.8
-0.4
+3.6
Doesn’t sound like a company in trouble. In fact it sounds as if their customers like what they sell.
Gartner ranks HubSpot as the best overall marketing automation software with a rating of 88.
Last quarter, the Average Revenue Per Customer grew at a startling 18% year over year.
Their best testimonial comes from Shopify, which incorporates the HubSpot product. In fact a large number of their testimonials come from other marketing automation companies who customize and resell the HUBS solution.
Maybe this guy just has an ax to grind. More likely he took the job with the idea of writing this book as a possible income producing enterprise, since you refer to a previous book that was high on satire and low on truth.
Best,
Saul, who just happens to be in the midst of adding a little to his HUBS position today.
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Of course the book is an opinion of one fifty-something year-old guy
We’ve heard a ton of similar stories about Apple and Amazon back in the 2000’s.
Stories don’t make or break investments.
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