Getting Others to Build on Your Platform: Lessons Learned from HubSpot's App Accelerator

In this episode of SaaS Connect by the Cloud Software Association, Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, shares lessons learned from HubSpot’s App Accelerator. HubSpot started as an inbound marketing company to help marketers use inbound marketing successfully as a methodology, and their offerings included HubSpot Academy and software. Today, it has evolved into a full CRM platform. Scott’s role at HubSpot is to build out the app platform ecosystem. He is the mastermind of a lot of the work that’s been done, and someone who's been able to have a major influence in the development of that ecosystem for HubSpot. This is what you can expect to hear about in this episode: The mechanisms of building an ecosystem on top of the HubSpot platform. Lesson learned, and how App Accelerator built and cultivated a cohort of integrations from zero. They started with eight participating companies and by the third accelerator, they had 60, eventually learning that 25 companies was ideal. What made HubSpot decide to not incentivise. (Hint: they only wanted people to build something if there was legitimately a real market opportunity...) How Scott’s history as an ISV contributes towards innovation in HubSpot’s ISV program. What one thing about App Accelerator that they did not anticipate but turned out to be one of the larger side benefits. (Hint: the feedback about how to improve the platform...) How HubSpot defines success according to Northstar metrics. (Hint: active installs with customers...) Recruiting strategy for the project. The journey to become a HubSpot featured partner. Resources Mentioned: Wix Martech Crossbeam Salesforce  Marketo Eloqua Northstar Thank you to our amazing podcast team at Content Allies! Want to launch your own B2B revenue-generating podcasts? Contact them at https://ContentAllies.com