From SEO to $38 billion

SEO Laboratory

2025/09/23

Kastytis

In 2006, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, both students at MIT, decided that old marketing was no longer fit for the new era. While big companies were wasting millions of dollars on traditional advertising, they chose a different path, creating content that would attract customers naturally, without interruption.

Their strategy was simple but revolutionary: inbound marketing.

🔥 The old model: interrupt, interrupt, shout

Before HubSpot's rise, the marketing world was dominated by outbound tactics: cold calls, spam emails, TV commercials, banners. The goal was to "force" your audience to hear your message.

The problem? People increasingly ignored these channels, learning to filter, joining social networks and searching for information themselves.

🌱 New vision: letting customers come to you

Halligan and Shah realised that the internet had changed the rules of the game. People already searched for answers on Google, discussions on forums and blogs. So why distract them with advertising when you can be the answer?

They started blogs, guides, free e-books and tools. Content was optimised for Google search, based on real queries, not guesswork. Thus was born their "traffic machine".

📈 Result: from zero to $38 billion

In less than two decades, HubSpot has grown into a global business that today is valued at around USD 38 billion and has more than 180,000 customers worldwide.

Their success was based on several principles:

Inbound > Interruption - content that helps, not interrupts.
Search traffic > Paid advertising - organics as a long-term investment.
Lead magnets > Landing pages - valuable resources in exchange for leads.

🔑 Why is it important today?

HubSpot has shown that you don't need the biggest budget to win. You need understand your audience and create content that answers their questions.

In 2025, when AI as the internet is flooded with mass-generated content, this lesson becomes relevant again: authenticity and value still trump gimmicks.

✨ Lessons for us:

Sometimes the smartest move is not to shout loudly, but to be quietly present where customers are already looking.