Dharmesh Shah

Founder and CTO at HubSpot. Helping millions grow better.

Career startup guy.

Author of the book &quot;Inbound Marketing&quot; (http://InboundBook.com)

Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Software Development, internet marketing,SEO

Founder and CTO

Founder of HubSpot, a venture-backed software startup.  HubSpot offers the industry's first inbound marketing system for small businesses.  The software is available as a hosted service (SaaS).

This might be the SCARIEST and/or CRAZIEST thing I've done in years.

But, here we go...

Even before PLG (Product Led Growth) there is usually Founder Led Growth.

I've long believed that *everyone* in an early-stage startup should be selling the product and helping customers get value. Even if you've never done sales. *Especially* if you've never done sales.  

But, there's no reason to limit this to just the early days of a startup.

So, in the spirit of curiosity, learning and love, I'm trying something new.

I'm going to jump back into "early-stage" mode and help sell HubSpot. Not just sell the vision of HubSpot (which I do all the time), but sell the actual product/platform that we provide to customers.

HubSpot is 20 years old and has 280,000+ customers. Why would I do this? 

Simple, because:  I LOVE HUBSPOT! 

And, I want to share my love with as many other founders and founding teams as I can. 

Also because I'm competitive and love a challenge.  

I'm going to track it all and see how many people I can get to sign-up for HubSpot Free or Starter edition. 

I've got a ton of ideas I want to try that I think will help drive sign-ups. 

As part of this effort, I'll be creating a series of "founder to founder" videos. Some ideas I have:

1) A "speed-run" of signing up for HubSpot and getting your first contact in there and starting to use it.

2) A demo/screencast of how I *personally* use HubSpot for Agent.ai (a HubSpot Next project).  It has 2.5M users and is growing. So, it's a *real* startup with real data. I get to also then show-off how we're using HubSpot with AgentAI to automate some things (like monitoring for VIP signups). 

3) WTF is an ACP (Agentic Customer Platform) and does a startup really need one?

4) Why can't I juse vibe code my own CRM?

5) Why wouldn't I just use one of the super-cool AI-native CRM products? 

Or...any questions that you folks have.

Phew!  I'm nervous...but excited.  

If you're already a HubSpot customer, THANK YOU! 

If not, then give me a chance to convince you.  :)

Visit:  GOHUBSPOT .ai

And in the meantime, please leave your comments, feedback, questions and pushbacks for upcoming videos.

Off to the races!

Thanks for your support.

#ILoveHubSpot #GoHubSpot

Woo hoo!  Thrilled to share a sneak peek of HubCode -- The Vibe Coding Tool for HubSpot.

I talked about this a few weeks ago (which feels like forever). 

Been cranking on it and am ready to show you the actual app now.  Link to video in the comments. Or, just type video.hubcode .com in your browser (it takes you to YouTube).

Some notes:

1) This requires no terminal -- runs completely in the cloud

2) You can vibe code both app cards and full apps that live inside the HubSpot web UI.

3) Generated apps can access data within HubSpot (of course).

4) SUPER EXCITING: Apps can reuse any of the public agents in agent .ai (there are 2,000+ of them). This makes your apps super-powerful because you can access all sorts of data and services. And, you can build your own agents and access them too.

This gives you access to all the major frontier models, a bunch of really useful data sources and a ton of other capability. Go to agent .ai to see what's available.

The demo shows pulling YouTube videos related to a company right into the app card.

5) You can paste in screenshots or other visuals as part of your vibe coding process (if you haven't done this before, it will feel magical). 

The HubCode app runs on the agent .ai platform and is in private beta (because this one's going to take some testing and iteration give the power and flexibility).  To apply, just go to hubcode .com.

This is an early "proof of concept", but will be iterating on it maniacally as I get user feedback.

Let me know what you think.  All thoughts, ideas, feedback and wishlist items appreciated.

FEEDBACK IS A GIFT.  Thank you!

Thank you for your support.

I empower millennial & gen X job seekers in tech to land and pass interviews with confidence

Do you feel frustrated with the current job market?
Do you struggle to communicate in interviews?
Do you get rejected often? 
Do you get ghosted?

It usually takes a handful of interviews to warm up. 
But those handful of interviews are jobs. 
Jobs you might really want. 

For the last 20 years, I’ve been studying interviews. 
First as a candidate, then as a hiring manager. 
I’ve been in hundreds of interviews. 

I interviewed countless candidates and interviewers. 
I worked with interviewers to make hiring decisions. 
I learned what worked and didn’t work. 

And I learned that interviews aren’t about trivia. 
They’re about human connection. 
They’re about story telling. 

Interviewers want to experience working with you. 
Interviewers want to see if you’re like them. 
People want to work with people they like. 

I know what rejection feels like. I’ve been there. 
And I know what it’s like to crave feedback.
I know what it feels like to be ghosted. 

And I know what it feels like to get the offer. 
What it feels like to crush an interview. 

Today, I help people make a lasting impression. 
I help them show, not tell, how they work. 
I coach them on how to tell their story. 

I give them the feedback they crave. 
So they don’t have to warm on when it counts. 

Dozens have worked with me so far. 
And they’ve seen results in as little as 7-8 weeks. 

So what are you waiting for? I’m here to help you.

Jonathan Corrales

"Went through 6 rounds of interviews...just to get rejected. 6 rounds just to end up with nothing is exhausting"

One of my first interviews was an all day interview in Atlanta, Georgia.

The day started at 7am, in the lobby of the hotel. 12 other candidates joined me and our interviewers for breakfast.

There was a morning round and an afternoon round. Each one was a panel interview with about 3-4 interviewers.

The interviews ranged from technical/whiteboard exercises to experience-based recaps. I remember how grueling the day felt.

After 8 hours of being "on," I had to jump in a car to beat rush hour (spoiler: rush hour was not beat that day).

I got home around 10-11pm. I immediately passed out on my bed. I did the best that I could at the time.

By the end of the week, I got rejected. That stung, a lot. All that effort and energy for naught.

That's when I realized that sometimes I'll give something my all and I'll fail. I could be discouraged by it, or motivated by it.

I chose to be motivated. I noted what worked. Worked on what didn't work. Then nailed the next interview with the Patent Office.

Ever since, I believed the fear of failure is worse than failure itself. Failure is a phenomenal learning tool.



Application:

If you've gone multiple rounds for an interview only to get rejected, take a moment to write what worked, what didn't work, and what you could do better.

Then move on.

--

👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.

I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

It's near impossible to get feedback after an interview. But what about before, or during, an interview?

One time I had a recruiter reach out to me for a position using a language I hadn't used since college: C++.

I wondered: why do I keep getting calls for C++ positions? Isn't it clear from my work experience that I code in a different language?

Does anyone read my resume?

I was frustrated. Annoyed. Irritated. I was mad at them for misreading my resume, which was clearly flawless.

But I wasn't getting the hint the universe was giving me.

(My wife will confirm, I'm bad at getting hints.)

One day I decided to pay attention. I took C++ off my resume... And the world didn't end. In fact, I started getting calls for positions I wanted.

That's when I realized I can get feedback throughout my job search, if I pay close attention.



For example:

→ During a phone screen, "I see you have" statements highlight what's interesting on my resume or profile.

→ During an interview, any questions related to my resume shows me what's relevant to the position at hand.

→ During an interview, I could aske why they reached out to me, if it wasn't apparent from the discussion. I'd know what I'm doing right.

And ever since, I make sure to get feedback before and during interviews.



Lesson:

Recruiters and hiring managers are dropping hints about why they reached out. Take note.



Application:

Next time someone reaches out to you on LinkedIn or gives you a phone call about an opportunity, ask them: what made you reach out to me?

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👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.

I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

To the job seekers in tech that aren't getting interviews at the moment

If you're on the market for 3 months and only get 2 interviews total, what should you do?

Rewrite your resume? Overhaul your LinkedIn profile? Build a personal brand? Get referrals?

Those things can help you get interviews. But once you get the interview, it’s up to you.

It's up to you to turn those interviews into offers. There's no interview hack. It's hours of study, preparation, and practice.

Think about what's on the line with an interview in tech: a six figure compensation package. Remote work. Interesting problems to solve.

If an interview is coming up in a week, that's not the time to grind LeetCode, cram system design concepts, or brush up on whatever the STAR method is. The time to do that was months before.

Do you want to wing it on a six figure opportunity? Or do you want to pull out all the stops and nail that next interview?

It’s risky bet.

But look at it this way: all you need is one good interview.

What if you got an offer after one interview? That would be a short job search.

Here are tools I recommend (and have used) to prepare for technical interviews:



Data Structs and Algos

- Roadmap: https://lnkd.in/es38-frn

- Algorithm visualizer: https://visualgo.net/en

- Data Structs and Algos: https://lnkd.in/eqzi7tdP

- Data Structs and Algos videos: https://lnkd.in/e72pVVQc



Design Patterns

- Clean code: https://lnkd.in/eQTpk4D7

- Design Patterns: https://lnkd.in/ets_PYvB



System Design

- Case studies at InfoQ: https://lnkd.in/eNAsr9KK

- On scaling architecture: https://lnkd.in/e6zu8PXf

- System Design videos: https://lnkd.in/esM-DTN7

- System design at ByteByteGo: https://lnkd.in/essZcWq9



On Interviews

- Mock interviews: https://lnkd.in/eBtJw98w

- Interview warmup: https://lnkd.in/evVyYME5



Interview guides from big tech

- Amazon: https://lnkd.in/ePmy_mMq

- Apple: https://lnkd.in/enXrvQK7

- Google: https://lnkd.in/ekcDUyCM

- Meta: https://lnkd.in/epHr8dpb

- Microsoft: https://lnkd.in/eapA5FgN

- NVIDIA: https://lnkd.in/eanKbUAN



--

👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.

I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers

#newgrads #students

#interviewpreparation

If you're a job seeker in tech, give your stories a short title: one to three words

As I prepare my clients for interviews, we often create five stories. I call it the story stack. 

We start to refer to them by short titles as we prepare for interviews. 

Here are some examples: 
- two feeds
- homepage redesign 
- query performance 
- hotel cost savings 
- subcontractor hiring 

It's like building an index in a book. It helps us easily reference stories quickly.

I'll say, "Use the two feeds story here," or "Your homepage redesign works great."

I have a bad memory and this helps me immensely. 

Give it a shot.

--
👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.
I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

Interviews in tech are more about communication skills than they are about technical skills

Of course, you need some technical knowledge, otherwise you can't handle trivia questions.

But if you can't articulate how you used your knowledge or skill, you'll struggle to move on.

Over the years, I found the most helpful tool for job seekers is structured problem solving.

It took me years to understand what that meant. It's a thing people talk about but don't explain.

Maybe they don't want to? Maybe they can't?

All it means is you have a repeatable process to solve problems. An algorithm, if you will.



For example:

IDEATE

I: Identify problem

D: Define goals

E: Explore strategies

A: Analyze tradeoffs

T: Test a strategy

E: Evaluate results



Now put it into practice. Here's how:

Talk out loud

This is the awkward part of the interview. Most people think quietly. Alone. Now's not the time. Speak your mind.



Recap what you know

Repeat the question in your words. Break down the requirements as you understand them, include assumptions and open questions.



Write things down or diagram

It's hard to keep all this stuff in working memory (i.e. your brain, which is your RAM). Plus, you might need a flowchart or punch list.



Check-in with your interviewer

Confirm you're in sync. Ask if your assumptions are fair (the f-word). Ask questions when you get stuck. They want to know how you think.



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👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.

I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewtips #interviewprep

"I messaged the CEO of the company to tell him what I can do. He told me to go through the proper channels"

I know a lot of career coaches suggest messaging recruiters and hiring managers to get attention.

But some job seekers take that to mean messaging anyone at a company, including CEOs.

That could work. Anything is possible. But the most likely scenario will be that they want you to apply first.

Employers have a hiring process for a reason. Not everyone one is open to making exceptions.

Someone I know reached out to the CEO of a company to get a faster decision because of her needs.

The CEO encouraged her to use the proper channels first. Message him only after trying that a few times. He went on to say that it gave him a bad impression of her. Oof.

Don't try to circumvent the process at a company. Apply first. Then reach out.

Also, remember people in the company will talk. If you message a lot of people at a company, they'll talk about it.

They might block your email address/LinkedIn account. Then you'll make zero progress.

--

👋 Hi, I'm Jonathan.

I empower people in tech to land offers worthy of them.

#techjobs #jobseekers #interviewprep #protips

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