Brian Halligan

Brian Halligan, co-founder of HubSpot, served as the company's CEO until 2021. During this time, he earned consistent recognition on Glassdoor’s and Comparably’s lists of best CEOs. 

Brian coined the term "inbound marketing" and together with Dharmesh Shah built a movement around the concept, which included organizing the INBOUND (now called UNBOUND) event and co-authoring the book Inbound Marketing.

Today, Brian is a partner at Sequoia Capital, where he advises and coaches startup founders to become scaleup CEOs. He is also the host of Long Strange Trip: CEO to CEO with Brian Halligan, a podcast where he sits down with some of the most compelling CEOs operating today to uncover the new rules of scaling and CEOing.

He began his career with a BSEE from the University of Vermont as an early employee at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). Over a decade-long tenure, he was tapped to establish and build PTC’s Pacific Rim operation out of Hong Kong and Tokyo, growing it to $100 million in revenue. He subsequently served as vice president of sales at Groove Networks, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2005 and became part of Microsoft SharePoint Workspace.

Brian earned an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management, where he continues to stay involved. Brian developed MIT’s popular Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures class, which he has taught for over a decade. In recognition of his outstanding mentorship in entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan honored Brian with the Monosson Prize in 2023. In addition to teaching on the topic of scaling, Brian tweets, writes, and advises on the topic often.

In 2022, Brian helped launch Propeller Ventures, a $100 million climate tech venture fund, specializing in ocean innovation investments, reflecting his deep personal commitment to ocean science and sustainability.

A passionate fan and student of the Grateful Dead, Brian co-authored Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead. As the proud owner and steward of Jerry Garcia's Wolf guitar, he continues to honor the legacy of the iconic band.

Brian grew up around Boston, built HubSpot in Cambridge, and has long been one of the city's most vocal champions, advocating for Boston as a major tech hub and helping the next generation of founders coming out of its universities and neighborhoods.

You can get to know Brian better by talking to his AI agent, following his tweets, listening to his podcast, or joining his class.