DAVID GALPER - Key Persons
Brian Halligan, CEO of Cambridge, MA based marketing software company Hubspot, has been in the news recently for his progressive beliefs on company culture and optimistic view of millennials. This comes to no surprise since at a25, Halligan was leading an international team for a startup which grew to 400 employees. Because of his own success, very early in his career, he has a lot of faith in his millennial employees and believe that they have the ability to achieve more than many think they are capable of. "I take these young kids at HubSpot and I give them huge responsibility," he says. "Sometimes they mess it up, but more often than not they get it right." Halligan goes on to say that "gray hair and experience are really overrated."
In recent years, there has been a reoccurring trend in regards to attracting and retaining millennial talent and it is clear that many CEOs do not know or understand what this population wants. "I just think cultures are stuck in the 1990s and don't match the way Gen Y-ers work," he says. Halligan knows they want freedom to work in different locations and travel, they care more about learning and less about money, and they get bored with their jobs about every six months. He applies what he has learned to the way he runs Hubspot each day and caters to the way that young people thrive. He encourages movement around the company every three months between departments and positions in order to keep gen-yers interested.
Business Insider got the scoop from CEO Brian Halligan, who started the company in 2006 with MIT Sloan classmate and current CTO Dharmesh Shah. Below is their conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.