I sold my media company (@govloop) to a SaaS company (@govdelivery) over 10 years ago. A few reaction from listening to the @theSamParr @ShaanVP podcast on @HubSpot buyings @TheHustle
1) The value arbitrage is real. When we sold GovLoop probably had 10X the brand awareness and customer reach than GovDelivery but were worth probably 20X less in enterprise value.
2) The talent arbitrage is real as well. Comparing apples to apples - media talent is higher calibre, more output for less money than the same talent doing similar work at SaaS companies.
3) Keepin independence is possible. GovLoop still today runs pretty independently within GovDelivery (now Granicus). But that takes great leadership on all sides (thanks @smburns @dmashkuri ) as easy to mess that up.
4) Balancing the trade-off between media revenue & SaaS marketing is difficult. Is Hubspot willing to lose $500k of Trends / ads revenue in exchange for $500k Hubspot ARR? Need clear prioritization & incentives to match.
5) Knowledge on media audience growth can be translated into B2B SaaS. Was lucky enough to transition from media President to 2-time SaaS CMO - 80% of it was the same (building audience, building content, running a funnel), the rest can be learned.
6) Good luck to @theSamParr and the @HubSpot team - really excited by what you'll build together. And let me know if I can ever share some lessons from 10 years of a similar journey.
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