The software giant Hubspot has been on a structural and financial roller coaster the past few weeks. Currently, they are experiencing a high with their recent Q2 earnings report. Investors are rejoicing due to their quarterly revenue exceeding expectations, which is music to any shareholder’s ears.
Not only is this great news for the wallets of many, but Hubspot’s revenue growth is a perfect shift from the recent events of executive misconduct that has been overshadowing any Hubspot financial news.
Hubspot is still reeling off of the news about their CMO, Mike Volpe, and the nefarious events surrounding the acquisition of an ex-employee’s manuscript.
“I’m not proud of the way our CMO transition played out, but I am proud of the transparent culture of HubSpot that brought the matter to light.”
The manuscript in question is speculated to contain information about Hubspot that Volpe would not like to be made public. This is all speculation, but the fact of the matter remains that whatever Volpe was up to, Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan was aware of the acquisition attempt. Hubspot’s board was not thrilled to learn that Halligan did not report Volpe’s acts in as timely a fashion as they would deem appropriate.
The board may not agree with his actions, but the tech community still holds a torch for the rockstar CMO. He has worked with thousands of professionals in his career and the vast majority of them consider him a top-tier marketer , who has created an inbound powerhouse. His strategies have not only brought Hubspot from 0 to $100 million, but have solidified them as the benchmark for marketing a product.
This sound very weird to me. @mikevolpe surely was one of the best in Hubspot https://t.co/lnmzWQsZYh
— Gianluca Fiorelli (@gfiorelli1) August 11, 2015
Through all of the turmoil that Hubspot has been experiencing, their numbers are undeniably solid, yet JP Morgan sees a different set of numbers. JP Morgan has come out recently and implored investors to stop buying Hubspot shares .
The recent report has exclaimed the following.
“Historically, SMB-oriented software companies such as HubSpot incur higher churn rates and embed less takeout premium than Enterprise-oriented businesses.”
Mark Murphy is the analyst behind the report and he goes on to say the following.
“… the downgrade was based primarily on valuation and was not related to ‘business conditions’ or the recent management shake-up.”
No one is saying that Murphy’s report is wrong, but most are ignoring the seemingly baseless claims that Hubspot will not be a perpetual success.
[Image Credit via Gil C / Shutterstock]