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A secretive R&D group may raise its profile

HubSpot Labs ponders a variety of possible new directions

Dharmesh Shah (left) and Brian Halligan founded HubSpot, a Cambridge inbound marketing firm that had its IPO in October.Dina Rudick/Globe Staff/File 2014/Globe Staff

The digital marketing company HubSpot is holding meetings this week to consider changes to its low-key, “super-secret R&D group,” HubSpot Labs. HubSpot Labs offers employees funding and time to work on projects that aren’t closely tied to the company’s core offering, software that helps clients attract prospects to their website and turn them into buyers.

HubSpot cofounder Dharmesh Shah said HubSpot Labs has been an umbrella term “for noncore projects, and we have several of those going on at any given time.” The equivalent of 20 to 25 full-time employees in the company’s Cambridge headquarters and its Dublin outpost tend to be focused on such projects, Shah said.

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“We think of them like startups. Initially, you get seed funding but you keep your day job at the company.” But as things progress, staffers may be freed from the day jobs and given millions of dollars to develop their ideas.

The biggest hit for HubSpot Labs has been Sidekick, which helps sales people manage e-mail communications — like learning more about people they’re corresponding with, or seeing which people clicked on their messages. Sidekick is generating revenue, with per-user pricing starting at $10 per month, Shah said. Other Labs-funded initiatives include Inbound.org, an online community for marketers, and LeadIn, “a low-end version of HubSpot” that works with WordPress, a publishing platform.

Shah calls Inbound.org “my current passion project.” It has more than 70,000 members and will probably get additional funding this year.

What may change about HubSpot Labs?

One possibility, Shah said, is allowing employees to submit ideas without signing up to shepherd the ideas along: “Anyone can submit, and we’ll connect them with entrepreneurial people inside the company.” Another is creating a dedicated pool of capital for Labs projects; right now, money is allocated ad hoc by Shah and CEO Brian Halligan. A third idea is making angel investments in startups or other projects outside the company.

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“There are lots of entrepreneurial folks at HubSpot,” Shah said. “Lots of them graduate and go off and do their own startups. But with Labs, if you have an idea, even if it’s only loosely related to HubSpot, you can try it out but stay within the fold. It gives entrepreneurial folks here a channel for their energies.” He sees that as helping with recruiting high-powered employees and with retaining them.

Shah contends that Labs hasn’t been intentionally stealthy since its inception — but one result of this week’s meetings could be more promotion of the group’s existence.

Perhaps one day its silent Twitter account will even emit a tweet.


Scott Kirsner can be reached
at kirsner@pobox.com. Follow him
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