HubSpot CEO on the Future of SaaS, AI, & Leading Through Change

From a 350-square-foot home in South India to leading HubSpot, a $30B CRM powerhouse, Yamini Rangan’s journey is nothing short of remarkable. In this episode, Yamini shares how she’s guiding HubSpot through a post-pandemic shift toward product-led growth, the hard-won lessons behind building go-to-market alignment, and why human-centric leadership is her edge in an AI-first world. Plus, her take on why data is the new battleground in tech. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 00:52 Introduction 02:22 Fire in my belly 10:06 Constraints 12:19 Peak performance 16:38 Helping while in sheer panic 21:43 The general ethos 30:14 Customer value 36:08 Excited and scared 47:25 Becoming CEO 54:19 Feeling behind 1:01:51 Very lonely 1:05:34 Losing credibility 1:08:42 Slowing down, sitting still 1:12:31 No patience to finish a book 1:15:39 Who HubSpot is hiring 1:15:54 What “grit” means to Yamini 1:16:45 Outro Mentioned in this episode: Sequoia Capital, Carl Pieri, Brian Halligan, Zoom Workplace, Meta Platforms, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, Salesforce, Blockbuster Video, BlackBerry Limited, Axon Enterprise, Netflix, Snapchat, Harvey, Dharmesh Shah, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Links: Connect with YaminiXLinkedIn Connect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins