So in any interesting bit of convergent evolution, both Monday and HubSpot have now passed 250,000 customers.
- Both started SMB (Monday even more so), and
- Both have now gone more enterprise (Monday even more)
- But still with the vast majority of their customers SMB.
- Both have also evolved from different roots (marketing for HubSpot, team management for Monday) … to now have CRMs as their core.
Convergent evolution from 2 very different start-ups that now have many similarities at scale.
HubSpot has twice the revenue (and thus twice the ARPU), but also was founded 6 years earlier.
Let’s look at where both companies stand today:
HubSpot
- ARR: $2.7B
- Customer Base: ~258,000 customers across 135+ countries
- Revenue: $2.63 billion in 2024 (24% YoY growth)
- Employee Count: 8,500+
- Founded: 2006
Monday.com
- ARR: $1.125B
- Customer Base: ~245,000 customers worldwide
- Revenue: $268 million in Q4 2024 (32% YoY growth)
- Employee Count: 1,850+
- Founded: 2012
Both companies took different paths but arrived at the same destination: becoming indispensable multi-product core platforms used by hundreds of thousands of businesses globally.
The HubSpot Journey: From Inbound Marketing to Complete CRM+ Platform
HubSpot began with an idea in 2006: to own the inbound marketing space. Co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah recognized that buyers didn’t want to be interrupted by ads—they wanted helpful information. This observation led to a marketing platform that at first didn’t even have marketing automation at its core to one has gradually evolved into a comprehensive customer platform.
HubSpot has achieved jaw-droppinggrowth with a 29% revenue CAGR from Q1 2019 to Q1 2025, growing from $152M to $714M quarterly revenue. Their customer count has grown at a 27% CAGR during the same period, from 61k to 258k customers.
The new customer count just keeps on growing. And while many customers pay more than ever for 3+ “hubs”, HubSpot has also expanded at the low-end of the market with its Essentials edition, which has been wildly successful.
Keys to HubSpot’s Success:
- The “Hub” Strategy: HubSpot mastered the land-and-expand model, starting with Marketing Hub and strategically expanding to Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, Operations Hub, Commerce Hub, and Content Hub. Each module connects to the same Smart CRM database, creating a seamless ecosystem powered by AI.
- The Value-First Ethos: HubSpot’s commitment to providing value before extracting it manifests in their extensive free tools and educational content. Their blog, academy courses, and certification programs have made them a trusted authority with over 500,000 certifications awarded to professionals in 2024.
- Building a Partner Ecosystem: With 1,700+ app integrations (up 10x over the last 5 years) and 7,000+ solutions partners reselling HubSpot, they have built a platform, not just a product. Their ecosystem extends their reach globally.
- Pricing Model Evolution: HubSpot’s multi-tiered pricing approach—from free tools to enterprise solutions—creates natural upgrade paths as companies grow, maximizing lifetime value while maintaining strong operating margins (14% non-GAAP operating margin in Q1 2025).
- Global Expansion: With customers spanning 135+ countries and continued international investment, HubSpot has successfully created a global business with significant growth opportunities (their TAM is $76B in 2024, growing to $128B by 2029, with <10% penetration across all products).
The Monday.com Path: From Team Management to Work OS
Starting later but growing just as impressively and quickly, Monday.com has transformed from a simple team management tool to a comprehensive work operating system. Originally an internal tool at Wix.com in 2010, Monday.com (initially called DaPulse) has blossomed into a platform that lets companies build custom workflows for virtually any business process.
Per their Q1 FY25 earnings, the company has maintained a 22% customer CAGR from 2019-2024, growing their total customer base from 90K to 245K over that period, while generating $282M in Q1 2025 revenue (30% YoY growth) with a strong 90% gross margin.
Monday.com’s Growth Drivers:
- Visual, Intuitive Platform: Monday.com’s colorful, highly visual interface makes complex work management accessible, resulting in high adoption rates and viral spread within organizations.
- True Platform Flexibility: Rather than pre-built solutions, Monday.com offers building blocks that organizations can configure for any workflow, from marketing campaigns to software development and HR processes.
- Bottom-Up Adoption Strategy: Monday.com excels at land-and-expand through individual teams, with employee champions driving wider adoption throughout organizations.
- Bold Marketing Investments: The company’s aggressive marketing—including their memorable Big Game ad—has built massive brand awareness. Monday.com consistently invests in marketing, with sales and marketing representing 48% of revenue in Q1 2025.
- Enterprise Expansion: While maintaining strong SMB growth, Monday.com has successfully moved upmarket. Customers with more than $50,000 in annual recurring revenue grew by 38% YoY to 3,444 in Q1 2025, and those with $100,000+ grew by 46% YoY to 1,328.
Shared Success Factors
Despite their different products and target markets, both companies share critical success factors:
1. Product-Led AND Sales-Led Growth
Both companies leverage a dual approach:
- Self-service options allow SMBs to adopt their platforms without friction
- Enterprise sales teams enable larger deals with sophisticated customers
This hybrid model scales efficiently while capturing both segments. Monday.com’s Q1 FY25 earnings show this perfectly, with both strong overall customer growth and impressive 46% YoY growth in $100k+ ARR customers.
2. Customer Retention Excellence
Both companies showcase impressive net dollar retention:
- HubSpot: 103.9% revenue retention
- Monday.com: 112% overall (116% for customers with $50k+ ARR, 117% for $100k+ ARR customers)
These numbers reflect the sticky nature of their platforms and their continued ability to expand within existing accounts. Monday’s target outside of tech for most of its core customers and its more aggressive approach to $50k+ customers have in part contributed to its higher NRR.
3. Strong Market Education
Both invest heavily in educating their markets:
- HubSpot created the inbound marketing movement through blogs, certifications, and events
- Monday.com uses its platform to showcase innovative work management approaches
This education creates category leadership and drives organic adoption.
4. Continuous Product Innovation
Neither company rests on its laurels:
- HubSpot has embraced AI, offering tools like content generation and customer agent capabilities
- Monday.com has expanded with products like monday dev and WorkForms to target specific use cases
This innovation protects them from commoditization.
5. To Focus on Tech … Or Not?
One large different between the two is the verticals they focus on. 70% of Monday’s customer base is outside of tech. While HubSpot’s base is more diverse now, it‘s core customers are from tech.
Lessons for Growing B2B Companies
What can other B2B companies learn from these successes?
- Think Platform, Not Just Product: Both companies evolved from point solutions to comprehensive platforms that solve multiple interconnected problems.
- Create Multiple Revenue Expansion Levers: Successful SaaS businesses need multiple ways to increase customer lifetime value—new products, tiered pricing, usage-based components, and cross-sells.
- Invest in Community and Education: Building category thought leadership creates a moat around your business that competitors struggle to cross.
- Balance Product-Led and Sales-Led Motion: The most scalable SaaS businesses can acquire customers efficiently through self-service while also closing larger enterprise deals. It’s not either / or. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be.
- Global from the Start: Both companies prioritized international expansion, localizing their platforms and establishing regional presence.
The Road Ahead
For both HubSpot and Monday.com, the 250,000 customer milestone is just another marker on their growth journey. Both face similar challenges:
- AI Integration: Both are aggressively incorporating AI to maintain competitive advantage, with HubSpot positioning itself as “the #1 AI-powered customer platform for scaling companies” according to their Q1 2025 investor presentation
- Vertical Expansion: Both are targeting industry-specific solutions to deepen their reach
- Enterprise Competition: Both must continue evolving to compete with entrenched enterprise players
- Financial Performance: Both companies are showing impressive financial discipline alongside growth. HubSpot reached $100M in quarterly non-GAAP operating profit in Q1 2025 (a 41% CAGR since Q1 2019) and has $2.2B in cash with a 19% free cash flow margin. They’re targeting 20-22% operating margin by 2027 and 25% in the long term.
The companies that succeed at this scale will be those that maintain their customer-centric innovation while building operational excellence to support their massive customer bases.
Final Thoughts
There are no excuses for running out of customers. That’s the #1 lesson to take away from HubSpot + Monday.
At least not in horizontal plays. Monday and HubSpot both prove this. But also — they had to radically expand their platforms, and go upmarket, to keep that engine going.
Too many don’t do enough there, and see growth stall out. HubSpot and Monday prove you don’t have to, though. Even at 250,000+ customers, they are both still adding epic numbers of new customers.
In fact, neither are seeing any slowdown in their net new customer acquisition rate.
What’s your excuse again?
