Aligning Vectors: What Elon Musk Taught Me About Growing A Business

What Elon Musk Taught Me
About Growing A Business

These slides are from a live keynote
by Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh)
at INBOUND 2017
Full Video: aligningvectors.com

Sequoia Capital
to Brian, me
legendary founders
Brian & Dharmesh,
Buried deep in the hills between our Menlo Park office
gathering of our most
and the Pacific Ocean, we’re hosting a small (n=100)
(both current & alumni) on May 13-14, 2016.
We’d be honored if you could join us.
10/12/15

hosting a small (n=100)
legendary foundersgathering of our most
and the Pacific Ocean, we’re
Sequoia Capital
to Brian, me
10/12/15
Brian & Dharmesh,

Sequoia Capital
to Brian, me
and the Pacific Ocean, we’re hosting a
legendary foundersgathering of our most
small (n=100)
10/12/15
Brian & Dharmesh,

indoorsy
+ introverted
+ insecure

indoorsy
= intimidated
+ introverted
+ insecure

Dharmesh Shah
to Sequoia Capital
2:17 AM
I’m honored to be invited, but unfortunately
I can’t make it.
Thanks.
-Dharmesh

Sequoia Capital
to me
1:23 PM
Oh, and by the way, Elon Musk will be joining us.

Daddy, tell Elon I can
help him draw cars.
Oh, and please get  
a selfie with him.

How do you
work towards
solving such
big problems?

Let’s say your company is trying to get from
Point BPoint A to

Your progress is
determined by the
sum of all vectors.
Every person on the team is a vector.

Vector: A quantity
having both magnitude
and direction.

vectors aligned = maximum impact
999 9

A W E S O M E I N B O U N D E R
September 26, 2017
In honor of outstanding awakeness during
V E C T O R A L I G N M E N T C L A S S
we present
with this certiﬁcate of recognition

Why did Dharmesh just give us a
micro class on linear algebra?

MAKESMAKES
E A S I E RE A S I E R
A G R E ATA G R E AT
CultureCulture
RECRUITINGRECRUITING

SCALINGSCALING
ExperienceExperience
MAKES
MAKESMAKES
CultureCulture
RECRUITINGRECRUITING

Attra
ct
Engage
Marketing
T
eam
SalesTeam
Delight
D
Customer Team
The
Virtuous
Cycle Of
Growth

Attra
ct
Engage
Marketing
T
eam
SalesTeam
Delight
D
Customer Team
Platform
The
Virtuous
Cycle Of
Growth

Market
ing
Sales
Customers
Platform

Inbound Marketing
Attract, Engage, and Delight
Customers Online

Key Point:
add value by creating content

Not-so-good news:
Some folks
obsessed over this

Not-so-good news:
Instead of
obsessing over this

The Pareto Principle
80% of the effects
come from 20% of
the causes.
- Vilfredo Pareto

Analyzed 3,146 posts
Other 80%Top 20%
(629 posts)

20% of posts = 93% of leads
from top
20%
93% 7%
From other
80%

Posts DOWN, views per post UP.
Cut Blog
Volume by 50%
Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July
ViewsperPost

C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T
T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N
N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O
T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T /
N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E N
O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E
/ C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N
C N T E N T
DOUBLEDOWNon

C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N T
T / C O N T E N T / C O N T E N T / C O N
quality
not quantity
C N T E N T
DOUBLEDOWNon

We have a 10%
bigger marketing
budget for next year.
How should we spend it?

textual content
email
PR
visual content
messaging
social
Align Budget With Shifts In Human Behavior

I’m not going
to learn
anything new.

I’m not going
to learn
anything new.
I’m not going to
need this stuff
anytime soon.

Some people are not great
at selling, but really good at
getting sales.

Provide Value To Prospect
82%
The Seller-Buyer
Misalignment

Provide Value To Prospect
82%
34%
The Seller-Buyer
Misalignment

DOUBLEDOWNon
S A L E S C O N V E R S A T
C O N V E R S A T I O N SC O N V E R S A T I O N SC O N V E R S A T I O N S
C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A
L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L /
/ C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A
A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L
L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C A L L / C

DOUBLEDOWNon
S A L E S C O N V E R S A T
C O N V E R S A T I O N SC O N V E R S A T I O N SC O N V E R S A T I O N S
quality
not quantity

Biased Views
Strong Opinions
AND CONTAIN
SP
SP
PARTS OF REMAINING
PROGRAM RATED
SO
BV

INBOUND 2014:
HubSpot CRM and SalesSP

SALES PRO
You have to be
this tall to ride

SALES
PROFESSIONAL
You have to be
this tall to ride

SALES PROFESSIONAL
ALL GROWN-UP AND STILL GROWING
$400/mo
TEAMS UP TO 5 USERS
COMING TO THE SALES HUB ON
November 1st
SP

Market
ing
Sales
Customers
Platform
SP

What Sources of Information Do You Rely On
When Making Purchase Decisions?
Source: 2017 State of Inbound
C-level executive (CEO, CMO)
Word-of-mouth referrals
Customer references
Vendor-authored materials
Analyst reports
Salesperson
59%
49%
43%
33%
18%

¯_(ツ)_/¯
HELPHELPC U S T O M E R SC U S T O M E R S
HOWEVERHOWEVER WHENEVERWHENEVER WHATEVERWHATEVERtheytheyW A N TW A N T
W I T HW I T H
theytheyW A N TW A N T
theytheyW A N TW A N T

HOWEVERHOWEVERtheytheyW A N TW A N T

“Hello Mr. Shah.
We are calling
regarding the
message you
sent us…”

If I tweet you, tweet me back.

If I message you on Facebook,
message me back.

If I message you on Facebook,
message me back.
If I call you on the phone, send
help, there’s something wrong
with me.

BILLIONBILLIONpeoplepeople
D O A N Y T H I N G ,  
I T ’ S T I M E T O PAY AT T E N T I O N
W H E N E V E R A

I T ’ S :
“ T H E Y A R E A L R E A D Y H E R E A N D
THEYWANTTOCHAT.”
“Build it and they will come”
T H I S I S N O T :

HubSpot
Meetings App
13%
Conversion Rate To Customer
Gated Content
(Form)
.7%
HubSpot
Messages App
20%
Source: HubSpot Original Data

40 years ago:
phone
presence
20 years ago:
web
presence
today:
messaging
presence

WHENEVERWHENEVERtheytheyW A N TW A N T

Try again during normal hours, you weirdo.

I like chat bots
and I cannot lie

The chatbot for
marketing and sales
growthbot.org

Send Message:
“help me align vectors”

website
content
management
system
Engineers
Required
Mere
Mortals
Allowed

smart email
marketing
automation
website
content
management
system
Engineers
Required
Mere
Mortals
Allowed

smart email
marketing
automation
bots
bot building
platform
Engineers
Required
Mere
Mortals
Allowed
website
content
management
system

¯_(ツ)_/¯
WHATEVERWHATEVERtheytheyW A N TW A N T
W I T HW I T H

CONVERSATIONS
Marketing Hub - Sales Hub - Customer Hub
COMING IN 2018
SP

“None of the platforms gives  
me everything I need.”

open platform > closed platform

FRI ENDLY ADVICE :
Start with a core
platform and then
plug in the gaps.
SP

Con
nect
Marketi
ng
Hub Sales
Hub
Something’s
missing here
PLATFORM

Con
nect
Custom
erHub
Marketi
ng
Hub Sales
Hub
PLATFORM

CUSTOMER HUB
COMING IN 2018
INTRODUCING

Marketi
ng
Hub Sales
Hub
Conn
ect
Custom
erHub
Com
m
unity
Conver
sations
Con
tent Cont
acts
Helps you deliver an
amazing, end-to-end
customer experience
SP

Hear all the juicy details:
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
with Christopher O’Donnell
VP Product, HubSpot
at 4:15pm
SP

believe,believe,
dodo
say,say,
W H A T Y O UW H A T Y O U
W H E N
A N D
ALIGNMENTALIGNMENT
A R E I NA R E I N
GROWGROWbetterbetter
Y O UY O U
h/t: Gandhi

lovelove &&P E C EP E C E G R O W T HG R O W T H

Have questions/comments?
Join the discussion:
Website: aligningvectors.com

Aligning Vectors: What Elon Musk Taught Me About Growing A Business

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