Talk:Brian Halligan

Dead links

Hello, this is one of my first talks, so I wanted to point out (if it's been missed by others) that sources 7 and 8 are dead links. I caught this when I noticed the referenced sentence was missing his second title at Groove Networks (it said "...as vice president of sales and, " -- so I tried clicking on the links to identify what the additional title should be. Since I'm new, can someone let me know what we do in a situation like this? Do we just delete the link or try to find a replacement link? Thank you much!GreeneTwiki (talk) 21:56, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

GA Reassessment

Brian Halligan

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Delist per consensus ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 22:18, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

A GA from 2011 that does not meet current standards. It has a heavy reliance on primary and non-independent sources, which may also be WP:SPS. The prose also has an odd mix of promotional tone and critical tone, rather than integrating all information in a more WP:NPOV appropriate style. CMD (talk) 12:17, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

Most of the independent sources are related to the Daniel Lyons business, while most of the core bio uses non-independent sources. Wondering why there is not an article on the book, with that content covered there. Also considering the history of COI/socking at this article, the bio seems unlikely to be brought to GA status, and delisting is probably the best course (along with more eyes going forward). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:29, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

Delist, sourcing is quite poor. Hog Farm _Talk 18:13, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Replace primary source in introduction with secondary source

Hello! My name is Allison and I'm an employee at HubSpot. I am hoping to make some improvements to the Brian Halligan article. I will be following Wikipedia's guidelines for editors with a conflict of interest, so I am posting here rather than editing directly.

I noticed that this sentence in the introduction is currently supported by a primary source:

• Halligan coined the term "inbound marketing" to describe the type of marketing he advocates.

Could an editor replace this reference (named "inbound-bio") with the following reference to a reliable secondary source?

Here is the reference:

I hope this is a straightforward request, but please let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Thank you! Agartmayer (talk) 18:37, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

References

 Done   Spintendo  18:42, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, Spintendo! Agartmayer (talk) 15:31, 18 August 2026 (UTC)

COI request: Updates to “Career” section

Hello! This is Allison from HubSpot again. I'm back on this Talk page to ask for some help with making updates to the Career section of the article. While the current section has a good level of detail, some of the information is inaccurate (such as the courses Brian has taught at MIT) or supported only by primary sources. My proposed revision to this section corrects details about Halligan's teaching at MIT and replaces primary sources with reliable secondary sources.

Here is the full draft of my proposed revision to the Career section:

Proposed Career draft

Career

His career began at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) in several roles leading up to senior vice president of the Pacific Rim. Wanting to work in a smaller company, he joined Groove Networks as vice president of sales, where he worked from 2000 to 2004 before it was acquired by Microsoft and rebranded as Microsoft SharePoint Workspace. Halligan also worked briefly as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures.

Halligan co-founded HubSpot in June 2006 with a classmate from MIT, Dharmesh Shah. Over a 3-year period, HubSpot's revenues grew from $250,000 to $15 million under the leadership of Halligan and Shah. At its peak valuation in 2024, HubSpot had a market capitalization of $38 billion. Halligan stepped down as CEO of HubSpot and became the firm's executive chairman after being injured in a snowmobile accident in 2021. Halligan teaches the course, "Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures," at MIT's Sloan School of Management, where he holds the title, Senior Lecturer of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. He previously co-taught "Entrepreneurial Product Marketing and Development" at MIT with Elaine Chen.

Halligan is a corporation member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. From 2014 to 2016, Halligan served on the board of directors of Fleetmatics until it was acquired by Verizon.

In 2022, Halligan founded Propeller Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on funding ocean-related technologies to address climate change. As of 2024, Propeller had invested $117 million in 14 portfolio companies.

Halligan is also a senior advisor at Sequoia Capital where he advises generative AI startups on overcoming management challenges.As of 2025, he hosts a podcast series titled, "Long Strange Trip: CEO to CEO With Brian Halligan."

References

Here is the current version of the section with references, to make it easier to compare references in my proposed version:

Current Career section with references

Career

His career began at Parametric Technology Corporation in several roles leading up to senior vice president of the Pacific Rim. Wanting to work in a smaller company, he joined Groove Networks as vice president of sales, where he worked from 2000 to 2004 before it was acquired by Microsoft and rebranded as Microsoft SharePoint Workspace.

After a period as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures, he co-founded HubSpot in June 2006. In HubSpot's 2022 Year In Review, the company reported $1.731 billion in total revenue and 5,895 employees with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in Dublin, Ireland (EMEA HQ), Berlin, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Japan, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and San Francisco. He credits the company's success, in part, to innovations like the "Alpha, Beta, Version One" policy, in which employees begin proving their ideas might profit the company "nights and weekends" (the alpha phase) before receiving additional resources (the beta and version one phases). He stepped down as CEO of HubSpot after being injured in a snowmobile accident in 2021.

He is a senior lecturer at MIT teaching "Designing, Developing, and Launching Successful Products in an Entrepreneurial Environment". He previously taught "Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures" at MIT.

Halligan is a corporation member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. From 2014 to 2016, Halligan served on the board of directors of Fleetmatics until it was acquired by Verizon.

In 2022 Halligan also founded Propeller Ventures and directs a $100 million climate tech venture fund specializing in ocean innovation investments. Brian is also a senior advisor at Sequoia Capital where he coaches startup founders.

References

And here is a side-by-side comparison view, to make it easier to see what would change from the current to the proposed version:

Current vs Proposed Career draft

−

<div class="fake-heading h2">Career</div> His career began at [[Parametric Technology Corporation]] in several roles leading up to senior vice president of the Pacific Rim. Wanting to work in a smaller company, he joined [[Groove Networks]] as vice president of sales, where he worked from 2000 to 2004 before it was acquired by [[Microsoft]] and rebranded as [[Microsoft SharePoint Workspace]].After a period as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures, he co-founded HubSpot in June 2006. In HubSpot's 2022 Year In Review, the company reported $1.731 billion in total revenue and 5,895 employees with headquarters in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], and offices in Dublin, Ireland (EMEA HQ), Berlin, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Japan, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and San Francisco. He credits the company's success, in part, to innovations like the "Alpha, Beta, Version One" policy, in which employees begin proving their ideas might profit the company "nights and weekends" (the alpha phase) before receiving additional resources (the beta and version one phases). He stepped down as CEO of HubSpot after being injured in a [[snowmobile]] accident in 2021.He is a senior lecturer at MIT teaching "Designing, Developing, and Launching Successful Products in an Entrepreneurial Environment". He previously taught "Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures" at MIT. Halligan is a corporation member of the [[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]]. From 2014 to 2016, Halligan served on the board of directors of [[Fleetmatics]] until it was acquired by Verizon. In 2022 Halligan also founded Propeller Ventures and directs a $100 million climate tech venture fund specializing in ocean innovation investments. Brian is also a senior advisor at [[Sequoia Capital]] where he coaches startup founders.

+

<div class="fake-heading h2">Career</div> His career began at [[Parametric Technology Corporation]] (PTC) in several roles leading up to senior vice president of the Pacific Rim. Wanting to work in a smaller company, he joined [[Groove Networks]] as vice president of sales, where he worked from 2000 to 2004 before it was acquired by [[Microsoft]] and rebranded as [[Microsoft SharePoint Workspace]]. Halligan also worked briefly as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures.Halligan co-founded HubSpot in June 2006 with a classmate from MIT, Dharmesh Shah. Over a 3-year period, HubSpot's revenues grew from $250,000 to $15 million under the leadership of Halligan and Shah. At its peak valuation in 2024, HubSpot had a market capitalization of $38 billion. Halligan stepped down as CEO of HubSpot and became the firm's executive chairman after being injured in a snowmobile accident in 2021.Halligan teaches the course, "Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures," at MIT's Sloan School of Management, where he holds the title, Senior Lecturer of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. He previously co-taught "Entrepreneurial Product Marketing and Development" at MIT with [[Elaine Chen]]. Halligan is a corporation member of the [[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]]. From 2014 to 2016, Halligan served on the board of directors of [[Fleetmatics]] until it was acquired by Verizon. In 2022, Halligan founded Propeller Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on funding ocean-related technologies to address climate change. As of 2024, Propeller had invested $117 million in 14 portfolio companies. Halligan is also a senior advisor at [[Sequoia Capital]] where he advises generative AI startups on overcoming management challenges.As of 2025, he hosts a [[podcast]] series titled, "Long Strange Trip: CEO to CEO With Brian Halligan."

I welcome any questions or feedback about this request. Thank you! Agartmayer (talk) 22:01, 18 August 2026 (UTC)

There are a lot of COI requests awaiting review right now, so I thought it might be helpful to tag in editors who have made changes to the Brian Halligan article previously in case they are interested in maintaining this article. GoingBatty or SandyGeorgia, would either of you be open to reviewing this request for the Career section? Agartmayer (talk) 19:09, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

@Agartmayer: I don't recall what inspired me to visit this article three years ago and clean up the references. I did a little more cleaup now.

In your "Current vs Proposed Career draft", it would be helpful to also see the current vs proposed references. GoingBatty (talk) 02:37, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for your response and for cleaning up the references, User:GoingBatty! I've just edited my request to include a dropdown of the current version of the Career section with references listed. I couldn't find a neat way to compare references side-by-side, unfortunately. I hope the addition of the new dropdown paired with the existing Proposed Career draft dropdown makes it easier for editors to compare the reference lists. Agartmayer (talk) 15:50, 21 September 2026 (UTC)