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The built hapily podcast is about building apps, companies, and relationships in the HubSpot ecosystem. As HubSpot grows, so does the opportunity - and this podcast puts you in the room with the people making it all happen.
Hosted by Dax and Max, built hapily goes behind the scenes with HubSpot developers, solutions partners, startup founders and community leaders. Each episode delivers tactical insights into launching and scaling businesses around the HubSpot platform.
However, this podcast is about more than just building software. It's about building authentic connections, fulfilling careers, and lives you can be proud of. Guests share their personal journeys, hard-won lessons and philosophies for not just achieving success, but finding purpose and happiness along the way.
After all, this is about more than making apps. It's about building hapily - and you're invited along for the ride. Join Dax, Max and their guests to construct the life you've been dreaming of, one conversation at a time.
[00:00:00] so Jackie dug right into as soon as like, we saw what, you know, I think we saw what LinkedIn was doing, um, with their app in HubSpot and we're like, why can't we do that? And then we found out about UI extensions and the beta. We got into the beta program. We went to Inbound, met some people there, and Jackie just started building like crazy on it.
[00:00:18] ​
[00:00:35] I just met Chris the other day and Chris is doing the damn thing. Saw some, I saw some
[00:00:40] believe it's been, I can't believe because I feel like I've been front row seating watching Chris's, uh, journey into the HubSpot multiverse. Uh, you know, dude, Chris, we were hanging out a while ago,
[00:00:53] Yeah, it's been probably close to a year. Yeah.
[00:00:57] What was the, what was the first thing that got [00:01:00] us hooked up? I'm trying to remember because, you know, when we first started talking, you guys have been in, in the Salesforce consulting business for a long time and we talked originally when I was like first doing the HubSpot or first doing like the happily partner stuff and that was kind of like my main job and we were chatting and it had, it had kind of sounded like your team was like.
[00:01:26] Just starting to like dip its toes into, into the HubSpot world. And you were starting to see it more and more customers that were like using HubSpot or wanted to switch to it. Something was happening where like the tides were starting to kind of like shift a little more orangy. Right. But what was the, yeah.
[00:01:45] essentially, so we've been, you know, a Salesforce consulting partner for almost 16 years now, but also have been a HubSpot partner for 15 of those 16 years
[00:01:56] Okay, so you've been in it then for a
[00:01:58] We've been in it, but it's [00:02:00] always been a very small, so what we would do is like way back in the day, Salesforce and HubSpot were like best friends, right?
[00:02:06] So I would actually host events with Salesforce reps and HubSpot reps together because they had the marketing tool, and this is before the exact target acquisition and things like that. Um. But then, you know, as I've seen the CRM, the HubSpot CRM platform evolve, it finally got to a point that I was like, okay, this is like now we can start to do the stuff that we've been doing, you know, kind of in the Salesforce world for a long time with the custom objects and the operations hub and the real high levels of customizability.
[00:02:35] And then my thought was like, I gotta find out who, who the top application partners. Sure that we were gonna do that, but I wanted to just explore it. And I don't remember who introduced us. I had met, I think the, the owner of your company
[00:02:52] Ryan Ryan didn't you know Ryan.
[00:02:54] I knew, yeah, I knew Ryan. Uh, 'cause Ryan and I, Ryan [00:03:00] wrote Sir, uh, Ryan wrote Sir, uh, insight, which was the first Gmail, Salesforce, and we did close a ton of business with them over the years.
[00:03:10] Yeah.
[00:03:11] Got it. Okay.
[00:03:12] I know.
[00:03:13] Um, and then, so now, and so this is, I don't know how Chris, I, I don't know how much context DX gave you, uh, prior to joining the show here, but on event Happily Yeah. We don't do context. We don't do context on the built. And when we did on the Built Happily Podcast, uh, originally, um, we had kind of.
[00:03:36] Uh, said, Hey, we're gonna go out and talk to other people who've built apps on HubSpot, but we quickly realized that there's a lot of other cooler things people have built on HubSpot, not just apps. However, you sir, uh, you have built an app on HubSpot, right? And it's interesting because you come from the Salesforce consulting space into the HubSpot space, and then you're, you're building an app on HubSpot.
[00:03:58] So like you have this [00:04:00] story of a existing services solutions partner.
[00:04:04] Yep.
[00:04:04] Taking a step into the app solutions or app partner world. Right. And what we wanna do is we, we want to hear that story, right? Um, before we get into it, can we, can you tell everybody what it is you've built and what you have today, right?
[00:04:23] So we can then tarantino it, go back in time and talk about the journey it took to actually get there.
[00:04:29] Yeah. Who is Chris? Who is.
[00:04:30] Yeah. What do, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, maybe some basic introductions might be, might be good. Right. So Chris and then Jackie. Yeah. Yeah, totally.
[00:04:39] sure. Uh, so I'm Chris Eustis. I'm the CEO and founder of Spark Grid Software, which is the, the software company that Jackie WucherJackie Wucher we, I essentially broke off and started a new company. Uh, I still have Eustis Consulting, which does primarily Salesforce development, implementation, things like that. But I've broken off as is different enough, [00:05:00] um, and. The integration that we wrote, which is the official integration for Box and HubSpot. Jackie, go ahead.
[00:05:12] Awesome. Yeah. I'm Jackie, uh, I'm the lead developer on the project. I have a background in commercial photography design and got into, uh, got a couple clients that said, can you make me a Squarespace? And I said, yeah, I can figure that out. And here I am
[00:05:28] truck.
[00:05:28] few years later as a developer. Um. Yeah, like Chris said, we built the official integration between Box and HubSpot.
[00:05:35] Um, it's been a really cool project, just kind of getting to know both platforms, like you were saying. HubSpot's a really up and coming platform as you, as you guys know. Um, so it's really cool to kind of be on this wave of cool projects and apps kind of coming out at this time.
[00:05:50] Jackie, is this your, uh, is this your first time building apps or integrations with HubSpot, or have you done it before in some capacity?
[00:05:57] This is my first time building apps. Yes. [00:06:00] Uh, I've worked with integrations a a lot, you know, um, with Chris and our professional services arm. Um, so a lot of experience there, but yeah, a whole different ballgame. Building an app,
[00:06:11] Got it.
[00:06:12] people need to use all the time, as you guys know.
[00:06:14] So what are you about like a year in right now or a little less? Give, give us a rating, one to 10. What would you rate the experience of being a young up and coming developer in the HubSpot app ecosystem?
[00:06:26] I,
[00:06:26] like a good score too. Like I need decimal points.
[00:06:29] okay, so I'm gonna say a good 8.6.
[00:06:32] Wow. That's a good score. Yeah. Okay. Eight,
[00:06:35] do we feel about that?
[00:06:36] Got it. Yeah. What would get, what would get you to a nine?
[00:06:40] what would gimme to a nine? I think it's gonna get to a nine eventually. I think that HubSpot is continuing to build and grow in a way that's kind of every, every time they make feature updates, every time they, you know, give us more possibilities.
[00:06:55] I'm kind of like, oh, cool, let's do that. Let's implement that. Um, you know, everything from [00:07:00] like the, you know, settings page, like let's give us more customization on that thing. You know, things like that. But, you know, we're, we're kind of in an early phase with this stuff, right? Like, we're not. We're not expecting this whole platform to be, you know, built out.
[00:07:14] And that's kind of the beauty of HubSpot. Like it's a, you know, it's a very, it's such a clean, easy and accessible, approachable product that like, I feel like you can really, I don't know, the, the development experience is kind of supercharged in a way. 'cause you don't really have to think about a lot of the things you would normally have to think about with this
[00:07:32] Yeah. Yeah. It's like a blank canvas. What's like, what was the, what was the, the hardest part for you? I guess like getting up and running, uh, you know, to someone who's like very effectively building dope shit on HubSpot.
[00:07:49] I would say kind of the, um, kind of the conceptual barriers of like integration work, uh, you know, [00:08:00] understanding not only one platform enough to build something on it, but understanding another platform enough. To make that work with another platform.
[00:08:08] Um, and you know, as, as we're building and as we're learning, I think we're really lucky to have all of this professional services experience because it gives us the context of what people actually want.
[00:08:19] Mm-hmm.
[00:08:20] You know, we're not, we're not going into it being like, let's build an app's, figure out how people are gonna use it. We kind of know that, 'cause we've integrated. Box for tons of people. You know, we've, we've integrated Panoc with Salesforce, we've integrated PandaDoc with HubSpot. You know, we kind of know the space in a way that I think is not super common and makes me feel really lucky to have this situation.
[00:08:42] That's
[00:08:42] a big, that's a big deal, man. You're kind of preaching exactly what we want to preach about people coming into the HubSpot ecosystem because again, all of us just came in off a whim, came in off of a services and seeing like somebody needs something. Let's build that thing and how much, how many barriers do we have to really cross or hurdles we have to jump to [00:09:00] actually get it done?
[00:09:01] And as it's growing, I mean, like you said, you're a year in, you're not 10 years, 15 years comp side degree all Chris. No. You came in and you have something that's official. Right. That means that's a big deal to be like, we have the official integration with Box and HubSpot and after seeing it and seeing how you guys have.
[00:09:16] You know, chartered it from before, UI extensions were even a thing, right? You had to c RM cards. You're working with blowing that into the iframe and now you have a lot of integration. All it's really, really deeply integrated. I mean, it's a beautiful thing to see thus while we're talking. So it's super awesome to hear your experience giving it 8.6 all the way from the beginning, right?
[00:09:36] Yeah. And just like a quick, um, for any like developers, uh, or anyone building apps on HubSpot, I. Listening to this right now, um, if you want an absolute masterclass in really amazing uses of UI extensions, go get yourself. A box subscription or, or go [00:10:00] get yourself a box account and hook this thing up, uh, to HubSpot using this integration because it is an absolutely, uh, gorgeous implementation of UI extensions.
[00:10:10] And like, I have a hard time, I'm like a, I, I'm, I'm a guy who's kind of like, listen, there's integrations and then there's apps. Right, and like integrations just kinda like send data between the systems and apps, actually add a lot of net new functionality to HubSpot. It's really difficult for me to call this a Dropbox integration because Yeah, duh.
[00:10:33] It's an integration. Sure. But you guys add an asinine amount of functionality into HubSpot with this. Um, it is, it is, uh, it, it is again one of the best executions I've ever seen for UI extension. So first of all, I want to give you guys your flowers on that. It's
[00:10:47] Also cosign, cosign on that as well. Like there's like 20 workflow actions
[00:10:52] Yeah. It's, it's, it's the, the, the amount of, the amount of net new functionality you built into HubSpot in, in the guise of it being an [00:11:00] integration is crazy.
[00:11:01] Right. Um, so folks definitely check this out if you haven't already. But Chris, I. Again, Tarantino it. Let's go back to the beginning, right? I wanna learn like, what, what brought you from, we're kind of doing some work in the HubSpot space to, we've built the official, uh, you know, box.com, I'm gonna call it app on HubSpot, right?
[00:11:20] So like, where did that, where tell like, tell us about how that relationship with, with Box kind of started and then kind of bring us into like, oh, we should, why, why do I think it's a good idea to build this app on HubSpot? Like. Tell us that story.
[00:11:36] Yeah, happy to. Um, so we had worked with Box quite a bit, uh, over the years with the, their Salesforce integration. And one of this is probably
[00:11:45] Okay.
[00:11:46] 10, 12 years ago, box had released, you know, they had a, an integration that you just installed from the Salesforce app exchange, and I noticed a glaring issue with it right away.
[00:11:57] So worked with one of my developers who [00:12:00] no longer on the team, but still, still a good relationship with them. And, uh, I said, you know what we need to do? We need to allow users to be able to select their own folder and essentially pin that folder to a Salesforce record. Because what box is making you do at the time, at the integration is you'd have to go and create a net new folder.
[00:12:17] What if I already have a folder for that customer, for example? So we added this. It was really a tweak to the integration. And ended up getting like two, 300 customers out of that. Like, and a lot of them are still customers today because they would see that we did that. And they're like, well, what else can you do with this platform?
[00:12:37] So in doing that, you know, we enhanced the integration and people asked for more things. Got to know the API really well now. Has since, uh, come a long way with their integration where they have all the, you know, flow actions and everything else. Kind of like we have the workflow actions, uh, for HubSpot.
[00:12:56] But I had some relationships there and we actually were at a [00:13:00] Salesforce event in New York City and met with a guy that had never met before who's like the, the VP of, of, uh, partnerships at Box and a couple other contacts I had and we lunch together and I said, why, why you guys have a integration. I think there's a really good opportunity here.
[00:13:16] He's like, yeah, we're just focused on Salesforce. I'm like, we'll build it for you. And I kind of looked over at Jackie who was sitting next to me, and literally that's how, that's how it started. And within a couple months we had a beta out. Would you say it was about a couple months, Jackie? Um,
[00:13:32] I think we started in May and by mid July we had a bait out.
[00:13:35] yep. Um, and that was using the, the old CRM cards, and then Jackie just dug in deep.
[00:13:48] That was,
[00:13:49] Back in my day, the cards were only in
[00:13:51] the sidebar.
[00:13:53] could only.
[00:13:57] We had to open it in an I frame.[00:14:00]
[00:14:03] Um, so Jackie dug right into as soon as like, we saw what, you know, I think we saw what LinkedIn was doing, um, with their app in HubSpot and we're like, why can't we do that? And then we found out about UI extensions and the beta. We got into the beta program. We went to Inbound, met some people there, and Jackie just started building like crazy on it, right? He's a designer that can also code, which is I think a rare skillset. Like he can go really deep on both things. A very good eye for how things need to be laid out. And so that's essentially why it is the tool is what it today.
[00:14:46] Yeah. What's, um, so like, what's been, I guess, the most, uh. Frustrating or like biggest cha, I don't wanna say frustrating, but like, what are the biggest challenges, like [00:15:00] you've seen being like a new app sort of exploding, uh, onto the scene in the marketplace here? Like what's the, the really hard part about doing this that people should look out for that might find themselves in a similar situation?
[00:15:14] So, I mean, I've been selling professional services for, you know, almost 16 years, right? So I have a way that I sell, and it's, it's been relatively successful for a long time. Um, selling software is different. I've had to learn a lot of lessons about that. I have had to learn to be patient. Usually if somebody's calling me up for professional services, we're gonna start talking and yes, yes, we can do what you need.
[00:15:38] And we just kind of hit the ground and start running. Right? That's, that's kind of how professional with software sales, it's a lot more thought needs to go behind this. Especially some of the box works with a lot of very large companies and now we're seeing more and more large companies come on. So the sales cycles are slower.
[00:15:57] Also just trying to get the word out about it [00:16:00] has been, I was like, I know people at HubSpot, I know people at Box. I'm just gonna take, it's just, we're just gonna make all kinds of money all over the place and it's gonna be easy. And it's not like it's, it's been a challenge. But I will tell you, I've never had more fun in my career.
[00:16:12] Like I, I really have had fun building a brand and like building a new brand and just. Tinkering with new technology and just, I'm having a blast. But I think trying to get the word out is hard. Like we're on the, we're on the marketplace. We have some ratings. We have close to like a hundred downloads now, which is not much.
[00:16:33] And I know there are thousands of companies out there right now that have a both and trying to reach out to them. And I've learned, you know, things from other individuals that I'm collaborating with on you. A, and all these like visitor level sort of marketings and stuff. I would say just trying to get the word out, get in front right people has been the most challenge [00:17:00]
[00:17:00] How are you going about like finding, uh, the overlap between like box.com users and HubSpot users, and like, how are you. Trying to find them and like engaged with them. Have there been any good tactics you've deployed? Is is HubSpot being an open collaborator with you? Like what does that sort of look like?
[00:17:23] So box has been kind of the catalyst here. 'cause they kind of, you know. Blessed us with, uh, said yes. Go ahead and write that. And we actually won new Partner of the year at the Box annual conference, um, back in November. So we went out to San Francisco for that, which was cool. Um, so a lot of these have come in as net new box deals from box reps.
[00:17:49] So I'm trying to just establish relationships with sales reps at Box and at HubSpot.
[00:17:56] Yep.
[00:17:56] Like, Hey, we can help push this sale along. Now the [00:18:00] majority of those have come from box, you know, being, being a piece of software that a tool is looking at. And they happen to have HubSpot, right? In terms of getting them to match up, you know, we're connected on Crossbeam to Box.
[00:18:11] We are, um, working on trying to get connected with HubSpot, but have had a little bit of difficulty there. I know there's just more red tape sort of stuff. Um, but have been working with the app partner team and everything else, and, you know, they've been helpful and really just trying to get the word, like, I'm trying hard to like get the word.
[00:18:29] I know a lot of old timers at HubSpot, but like they've all moved on, are doing different things now. So like, just trying to get in and demonstrate this, these utilities too, to the different teams. Right. So does that answer your question?
[00:18:42] no, totally. And I think I'm on the same like page as you there. Like my one, like a whole piece of my job here is literally just to go, basically be a lobbyist at HubSpot for all the sales reps and be like, this is why you guys should love our stuff and this is why I should help you close deals and all this stuff.
[00:18:56] And I think. That's like a really important thing to do for any sort of like, you know, app [00:19:00] developer on HubSpot that you know primarily like your, your sales. Sure. A certain amount of them are gonna come from people like finding you by happenstance in the marketplace. Right. But like, you know, the next sort of level beyond that is like, how do you become a household name in the HubSpot sellers community and in the CSM community?
[00:19:17] 'cause like, there's different ways to do that, right? Like when you're talking to CSMs, it's all about. You know, how can I help you? Uh, you know, notice a common complaint that you're hearing that we solve for. So every time you hear that complaint and you want to do a save, right, you go, oh, there's this app that does it.
[00:19:33] Right? Or it's like, if you're a seller, though, they, they're motivated a little bit differently. They care about selling stuff and getting stuff over the, over the finish line, right? So a lot of, with them, it's about educating them on. It's like, Hey, when you hear x, Y, z, use case, right? Know that there is an app that solves for it and another like.
[00:19:50] Piece of that too is just like teaching HubSpot sales reps how to, like, position apps is not just something else you have to buy. 'cause the platform can't do it by itself. Right. Which is a [00:20:00] whole nother, you have a whole other conversation, uh, you know, kind of on that at some point. Um, Jackie, I want to know, and, and, and what sort of advice do you have for like other HubSpot like developers out there, uh, in terms of kind of like staying up to date with what's possible?
[00:20:18] Inside of the HubSpot like UI and what you can kind of, kind of build, because it sounded like, you know, there was that moment where you guys were like, wait, what do you mean We could do UI extensions? And like now you're, you're like, you, you're, you're, you're crushing UI extensions obviously, right? Like you went from like what UI extensions to look at these UI extensions, right?
[00:20:38] Um, like what are you doing to keep yourself sort of, um, I guess like where, where are you looking? What are you subscribing to? What are you checking every day? Like. What are these like, you know, little special places you go to make sure like, you know, everything there is to know, or you have the most up-to-date information on, like what's possible from like, what we can build in HubSpot perspective and [00:21:00] what we have access to.
[00:21:01] Yeah, definitely. I think, uh, really for any integration work, a Postman API collection, subscribing to
[00:21:07] Mm.
[00:21:07] is a great place to start.
[00:21:08] Okay.
[00:21:09] 'cause you're gonna receive updates anytime any endpoints are changed, uh, endpoints are added, anything like that. Um, hub HubSpot has really great release notes, um, and they're building out their docs more and more for, for UI extensions.
[00:21:23] Um, another thing I try to do is just keep in contact with some of the partner developers at HubSpot. Um, you know, there's a lot of things that are maybe down the pipeline that. I'll be told, you know, anecdotally, and then I'll keep checking up on those and be like, Hey, you said this was maybe gonna be a thing.
[00:21:39] Is this still gonna be a thing? How's that gonna work? Um, besides that though, really just going into the docs and the release notes and being diligent about, um, really digging through those, you know, things so simple as like they're updating the icon component in the UI extensions all the time with new icons.
[00:21:54] You know, you kind of just like learn these little things, but, um,
[00:21:58] You gotta pay attention to it.
[00:21:59] [00:22:00] You gotta pay attention to it. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what's difficult is there's so many, uh, plates to spend, you know, while you're kind of also trying to move ahead on the things you're already doing. Um, but I think, yeah, in terms of backend, you know, in terms of getting things set up, those postman, API collections are super valuable.
[00:22:17] 'cause it kind of also gives you a, kind of, gives you a, an idea of what's important to the company. You know, like what's. What are they pushing out regularly? Like what, what, what APIs are they focused on? You know, are they, is HubSpot really pushing, you know, the sensitive data? API, they've made so many updates to that recently.
[00:22:33] Right. Um, so every time I see something like that, I'm like, okay, I gotta go in and dig in and learn how this works. Right.
[00:22:40] Yeah. Yeah. Um, I got, I have another question from both of you and Dax, I feel like you're gonna, um, you're gonna, you're gonna understand where I'm coming from when I, when I ask this, right? So. You guys, obviously you know HubSpot really well, you know, box.com really well, I'm sure you have a lot of [00:23:00] opinions about what the next really sweet new feature will be, right?
[00:23:04] Because you understand the possibilities, you understand how people use those actual apps, right? I have a lot of these moments myself when we're talking about event, happily in particular. 'cause I'm kind of very involved with like guiding the directions of like, what should we build this, that, and the other thing.
[00:23:18] And there's plenty of times where I myself go, man, it'd be really cool if we built this thing to work this exact way. But I'm going off of how I know, like how people like to use HubSpot and, and how I think that feature should work. I'm not necessarily waiting for like a user to tell me. That they need that just because we're working in a space where we're, we're turning HubSpot A CRM into something that it's not, which is an event management platform.
[00:23:49] So there isn't necessarily a ton of people out there giving us like nuanced ideas of how it should work. It's very like uncharted sort of territory [00:24:00] right now. I see you guys kind of doing something similar in that. Yes, it's an integration. I'm gonna put that in big quotations. 'cause again, when we think integration a lot in HubSpot terms, it's like, oh, we pushed over some stuff into some contact properties.
[00:24:16] We've got an integration. And it's like, nah, eh, sure. Right? But like, you know, the way you guys have woven in the experience of using box inside of a CRM tool, at least in HubSpot land, I feel like is a, an extremely novel concept. Right. Where I'm sure there's people that see what you've got and go, dude, I never even thought I needed this.
[00:24:44] Right. I mean, maybe they do. I, I like, I'm gonna let you tell me that. Right. But like, how do you guys, like what's your methodology around like, alright, cool, we're gonna build this new feature. It's gonna be this UI extension, it's gonna do X, Y, and z. How do you guys do that? Being like a [00:25:00] smaller, like newer, you know, uh, you know, uh, software developer on HubSpot, right?
[00:25:05] And, and you're kind of in charge of your own destiny a little bit, but you also gotta listen to your customers. What's like your process there for thinking of your features and all
[00:25:14] So. I, I can start and certainly want Jackie's input. Um, so we do have a baseline, and the baseline is what is box already built with Salesforce? Right?
[00:25:23] Interesting?
[00:25:24] And so that's our baseline and my kind of thinking, and I believe Jackie's is how can we stand out and make it better? And actually it was, there was one thing that you said Max, really early on when we were in beta and you said what you should do is make it look like HubSpot so you don't even feel like you're leaving it.
[00:25:44] And I think we took that to heart and Jackie took it to heart and really baked everything in that way. Um, and then, you know, we started to really, what we're trying to do is figure out, okay, what are the customers going to, it's people that need [00:26:00] compliance around their documents, people that need high levels of security and really need to follow strict protocols.
[00:26:06] Right? The tool that, you know, you can attach files in HubSpot, right? IT level of security and CER certification and everything else that you.
[00:26:21] yep.
[00:26:23] Yeah, no, I think you're right on the money. I mean, I, I, I'd say from a technical perspective, um, you know, making our product. You know, finding that line between opinionated and agnostic. Right. You know, ev everyone uses these platforms differently. Everyone uses HubSpot differently. And, uh, as we're moving into a world where HubSpot has more, uh, you know, compliance around it, where they are attracting more, you know, large enterprise organizations, it's a, it's a difficult task.
[00:26:58] It's, no, it's, you know, [00:27:00] no easy feat to. Kind of make this a tool that everyone can use, whether you're a, you've got five HubSpot seats or 5,000 HubSpot seats, right? Uh, so I think, I think that's been a real, a real interesting and exciting challenge for us kind of figuring out like, how, how can we make this, you know, like Chris said, have parody with the Salesforce integration and then how can we, on top of that, make it so it fits HubSpot in the way that we know that people like use HubSpot and.
[00:27:27] Um, you know, we've been lucky enough to work with some of our users, you know, to do direct beta testing and things like that, and that's been really, really incredible, especially, um, in the financial space, you know, the financial space and some of these, um, more regulated industries. Uh, it's, it's, it's just been really great to be able to. this, uh, make this tool something that feels so integrated into HubSpot, like you guys said, but also feels very customizable and like it's not forcing you down a, a happy path, right.[00:28:00]
[00:28:00] Yeah,
[00:28:00] cool. I got a, so you mentioned like financial industries and this document process because. Again, when people see the integration, excuse me, when they see the app is a app, when you see it, you start to think of the applications, right? Like Max, when I was looking at it, I was thinking of people that have like sponsor profiles for event happily, where you have to like submit some docs.
[00:28:19] You have to submit this and storing that. You don't wanna store it in HubSpot. You wanna store it where other people in the
[00:28:24] Sure can access
[00:28:26] and there's specific folder for it, right? Like that concept. So in event management, I could see where if you have box and you're running events and you have HubSpot, you're able to.
[00:28:34] Centralize everything, right? What industry have you seen that are, are really kinda leveraging this document as a part of their sales or quoting or process period.
[00:28:45] seen a lot of interest from accounting organizations and law groups, especially Chris. I'll let you take that one.
[00:28:51] Yeah. Yeah. Law, law firms, accounting firms, um, have been probably our biggest, biggest interest. We've had some [00:29:00] professional services firms and some software firms, but really it's ones that have to worry about regulations they kind of fall in, or some real estate too. Um, there's like rules. Dropbox now does not support.
[00:29:15] So a couple of our customers came in and said, Dropbox doesn't support RESP compliance,
[00:29:21] but Box does. Right. Um, and that was made what made them jump. And he's like, well I have box now and I have HubSpot. Well, lemme see if, is there an integrate? Yeah, there is one. And they try it out and kind of run.
[00:29:34] Yeah.
[00:29:34] And we're really seeing like, you know, you kind of think of these industries as very technical, uh, you know, kind of like. Big. Hard to, hard to get into. But, uh, we're seeing more and more that people really like HubSpot because it gives you that direct access to people. Right? And that's, as you guys, I mean, that's your whole, you know, the whole event happily, like, works off of that, right?
[00:29:57] Like, it, it, it's built on top of the [00:30:00] CRMs. You have all of these people here and you have all of these channels and you're really hooked into these channels. And I think that's a. The ethos of that is very different than Salesforce. And so especially for box users coming over, you know, it's like Salesforce, you can do anything you want, right?
[00:30:15] But it's kind of hard to get directly to the, you know, to your clients or your customers, whoever it may be. Uh, whereas I think this kind of flips this script and gives us a way to make that content layer of everything that's happening with Box really, really synergistic with. The CRM, right. So your contacts all have folders that they're linked to, right?
[00:30:38] So you're, you're not having this disconnect between your content, your customers, and your engagements with them outside the platform.
[00:30:46] Yeah. What's like the biggest difference, like the biggest fundamental difference? Differences besides like, oh, you're coding it differently. Like what's the biggest, like, fundamental differences of like building apps on HubSpot versus building apps in like the, the [00:31:00] Salesforce ecosystem that you've noticed?
[00:31:02] I think the, the more limited features is probably, uh, in a way a positive. I. Um, you know, I kind of, I kind of say like, to me HubSpot feels like Apple and Salesforce kind of feels like pc, right? Like you, it, it's, it's more opinionated. It, yeah, you've more opinionated. It pushes you down paths. But in that way, you know, it's 2025.
[00:31:27] There's a lot of things that I don't want to have to rewrite the book on, you know, to, to get set up. And, um, you know, as, as you know, there's. That comes with certain limitations and that, you know, maybe you want to do a specific thing with the UI and the UI extension. You can't, you can't put padding on a UI extension, you know, something as simple as that.
[00:31:45] But, you know, the ability to pull in record data is so much easier to do in HubSpot than in Salesforce. So something as simple as that, I think is, um, it's a lot more finely tuned of a development experience in my opinion. And, uh, it, it just kind of [00:32:00] makes more sense in a modern development kind of way.
[00:32:05] Well, I mean, it allowed you to get in and build and deploy and have something working that a bunch of people are using, like pretty quickly. And that's what most people are saying. And what we're trying to just blast into the, you know, the ecosystem
[00:32:17] The world.
[00:32:18] you. You could show up and you're pretty much halfway there, right?
[00:32:22] If you show up, you're halfway there and there's all of these platforms, right? There's a lot of functionality that HubSpot doesn't have yet or doesn't plan on doing, like going deep that you could build into. There's tons of other softwares that have integrations, but they're not really integration.
[00:32:36] They're throwing stuff on the contact. There's a lot. There's a huge opportunity for people to build better on HubSpot. We're trying to let people know that, and you guys are a shining example of something that's, you've already became an official box, you know, integration like it's the official one. It's the one that they tout.
[00:32:54] There's no other one. I mean, there's a lot of green pastures out here.
[00:32:58] Yeah, and I will say there's [00:33:00] a lot of really great opportunity for other app developers to do the same thing. To say like, Hey guys, your integration with HubSpot sucks. 'cause all it does is push contact in info information over, or you say you have an integration with HubSpot, but it's just you have Zapier.
[00:33:16] Right. I would, I would wager, I would wager if, if you wanna get into the app space, right? Maybe follow the same path these guys did in a, in a similar flavor where it's like, Hey, go find an existing company that says I could make your integration with HubSpot actually. Good. Can I go out and do that? 'cause there's a lot of opportunity to go out there and do it right.
[00:33:36] Uh, a lot of integrations are out there, are just checking a box. Right. And that typically leads to really bad reviews and no one wanting to use it and maybe someone not buying HubSpot because of that. Right. Uh, and so I would imagine there's other opportunities out there. Speaking of which, okay. Uh, Chris, you named the company Spark Grid Software.
[00:33:55] You didn't name the company Box Connector Inc. Right? [00:34:00] Which, which, which kind of like makes me wonder, begs the question and, and you don't gotta get specifics, right? I just want to know. Are there, are there other bullets in the chamber? Right. Are are, is there ideas for other apps you might build in this wonderful ecosystem?
[00:34:21] I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you just say yes if you want to just say yes, but if you care to elaborate, wax poetic on ideas, give us cryptic hints. Whatever you wanna do, man. We'll listen to all of it. What's the future looking like for, uh, for Spark grid?
[00:34:36] Yeah. Um, we definitely have ideas. We've definitely explored some ideas. To be honest, we haven't really, the, the box platform is so deep. And we, we have not actually begun development, but I have set up development environments with other companies that have, maybe they're similar, uh, tools to box and maybe [00:35:00] they're completely dissimilar.
[00:35:01] But yes, the goal that, the, the hope is, you know, you know, as long as I have my magic, uh, magic wand named Jackie here,
[00:35:10] Yeah.
[00:35:10] to, yeah. To execute on this stuff, like I. There is so much opportunity. 'cause we see, we've known the CRM space for so long, right? And we see what, hey, what kind of apps are popular over, over on the other side of the fence over at Salesforce and like where, where are people really getting value?
[00:35:31] Yeah.
[00:35:32] so yes, I mean ideally, and there's been some internal debate about, should we just name it box connector? Should we just have it, that there's been back and forth other people that have kind of brought into from market perspective. I sometimes question myself, why did I do this? I could, it would've just been so much easier if I did, but you know,
[00:35:50] Yeah.
[00:35:50] The more the merrier. Okay, case in point, the more the merrier.
[00:35:55] Yeah, yeah,
[00:35:56] And I think, again, you're winning it and we, one of the things we talk about a [00:36:00] lot is the opportunity isn't hidden at all. For here. There is so much that you could do. Go to the app store, sort by worst reviews, build a better one.
[00:36:09] Yeah,
[00:36:10] You then you, you'll at least be able to, you have product market fit. You know what people don't like. You know what people need. Build it and there's, there's hundreds and hundreds of opportunities to just build. So I mean, people, there's the, there's the argument of should I just focus and do one thing?
[00:36:26] Absolutely excellent. Sure you can have a boring life and work a nine to five and do it great, and then watch what happens if something happens, right? You have one egg and it cracked. Well, I mean, I, there's both of those arguments are very sound of, you should do one thing really great. We should just be, we should just be a CPQ company.
[00:36:42] We should just be an events company or we should just do box, right. But. I mean, what is a life that's not lived? To explore what's all
[00:36:49] I You are, you, you are preaching to the choir. Your mentality is almost exactly like mine,
[00:36:57] Yeah. Yeah. Also,
[00:36:59] Yeah. Go [00:37:00] ahead.
[00:37:00] here's a good example. I've heard a lot of HubSpot customers and a lot of HubSpot partners who use Clickup complain about the native Clickup integration. Hey guys. Hey guys. Especially companies out there that onboard customers onto HubSpot and onboard customers onto clickup. You have a really great opportunity in front of you.
[00:37:23] Go make the better Clickup integration.
[00:37:25] You.
[00:37:25] Do what these guys did, right? Like there's so many apps out there that I hear complaints about the integration, bro, go build a better one, right? There's a, there's a, there's, there's, there's opportunity out there for you to do it right? If you, you are feeling the pain.
[00:37:40] Chances are someone else's. And if you've got a really healthy understanding of how those two apps work really well, and you've got developer resources, you've got everything you need to go do it better. Okay. And like, capitalize on it. I'm just gonna say that.
[00:37:54] Yeah, and it makes it easy. It's not like you have to learn lightning and then learn how to like install [00:38:00] packages and all this stuff. No, you just put an endpoint together, grab that.
[00:38:05] yeah. But I'm, but what
[00:38:07] Pretty much.
[00:38:08] I. And like what, what I'm saying here is like people in those positions literally have the most important ingredient, which is the nuanced understanding of how you wish it worked together. Which is not necessarily something that the original app, you know, is thinking about, because a lot of these bigger apps, when they say, oh, we need integrations with all these CRM systems, right?
[00:38:30] They're not saying what is the most nuanced, best way to deploy it inside of this one, and what's all this other cool stuff that we can build on that side of the app? No dude, they're checking a box and sending over properties. That's all they're doing. And then they're going, yeah, we've got an integration.
[00:38:44] And then people are like, yeah, but it sucked. There's opportunity out there for partners to go out and build the better versions of all these and make a product around it. Right. And Ran, just wanted to say that. Um,
[00:38:58] man, you guys are, you guys got it. Now [00:39:00] I'll, I'll end it with this, right? The concept of. You are, were a solutions, are are a solutions partner, right? You have dealt with the pain, you've been in the trenches, you've seen the complaints you've had to work with this company. Oh, our, we're really simple.
[00:39:16] We're just like everybody. No, you're not. Everybody's company's crazy different. Everybody's company has the most weirdest nuances. And when you're starting to do these services, I mean, even myself back in the day, like we, our customer service portal was because somebody needed it and they needed it to work this way, and then everybody started complaining.
[00:39:32] I need it to work this way, that way. So you add a bunch of features, and then you have like I would say, the best in show at that point you have that as a solutions partner, when you have that nuance, when you've got those calluses of trying to make this work over and over and over again. Especially if you said you did a bunch of deals with box over and over again.
[00:39:49] People are like, yeah, but what about this? Yeah, but we do it like this way. It is just a layup. I feel like that is the formula to get into the HubSpot ecosystem is get your hands dirty [00:40:00] with somebody using HubSpot and then be like, what are the, what's the first thing they trip up on? What's the first thing they skin their neon?
[00:40:05] What's the pebble in the shoe at the end of the marathon? Those are the instant solutions that can be built. And once again, once you have those relationships, like you said, Chris, I've got relationships with Box, I've got some relationships with HubSpot. Once you find and and curate those relationships, now you've got at least a.
[00:40:22] Platform of distribution because HubSpot is a platform that has a lot of different wires, a lot of different places, a lot of different ways, right? So you're able to really build and solidify without even the how product market fit. You don't even have to guess that. And that's usually what people build and die on.
[00:40:38] They're like, oh man, I spent $10 million in $30 billion in trying to make this thing that I believe the world needs. And people are like, I don't need some pin That's like. It shows me stuff. I have a phone like, are you sure I need this? And they're like, yeah, I swear you. No one needs these extra things, but in this world, when you're going through this place of going through as a solutions partner or a consultant, a [00:41:00] hustler, what have you on HubSpot, you'll instantly find out.
[00:41:03] Instantly find out. Literally every app that we built was like, man, you know what? You guys should build this. We're like, okay, guess what? Everybody wants it. Right? And that's what I think that what you guys have done extremely well. Not only you found the challenge, you went through this playbook of I help people out.
[00:41:18] They needed this, I built it. I got distribution. A bunch of people need it, but I built it. Well, keyword, shout out to Jackie. It built it well where it looks, you know, very impressive for even the veterans of looking at HubSpot apps. Then you can do that and repeat ad nauseum. As much fun as you want to have.
[00:41:34] And I think that you guys were are a great example of doing it right. Doing it well, and you know, just owning it and adapting as HubSpot grows. And you did it quickly. You weren't,
[00:41:46] Yeah, you
[00:41:46] for 10 years building it. You did it in a year. You got Jackie came in, he's like, you know what, here's how it works.
[00:41:52] Cool. I guess I figured it out. I won. Correct. It's over that you guys, you guys wanted that. So I wanted to applaud that and shout you guys out. But. [00:42:00] Before we go, we always like to ask three fun questions. Now, I got two people to ask questions with Chris and Jackie. First question is, I need favorite colors.
[00:42:08] Sage Green, like a sage green.
[00:42:11] That's not an acceptable,
[00:42:13] Sage green. Love that.
[00:42:15] acceptable answer. Blue, not an acceptable answer.
[00:42:18] Dax, can I ask one
[00:42:19] Blue.
[00:42:21] Partial credit.
[00:42:23] Can ID can I ask, can I ask one question that is like, I know we're supposed to ask like fun, get to know you questions here, but since we have HubSpot app developers, uh, gracing us with their presence today, I do have one question I want to ask you guys.
[00:42:35] If you could snap your fingers today right now and get one API that you feel like has been missing from HubSpot's, like publicly available APIs for you guys to build apps on, what would it be?
[00:42:47] Can I answer?
[00:42:49] Yeah. Next 30 know what you're gonna say.
[00:42:51] that's a great
[00:42:52] from these guys?
[00:42:54] I can tell you a, a general feature I'd like to see, which would be UI [00:43:00] extensions and workflow actions.
[00:43:02] hmm. Oh,
[00:43:04] more dynamic inputs, outputs with the workflow actions.
[00:43:09] true. Yeah. So like you're saying, like when you're, when you're, you know when, when your app inserts a workflow action you can use right? The actual UI of how you configure it. Right. More control around
[00:43:22] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They're just having properties and you can't do
[00:43:25] It basically works like the CRM card. Right. You
[00:43:27] yeah. That would be sick.
[00:43:29] you send the JSON and that's it. Right. Um, as far as APIs, I would like some improvements to the association's API,
[00:43:37] AKA redo it
[00:43:39] redo it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's,
[00:43:42] just.
[00:43:43] Yeah. I like that. I like that.
[00:43:46] Chris, do you got
[00:43:47] I would love, I would love, um, to expose the UI extensions to all the marketing tools, the HubSpot marketing tools, because there are tons of companies out there that have. [00:44:00] HubSpot, just marketing. Like who doesn't have, if you're in a marketing department, of course you have collateral and files and like we would love get into that space, but.
[00:44:11] Yeah, like you, I could see a situation where like you're building an email and you'd love to be able to like open up Dropbox. God, you wanna keep saying it? box.com. Right?
[00:44:23] not your fault.
[00:44:24] to, and be able to pull something in and like, so here's what's crazy though, right? Canva can do it. 'cause it's like a Canva has that like, you know, whatever.
[00:44:33] Backroom deal with Hub. Well actually, I mean it's, it's HubSpot making the integration with Canva where like you can open up the file manager and, oh, oh, there's a Canva button. Where'd that come from? Right, dude. Open that up to other people. You know what I mean? Like, it kind of makes sense if they sort of like, I mean, it doesn't make sense.
[00:44:50] I don't love. How they gate keep a lot of that stuff right from just, you know, for just being strategic integrations. It's like, it's clearly possible, like make [00:45:00] that more available to other folks. But I feel you on that one.
[00:45:03] That's a good one, man. This is a banger. So final question is, oh, I need, I need breakfast cereal because we just got a different breakfast cereal today and I wanna see Chris breakfast cereal. What you
[00:45:14] Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
[00:45:16] Great answer.
[00:45:17] It's fair. Yep. Jackie, I.
[00:45:19] If I'm a, if I'm back in the day, you know, in middle school we're talking Reese's Puffs
[00:45:25] Hmm. What about now?
[00:45:28] now Cascadian Farms, no sugar added with freeze dried strawberries and blueberries.
[00:45:38] unreal. There you
[00:45:39] Yeah, now you're ready for that question.
[00:45:41] I was ready. I was ready. I just had a bowl
[00:45:44] Well, guys, I appreciate you jumping on. Where can we find you at? What's up next for you guys?
[00:45:49] Yeah, so you can find us on the HubSpot marketplace if you just search for box connector. Uh, little known thing, not little known thing, but thing that we haven't discussed at all is [00:46:00] on top of all the file stuff, we do e-signatures as well. So box sign gives you unlimited digital signatures as part of your box subscription fee.
[00:46:11] So if you're paying for a DocuSign. paying on per envelope fees. It's a huge way. So yeah, you can find us on the HubSpot marketplace. It's probably the easiest. Or you can go to spark grid software com.
[00:46:26] Awesome.
[00:46:27] Well
[00:46:27] guys.
[00:46:27] thank you so much, uh,
[00:46:30] Thank you. Appreciate the time.
[00:46:31] today. I feel like this episode's a long time coming, so I'm very, very happy that you were able to join us and uh, yeah. I'm sure we'll be having you back for part two at some point.
[00:46:40] great.
[00:46:41] Appreciate it. Yep.
[00:46:43] you guys so much for
[00:46:44] so much guys. Appreciate it.