HubSpot vs Podio

2023. HubSpot unveils strategy to integrate AI across the platform



HubSpot, the marketing and CRM platform, has unveiled its comprehensive AI strategy known as HubSpot AI. While the incorporation of AI elements has been an ongoing effort for HubSpot and other enterprise SaaS vendors, the advent of technologies like ChatGPT has prompted HubSpot to adopt a more extensive approach while retaining earlier features. The CRM database stores valuable company data, enabling users to gain insights into customer profiles, encompassing basic information, purchase history, customer service interactions, and more. HubSpot AI encompasses a four-pronged strategy, starting with content assistants that assist users in generating various content types across the platform. Additionally, AI agents, currently in different development stages, aim to automate customer service tasks and answer queries. The third component, AI Insights, provides predictive analytics, such as identifying customers likely to churn or make a purchase, a capability integrated into the platform over time.


2020. HubSpot’s new end-to-end sales hub aims to simplify CRM for mid-market customers



HubSpot, renowned for its role in shaping the concept of inbound marketing, has unveiled the HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise. While the company has been providing a CRM tool for five years, which has successfully addressed the usability concerns of salespeople, the new offering aims to deliver a comprehensive approach that caters to the needs of not only sales professionals but also management and system administrators. HubSpot recognizes that larger players in the industry, such as Adobe, Salesforce, and SAP, typically acquire various components of the technology stack and integrate them into their solutions, or customers themselves piece together different elements. In contrast, HubSpot believes that developing a unified, integrated solution in-house will naturally result in a more user-friendly experience.


2020. HubSpot unveils new content management system for marketers



HubSpot, a renowned inbound marketing firm, has introduced a dedicated content management system (CMS) specifically designed to simplify the process of adding and updating content for marketing professionals. While content management has always been a fundamental aspect of HubSpot's offerings, this new CMS has been developed from scratch with marketers in mind. It provides developers with the flexibility to use their preferred programming languages while leveraging the modular structure of the HubSpot CMS. Simultaneously, the user-friendly interface empowers marketers to make frequent changes necessary for modern websites.


2018. HubSpot added customer service tools to its marketing platform



HubSpot is venturing beyond sales and marketing by officially introducing its Service Hub, a comprehensive solution for managing customer service. This expansion includes an all-in-one inbox for organizing all customer communications, a bot-builder to automate certain customer interactions, features for developing a company knowledge base (which can be utilized by the bot-builder), survey creation tools, and a dashboard for monitoring the performance of your service team. Service Hub is seamlessly integrated with HubSpot's existing products, enabling businesses to track customer interactions across sales, marketing, and support.


2017. HubSpot unveiled Conversations



CRM, marketing, sales, and customer experience provider HubSpot has introduced a range of product updates, including notable integrations with Facebook for advertising purposes, Shopify for ecommerce functionalities, and the introduction of a new tool called "Conversations." The Conversations tool, facilitated by chatbots, consolidates customer messages into a single inbox, representing the evolution of HubSpot's live chat platform. This unified messaging system becomes crucial during significant transitions, such as the handoff from sales to support. Key features of Conversations include seamless integration with HubSpot CRM and the ability to create chatbots, leveraging the technology obtained from HubSpot's recent acquisition of the chatbot platform, Motion AI. These updates aim to enhance customer interactions and streamline communication processes within the HubSpot platform.


2017. Marketing platform HubSpot acquires AI startup Kemvi



Inbound marketing and sales platform HubSpot has made an acquisition of Kemvi, a startup that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist sales teams. A short while ago, Kemvi introduced DeepGraph, a product that examines public data to enable salespeople in identifying the optimal time (such as after a job transition or the release of an article) to connect with potential customers. Additionally, it takes proactive measures to verify leads. HubSpot was actively seeking innovative ways to incorporate AI technology into its platform as a means to combat competitors. The acquisition of Kemvi was especially attractive to HubSpot due to its ability to address a genuine requirement among salespeople.


2015. HubSpot launches own CRM system



HubSpot, a renowned company recognized for its marketing tools, has officially launched its CRM product, moving it out of the beta phase. The CRM tool is available for free, while HubSpot's sales "acceleration" tool, Sidekick, is priced at $50 per seat per month. HubSpot describes the CRM tool as designed to assist sales representatives in minimizing the tedious aspects of data entry and interaction management. The tool automatically captures data from the sales process and organizes it in a chronological format. This strategy of providing free software to companies and subsequently upselling their IT departments has proven successful for software companies like Dropbox and Box. Although there are still costs associated with the sales process, having products integrated into more businesses helps reduce certain barriers.


2014. Marketing giant HubSpot files $100M IPO



HubSpot, a leading provider of marketing automation software, has recently filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the aim of raising up to $100 million. This move follows a similar path taken by its competitor Marketo, which went public the previous year. Notably, other rivals such as Eloqua and ExactTarget chose to be acquired by larger software companies—Eloqua was acquired by Oracle for $871 million in late 2012, while ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce.com for a whopping $2.5 billion just six months later. It's worth mentioning that both Salesforce and Google have also invested in HubSpot, further highlighting the company's industry significance and appeal.


2012. Podio - Social intranet + App buider + App store


Podio - is yet another service to create enterprise social network (like Yammer, Chatter, SocialCast, etc). May be even the definition "yet another" - is not quite correct in this case, because Podio is already one of the most successful representatives of this class. Two months ago Podio was acquired by Citrix, which competes with Microsoft, Google and Salesforce for the enterprise collaboration market. And among Podio's customers are such companies as Alcatel-Lucent, BMW, BBC, Twitter and SubWay. Podio is popular in many countries and available in 10 languages: Russian, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Danish and English. So how is Podio different from its strong competitors? ***


2012. Citrix acquires cloud-based social business collaboration platform Podio



Citrix has completed the acquisition of Podio, a Danish social business collaboration platform. Podio serves as a social network for businesses, empowering its users to create apps that enhance the functionality of the service. It can be likened to "Yammer with apps." Podio provides an App store, where users can incorporate App bundles designed for specific workflow purposes, such as CRM Management tools, Project Management tools, or individual Apps like Candidates (an app for managing job candidates), Twitter (an app for monitoring tweets), and Bugs (an app for internal bug reporting). With Podio, you can handle a wide range of tasks, from expense reports to hiring processes. Instead of following other users, the focus is on following "Spaces" where these activities take place. On the right-hand side, you can access Frequently Used Spaces, Contacts, and Calendar, while the left-hand side displays an activity stream showcasing all actions. This interface provides convenient access to all features, including the ability to add or create your own app tailored to specific tasks.