HubSpot's Dharmesh Shah has stayed energized for 15 years by refusing management duties and zero direct reports. He rotates three core priorities every few years, obsessively focusing on each while saying no to everything else. This narrow focus keeps the work enjoyable instead of grinding.
Chapters
HubSpot, 15 years old. When I see you, I'm like, well, you don't have to do this. Like, you could delegate this. Why are you still doing this? And does it still feel like a grind?
I don't think of it as a grind at all. So a couple of things. It's not widely known, but Brian and I as co-founders, we had a kind of heart-to-heart co-founder chat when we decided he's going to be CEO because I suck at being CEO. So my agreement with Brian was I'm not going to have any management responsibilities in this company. I'm going to be in it 100%, but I'm not a good manager. And so we have over 4,000 people at HubSpot. I have zero direct reports. I've never had direct reports. But in terms of the work that I do, I get it down to like 3 things I'm going to work on and that I will change those every few years. For a long time it was like brand, culture, and what I call boldness. So what I do is I will maniacally focus on whatever those 3 things are and say no to pretty much everything else. I get to kind of pick the things. So my 3 things are different, you know, from year to year. I find it enjoyable. Like, I obsess over details.
