🎙️ This is Episode 3 "Built for HubSpot" with Harris Kenny from OutboundSync. Listen or watch the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
Question: Who's the hidden decision-maker that can kill your HubSpot app deal?
Answer: "A lot of times an admin's job is veto more than anything else. They're the guardian of the CRM. If we can build deeply in a way that when they get looped in and look at the screen, they're like, 'yep, looks good to me' - that's all you need."
In this newsletter & podcast episode:
The journey from HubSpot solutions partner to app developer
Why most integrations fail to capture value (and how to build differently)
The hidden power of agency partnerships for bootstrapped SaaS
Building for the admin: The stakeholder who can veto your deal
How to validate demand before writing a single line of code
The Built For HubSpot series is presented by Ampersand, the deep integration platform that enables the best startups and AI agents to work seamlessly with platforms like HubSpot without having to manage the complexity and tedious maintenance that comes with integrations at scale.
Why deep integrations win: From agency pain to product solution
Harris Kenny's journey to building OutboundSync started hands deep in agency work: "We were in the portal with the customers, seeing how other apps worked, seeing how apps like Arrows worked, and then comparing that to other apps that we tried where the integrations were just really bad."
The pain point was clear: teams were using tools like Smartlead for outbound campaigns but needed that data in HubSpot for revenue attribution, handoffs, and compliance. The existing solutions? Nonexistent or poorly executed.
"It was like, wow, what is even the point of installing this app at all? And so seeing like, okay, there is a spectrum of quality here. And that's up to the developer to decide what kind of app they wanna build."
What separates a checkbox integration from one that actually drives revenue? Harris learned it's about building for how HubSpot admins actually evaluate apps:
Timeline Events Matter: "There's a lot of stuff that if you build for HubSpot it enables, but it's not obvious."
Forward Compatibility: "Because we integrate in a way that's conscientious of HubSpot's data model, our integration is forward compatible. As new features come out, I'll refresh the UI and be like, 'oh yeah, turns out OutboundSync supports that’”
Build for the Veto: "A savvy HubSpot admin will get it. In a single screenshot, they can see all the integration filter properties and know what they'll be able to do with it."
The HubSpot admin: Your hidden stakeholder
One of Harris's most valuable insights is about who really makes integration decisions:
"An admin, RevOps admin, super admin, a lot of times their job is veto more than anything else. They're the guardian of the CRM."
This persona isn't necessarily your buyer, but they can kill your deal. The solution? Build so deeply that when they review your app, their response is simply: "Yep, looks good to me.”
Why agencies aren't just a stepping stone to growth
While many SaaS companies view agencies as temporary partners that drive pipeline, Harris fundamentally disagrees:
"Some people talk about agencies as like a stepping stone, 'oh yeah, we worked through some agencies, found some traction and now we're moving on.' For us, I fundamentally disagree with that."
The reason? Agencies have superpowers that most SaaS companies can't replicate:
Specialized Knowledge: They have very specific insights about how things work in their clients portal.
Access to Power Users: The agencies are general doing the best work, finding the fastest growing companies and iterating their playbook across them.
Trust Transfer: Agency clients generally trust their recommendations on tooling to achieve the outcomes they want.
OutboundSync's agency strategy reveals a counterintuitive truth about ecosystem growth. By partnering with agencies who already understood advanced outbound strategies, OutboundSync could focus on building deep HubSpot functionality rather than educating the market on the outbound maturity curve.
"We eliminated the Smartlead requirement basically. These were companies wanting to move up that outbound maturity curve to level three or four, having multiple domains, using multiple data providers, using AI and dynamic personalization."
Bootstrappers mindset: Singles and doubles
Harris's transition from agency owner to app developer meant confronting harsh economic realities:
"I was running my solutions partner agency where I'm getting HubSpot implementation projects, multiple month, four to five figure contracts. So then to be like, 'okay, well now I'm gonna go try to sell a single seat of OutboundSync for a couple hundred dollars a month'... it was really difficult."
The solution? A Moneyball approach:
"We're hitting singles and doubles. We're not swinging for the fences. When we write code, it needs to work. When we write docs, people need to read 'em. When we onboard someone, we wanna retain that customer."
The most powerful validation of demand came from unexpected user behavior:
"We found users were using HubSpot's Salesforce data sync to get the data into Salesforce. I got a customer service ticket with a screenshot of a contact record in Salesforce and they were like, 'Hey, why is this happening?'"
This organic demand, users hacking together solutions to get OutboundSync data into Salesforce validated the need to expand beyond HubSpot.
The Built for HubSpot series explores the stories behind how the best products and companies are winning by going deep in the HubSpot ecosystem. The series is presented by Ampersand, the deep integration platform that enables the best startups and AI agents to integrate seamlessly and scale fast.
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