🎙️ This is Episode 1 of the "Built for HubSpot" series, featuring Daniel Zarick from Arrows. Listen or watch the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Read on for more insights on building for depth in the HubSpot ecosystem.
Question: Is it better to build a standalone product or integrate deeply with HubSpot's platform?
Answer: Where are your users doing their work multiple hours per day? And can you ergonomically meet them there? If that is in the CRM, then strongly consider that. Do it because it's better for the customer. Do not build in a platform like HubSpot or Salesforce with the expectation that it's a magic unlock for distribution.
In this newsletter & podcast episode:
The strategic decision to build deeply for HubSpot vs. a standalone product
Why betting on a platform isn’t only about your product
The myth of "marketplace distribution" and the reality of ecosystem partnerships
How AI is changing the CRM landscape and integration strategies
Best practices for evaluating if a deep platform integration the right play
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.
"Going Deep: Why Arrows bet on HubSpot"
The Big Decision: Product-First or Platform-First?
Three years ago, Arrows made a bold decision that dramatically reshaped the business: “We launched in the HubSpot marketplace for Arrows, and we made a big bet to delete a big chunk of Arrows and focus on the CRM.”
This wasn't just adding an integration, it was reimagining their entire product and go-to-market strategy around HubSpot's platform. Instead of building a standalone product that pulled data from HubSpot, Arrows decided to build a collaborative layer on top of HubSpot that enhanced what users were already doing.
“We really were looking at the product we had built and wondering if we built it today from scratch, how would we build it? And we realized it would be a very CRM-centric, CRM-first product.”
This choice forced difficult tradeoffs:
Deleting the Salesforce integration
Removing dashboards and standalone features
Rebuilding core elements to work natively within HubSpot
The "Better Together" strategy
What made this approach successful wasn't just technical integration, it was creating a narrative where Arrows and HubSpot were better together than either product alone.
“What is the unique value we provide? Arrows is the collaborative space for your customers. We don't need to manage any of the commodity data layer, consolidating all the activity and email communications and reporting and automations layer. We don't need to build all of that. That is done very, very well by the CRM, specifically HubSpot.”
By focusing on collaboration, something HubSpot doesn't natively offer Arrows has been able to build a complementary product that solves a specific painful problem while leveraging HubSpot's existing strengths.
"Most people still wouldn't want to log into Arrows for that. I am the CRO, I'm the CEO, I'm the VP of success. Where do I want to go look at reports about what's happening in my onboarding process? I'm gonna wanna look at the CRM."
The distribution myth vs. reality
One of the most surprising revelations from Daniel was about distribution expectations versus reality:
“I think our expectation, and it's still true, was that there would be a stronger distribution within the platform. Most of our distribution comes from doing marketing kind of outside of the platform, outside of the app marketplace.”
The hard truth: HubSpot just does not have a mechanism to match the customers that are using HubSpot for onboarding with an app like Arrows that would make that more valuable to them.
Three key questions to ask before building for HubSpot
Based on Daniel's experience, here are the critical questions to consider:
Where do your users spend their time? Where are the actual users doing their work most of the time, multiple hours per day? And can you ergonomically meet them there? A native integration can mean less clicks, less tabs, and deeper adoption.
Will the depth of your integration create better customer outcomes? Do customers need the UI your product provides to receive value or are they better served to continue using the tools they already know and gain new capabilities through your integration.
Are you betting on distribution or increased customer value? Do not build in a platform like HubSpot or Salesforce with the expectation that it's a magic unlock for distribution.
AI in the HubSpot ecosystem: Reality vs. Hype
Daniel offered a grounded perspective on AI's current state in the HubSpot ecosystem (with a lot of perspective from building with AI at Arrows):
“The marketing is far ahead of the capabilities of the product in terms of AI and agents. The talk about it is far ahead of what's possible and what people are actually doing.”
When asking teams what AI tools they're actually using day-to-day:
Call recorders with AI note summaries
ChatGPT for writing assistance
Limited use of AI assistants for specific workflows
The real opportunity isn't in flashy AI features but in embedding AI capabilities directly into existing workflows:
“Most people don't care about AI necessarily. They'd like to use it more, but I just want to do my job better, get the outcome better. I want it to be easier. I don't want to think about the query. I don't wanna think about the prompt, and I don't want to think about refining it. I just want the result.”
Deep integration bets that change company culture
A fascinating insight from the conversation was how going all-in on HubSpot changed every aspect of Arrows as a company:
“Every aspect of our company understands CRM, how to use it pretty well. What's possible, what's capable, the pros and cons of the data that's accessible, how you would set up reports and workflows and pipelines, and how do you demo around it and do content around it. And that just filters through everything we create and put out there.”
From product development to sales demos to marketing content, the deep integration with HubSpot shapes how the entire company thinks and operates.
Takeaways for building in the HubSpot ecosystem
Whether you’re a founder, product leader, or ops team considering tooling:
Focus on customer workflows first, meet users where they already work
Don't expect magical distribution, partnerships require long-term investment
Consider the "better together" narrative, how does your product enhance HubSpot?
AI should solve real problems, not just be a marketing checkbox
Be prepared for organization-wide impact—a deep integration strategy affects every department
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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