What We’re Building with Starter Story

What Is Starter Story?

Back in 2017, a software engineer named Pat Walls was burning the candle at both ends. His first startup had just failed to get into Y Combinator. He was spending his days at work and his nights trying to build something that would stick—a story most entrepreneurs know all too well.

Refusing to give up entrepreneurship, Pat started a side project — something low-cost, scrappy, and built from genuine curiosity. He wanted to know how real founders actually built their businesses from the ground up. So he started calling them up and asking.

Why HubSpot Media Acquired It

Let’s zoom out for a second.

The media landscape is shifting in ways that marketers feel every day. Organic traffic is getting harder to earn. Paid acquisition costs keep climbing. Audience attention is scattered across more channels than ever. The playbooks that worked five years ago — keyword stuffing, algorithmic content at scale, banner ads — are increasingly hitting diminishing returns.

What’s working? Trusted, creator-led brands that audiences actively seek out. Brands that people subscribe to, share, and come back to — not because they were served a retargeted ad, but because the content is genuinely worth their time.

That‘s what HubSpot Media has been building toward. Rather than rent attention through paid channels, we’re investing in media properties that own it. The Hustle, Mindstream, and now Starter Story are all part of that same thesis: if you want to reach the people who matter most to your business, build (or acquire) the media they already love.

Starter Story fits this strategy exceptionally well because of who it reaches. The Starter Story audience is made up of early-stage founders — people at the exact moment they‘re deciding which tools to build their businesses on. Pre-seed through Series A, they’re evaluating options, moving fast, and forming opinions about which brands they trust. That‘s a core segment for HubSpot, and Starter Story reaches them in their element, when they’re actively learning and making decisions.

It‘s not a demographic fit. It’s a mindset fit. And that makes all the difference.

HubSpot Media: A Track Record Worth Talking About

We don’t make these kinds of moves lightly, and we have the results to back up why we keep making them.

HubSpot’s media network now drives over 50 million engagements and tens of thousands of leads each month — a number that reflects genuine audience behavior, not inflated impressions. On YouTube alone, HubSpot’s channels collectively pull in over 20 million views per month.

The Hustle, which HubSpot acquired in 2021, is a clear proof point. It‘s remained editorially independent, kept its voice and community, and continued to grow. The same goes for Mindstream. We’ve learned how to be good stewards of the media brands we invest in — adding resources without adding interference.

With Starter Story joining the network, our combined YouTube subscriber count rises to 2.9 million. That’s a real, engaged audience of people who want to build things.

A Note on Why This Matters

There‘s a version of this story you could tell about media strategy and acquisition multiples. We’re not going to say to that version.

The version we care about is this one: there are millions of people around the world who want to build something. Some are a few months into a side project. Some are staring at a blank Notion doc, trying to figure out what to make next. Some have launched and are grinding through the messy middle. And Starter Story has been one of the most honest, most generous resources available to all of them.

Getting to invest in that — and help it grow — is something we’re genuinely proud of.