Watch the 5 minute video with real lessons from experience and why focus, complexity, and people matter...
TL;DR:
The three biggest mistakes HubSpot Solutions Partners make when scaling are spreading focus too thin, adding complexity too early, and avoiding tough people decisions. Staying focused, simplifying operations, and making fast team calls drive faster, healthier growth.
When you’re scaling a HubSpot Solutions Partner business, it’s tempting to chase every opportunity that appears. New revenue streams, new markets, new ideas. But growth isn’t just about adding more. It’s about managing focus, simplicity, and people.
In a recent Profoundly discussion, Rikki Lear, Chief Growth Officer at Profoundly and former leader of one of HubSpot’s fastest-growing partner agencies, shared the biggest mistakes he made while scaling and the lessons every Solutions Partner can learn from.
The first and most costly mistake: losing focus.
“Every time we tried to do something new, it wasn’t the wrong idea. It just took focus away from what mattered most: helping more people with HubSpot.”
The HubSpot ecosystem is vast. Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS, Operations, and now Commerce Hub each can lead you down its own rabbit hole. Add to that the temptation to launch side projects like software products, training programs, or communities, and your leadership focus fractures fast.
The fix: ruthlessly prioritize.
Before you expand into a new offer or experiment with a new idea, ask three questions:
Does this deepen or distract from our core HubSpot expertise?
Can the existing team deliver it profitably and repeatedly?
Will this scale faster than our core business?
If not, park it. The partners who grow fastest are those who focus on their core strengths and perfect delivery before diversifying.
As growth accelerates, complexity creeps in. Different currencies, regions, service lines, team structures, and reporting layers all add friction.
“By the end, we had 25 offices in 15 countries, with hundreds of people, dozens of currencies and languages. The complexity versus the revenue was too high.”
Complexity isn’t bad in itself. It’s often a side effect of success. The problem is picking it up too early or all at once.
Many partners rush to internationalize, introduce too many service tiers, or hire regional teams before operational systems are mature. The result is slower decisions, blurred accountability, and declining margins.
The fix: scale gradually and deliberately.
Introduce one layer of complexity only after the current one runs smoothly. Document your operations before adding new offices or regions. Automate what can be automated. And track profit per unit of complexity because “more” isn’t always better.
The hardest mistakes are human.
“We were nice people who ran a nice company. But that meant we kept people we knew were wrong for too long. If I’d followed my gut more, we’d have got further faster.”
Every agency leader eventually faces the tension between kindness and performance. Keeping underperformers because they’re “nice” or “loyal” feels humane, but it damages culture and momentum. Other team members notice. Clients feel it. Growth slows.
The fix: trust your gut and act fast.
If someone consistently underperforms or misaligns with your values, address it immediately. Clarity is kindness. Your best people and your business depend on it.
Brian Garvey and Jason Azocar, also part of the Profoundly discussion, added perspectives that every partner leader should remember.
“When you’re a startup, you’re fighting to stay alive. Once you’ve got product-market fit, your new enemy is complexity. You’re fighting for simplicity.”
Growth breeds chaos if left unchecked. HubSpot’s CEO Yamini Rangan puts it plainly:
“Chaos is the natural state of things. If you let it, everything drifts that way.”
Simplicity isn’t the absence of ambition. It’s the discipline to do fewer things, better.
If you’re a HubSpot Solutions Partner on the growth path, learn from those who’ve already climbed the mountain:
Stay focused on HubSpot services that deliver real value.
Add complexity slowly only when systems are ready.
Make people decisions quickly and align your team around clear standards.
Keep fighting for simplicity in your offers, operations, and org structure.
Growth comes not from adding more, but from mastering the essentials.
What’s the biggest mistake HubSpot Partners make when scaling?
Spreading focus too thin by chasing too many service lines before mastering core HubSpot delivery.
How can a HubSpot agency simplify operations?
Focus on one service category at a time, automate delivery, and bring in fractional HubSpot experts to handle edge cases.
What’s the best way to scale HubSpot capacity fast?
Post a project on Profoundly to find vetted HubSpot specialists who can extend your team on demand.
Rikki Lear is Chief Growth Officer at Profoundly. He previously founded and led Digital 22, a UK and Canada Elite HubSpot Partner, before selling it to Avidly, the world’s largest HubSpot agency. Rikki then ran Avidly to win five HubSpot Global Partner of the Year Awards before joining the Profoundly team to help HubSpot Solutions Partners scale smarter with fractional HubSpot experts.
Profoundly helps HubSpot Solutions Partners scale faster and smarter. Access vetted fractional HubSpot experts on demand, complete projects without over-hiring, and expand your capabilities while maintaining focus.
Need help scaling your HubSpot Solutions Partner business?
Post a project on Profoundly to get matched with certified HubSpot specialists who can help you grow without adding complexity.
The full transcript:
Introduction & Guest Introductions
0:00
Welcome everybody. I'm Brian Garvey. I'm here with Rikki and Jason again from Profoundly.
This series focuses on answering real questions from HubSpot Solutions Partners and Providers — fast, honest, and unscripted.
0:14
Rikki, this is a question for you. It's a good one. We got it through one of our partners: What's the biggest mistake you made scaling your HubSpot Partner?
0:25
Fun. I get to relive some of those. Well, like anybody growing a business, you make a lot of mistakes, and we were no different.
We made a ton of them, so picking a few big ones might be challenging.
0:36
I'd say one of the lessons I learned several times — because I fell back into the trap — was spreading ourselves too thin.
HubSpot and the surrounding ecosystem is a lot. Trying to do all of that is already enough, but we often tried to do even more.
0:49
At the end of my journey, we were big enough that we felt we had to cover everything.
Trying to do all of that was enough, and trying to do other things around it took our focus and leadership energy away from where it should have been.
1:03
We tried things like developing software because it seemed like a fun, easy new revenue stream.
It didn’t work out so well. It turns out that’s a very different business model that takes very different skills and a lot of investment.
1:14
We also tried launching educational arms — communities, courses, things like that.
I'm sure I’m missing a dozen other things, but the main takeaway was that every time we did it, the ideas weren’t wrong.
They were just distractions from the core business.
1:41
Every time we shut those programs down and put focus back into helping more people with HubSpot, we grew faster.
That was probably the biggest mistake we made over the years.
Why Scaling HubSpot Partnerships Can Be Tricky
2:04
The second big mistake was adding too much complexity too fast.
By the end, we were managing people in 15 countries, we had 25 offices up and running, we were dealing with dozens of currencies and languages.
2:28
We weren’t a huge company — maybe 300 to 400 people — but the complexity compared to the revenue and team size was very high.
My advice to partners would be: don’t add unnecessary complexity before you need it.
If you do, do it gradually instead of all at once.
2:49
And finally, the last one — it always comes back to people.
I’d like to think we were nice people who ran a nice company and tried to do things the right way.
But often that meant we let people stay too long when we knew they weren’t right.
3:06
That has a damaging impact on clients and teammates who can all see it.
You think, “They’re such a nice person, I want it to work, let’s give them another chance.”
But your gut told you in the first week they were the wrong person.
3:19
If I’d followed my gut more, we’d have gone further faster for sure.
Sometimes it’s about making hard decisions with people — that was always the hardest part of business for me.
Additional Discussion
3:35
Jason: The complexity point is fascinating. Dares has said a lot of really smart things over the years, but one that always stuck with me —
and I might butcher it here — was something like:
3:50
“As a startup, you’re fighting to stay alive. Once you’ve established product-market fit and got some scale, your enemy is complexity. You’re fighting for simplicity.”
4:01
That’s lived in my brain for years. It’s so easy to overcomplicate things, and simplifying is so often the right move.
4:17
Brian: You cited Dares; I’d cite Yamini. She said something that always resonated with me —
chaos is the natural state of things. If you let it, everything drifts toward chaos.
4:30
So simplifying, staying focused, and planning for scale are critical.
4:38
Rikki: I’m glad it wasn’t just me making those mistakes then. Sounds like good wisdom.