Lean Startup guru Eric Ries joins HubSpot's advisory board

Serial entrepreneur and startup advisor Eric Ries has joined marketing automation leader HubSpot’s advisory board.

Ries, who cofounded IMVU and served as a venture advisor at Kleiner Perkins, pioneered the “lean startup” philosophy, which is based on originally Japanese concepts of waste-free processes. He is also the author of The Lean Startup, and maintains the Startup Lessons Learned blog.

As a consequence of the move, Ries blog will publish, at least occasionally, on Hubspot’s marketing blog.

Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah said in a statement that Ries’ lean startup methodology was a key reason for the add:

“I’ve known Eric for many years and have been following his work avidly,” he said. “Not only was HubSpot built with lean startup principles, I believe this evidence-based approach to iteration and learning is directly relevant for organizations looking to transform their marketing.”

Apparently the genesis of the move was a dinner in which Ries and Shah discovered the similarities of their approaches.

“HubSpot has used the lean startup method to build a spectacularly successful company,” Ries said in a statement. “What I particularly love about HubSpot is that they are so geeked out on data analysis and making evidence-based decisions, which are at the heart of the Lean Startup process.”

Other members of Hubspot’s board include Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and marketing/social media experts Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Brogan.

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