I worked there, it wasn't anything as bad as what he makes it out to be. It was just shorthand for saying, "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

Our whole sales pitch was that we were all-in-one software. So instead of running one system for your blog, another system for your home page, another system for email, another system for analytics, another system for your contacts database, etc, etc, you would just run HubSpot, and when all the tools work together you get much better results then when they are separated. To make good on that sales pitch, we had to be constantly thinking of ways of how we could add value by integrating pieces together and making things work well together. Hence we were told to always be thinking about how to make 1 + 1 equal 3.

I've seen a slide where 1 + 1 = 2, then the 2 is crossed off, then there's a 3, then the 3 is crossed off then there's an 11.

So honestly, after I read that, I thought clearly Hubspot didn't go far enough.

That math slide was followed by another slide with "synergistic" on it.

> 1 + 1 = 3?

They just haven't graduated yet ;-)