I've worked with literally hundreds of startup leaders over the years, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's this: everyone thinks they can set up HubSpot themselves.

It usually starts the same way. "We're small. We don't have anything complicated. How hard can it be?"

Fast-forward a few hours, and the reality sets in. HubSpot isn't a single tool; it's an entire business operating system.

It's like being handed the keys to a race car when you were expecting a family sollon. You click one button, and suddenly you're flying through Workflows, Pipeline Stages, and Custom Objects, wondering where the brake pedal went…

Even those who start off well usually focus on one area, such as sales, email marketing, or dashboards,  and then stop there. They either get overwhelmed or, worse, terrified.

I've had founders tell me, "We don't touch (workflows) anymore. Last time we did, everything broke."

Then there are the overachievers — the ones who charge in full steam ahead. They skip over the basics, such as GDPR setup and form permissions, because they're too excited to get automations running. A month later, they're asking why they've lost half their leads or why their forms are quietly breaking EU law.

And my personal favourite: the company that imported 10,000 contacts, only to realise half were from a trade show in 2014 and the other half were staff. They told me HubSpot was "cluttered." I told them HubSpot wasn't the problem - their data was.

So yes, you can set up HubSpot yourself. But after watching so many founders try (and a few nearly cry), I've learned there are five things you need to do first.

Get these right, and you'll have a system that works with you, not one that quietly plots against you.

1. Clean and connect your data

The first thing every new user should do after buying HubSpot is sort out their data.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Hey, we've just exported everything from our old system. Here you go, that should be all you need!"

No. Just… no!

I don't understand your data, and neither does HubSpot.

It might not be the most glamorous job, but cleaning your data before you import it is the single best investment you can make. The only person who truly knows what "good" looks like is you. You need to spend time getting familiar with what's in there.

Clean up old and unengaged contacts, and remove bounced email addresses at a bare minimum.

I'm working with one company right now that has more than 50,000 contacts in its database. Most of them came from a Salesforce sync that no one fully understands. A big chunk of the data actually belongs to a completely different business unit, and they have no idea which contacts are even theirs.

Another customer tried to import an old list of 10,000 contacts. When we ran a clean-up, we discovered that 1,000 had bounced, 2,000 hadn't opened an email in five years, and another 4,000 didn't have consent.

That left them with… well, not much.

Data cleaning isn't a once-and-done task. It's something you should do before you start and then continue to do. HubSpot provides you with some excellent enrichment tools that can help fill in missing details and identify outdated contacts.

Use them…

And most importantly, don't forget that HubSpot charges based on the number of marketing contacts you have. So if there's no good business reason to keep someone, or you can't legally market to them, get rid of them. Why pay for clutter?

2. Capture conversations without causing chaos

Once you've cleaned your data, the next thing HubSpot needs to do is listen, and that starts with capturing your team's conversations.

HubSpot provides two primary methods for importing emails. One is to connect your personal inbox - Gmail, Outlook, whatever you use.

The other is through what it calls a Shared Inbox. The name is a bit of a clue as to who's going to see those emails - everyone. You'd be surprised how many people miss that.

I've had more than one founder call me in a blind panic because they'd accidentally connected their personal inbox to a shared one. Five minutes later, their whole company could read every email they'd ever sent. Including that argument with the accountant from 2017. Oops.

To do it properly, go to your personal preferences in HubSpot and connect your individual email and calendar there. Once that's done, install the Gmail or Outlook plugin; it'll give you HubSpot insights right inside your inbox and make logging emails effortless.

There's just one small gotcha: Outlook can be… well, let's call it quirky.

If you want your emails to look consistent, I usually recommend using HubSpot's own email editor. It's far more predictable and saves a lot of formatting headaches.

And here's a common surprise: HubSpot only knows what you tell it. If your sales team sends messages from Outlook but hasn't set up tracking or auto-logging, HubSpot won't be able to see any of it. I've had sales managers look at an empty CRM and assume no one's done any work, only to find that their team just didn't connect their email properly. Cue several hours of manual email logging and some very creative language.

My advice? Turn on HubSpot's default settings to automatically log and track emails when it makes sense. That way, your CRM always has the full picture, minus the personal inbox drama.

3. Set up your deal pipeline like a story, not a spreadsheet

Pipelines are a funny thing. Every company thinks its own is unique — and they're right. But that doesn't mean it needs 14 stages and a user guide to operate it.

Most people start with the HubSpot default pipeline, and honestly, that's not a bad move. For small teams still figuring out their sales rhythm, it's a decent framework. The trouble starts when people "customise" it to death.

I've seen companies add a new stage for every single action a salesperson might take: "Proposal Sent," "Follow-Up Sent," "Follow-Up About the Follow-Up Sent." Before long, they've built a to-do list, not a pipeline. Then they wonder why no one bothers updating it — because it takes longer to move a deal through HubSpot than to actually close it.

On the other hand, there are those who go too far in the opposite direction and try to cram their entire lead management process into the deal pipeline. That's not what it's for. Deals are meant for opportunities where there's genuine revenue on the line. As a sales consultant I once worked with put it perfectly:

"Only add deals to the pipeline if there's money to be lost."

Everything else is still a lead — and belongs in the lead pipeline. (That's a rant I'll save for another blog post.)

But here's the real secret: your pipeline should read like a story told from the customer's point of view, not a checklist of what your team did.

I name our stages based on how our customer sees their journey: "Problem Identified," "Considering Solutions," "Decision Pending," "Ready to Buy."

See the difference? It shifts the focus from what you've done to what they're thinking. And that's where real insight comes from.

The best pipelines tell a story — one that everyone on the team can understand at a glance. When you look at it, you should instantly see where the buyer is and what they need next. If you can't, it's time to simplify.

4. Align sales and marketing from day one

If there's one place where sales and marketing truly come together in HubSpot, it's in the lifecycle stage.

This field doesn't exactly scream for attention. It's tucked quietly away in your records. But this unassuming little dropdown is one of the most powerful parts of the entire platform.

It connects everything.

The lifecycle stage tells you where someone is in their journey — from being a brand-new lead to a paying customer. But here's where many teams go wrong: they don't actually know what it's for.

I've seen companies rename it, add numerous new options, or attempt to use it for completely different purposes such as categorising customer types or mapping out deal stages. Some even ignore it altogether because "it didn't seem important."

The result? Chaos.

Here's the thing: that single field is the bridge between your sales and marketing teams. It's how marketing knows when to stop nurturing and how sales knows when to step in. It's also what powers most of HubSpot's reporting, automation, and handoff processes.

I tell clients to treat the lifecycle stage like the heartbeat of their CRM. Ignore it, and your system might still look alive, but it's not going to perform very well. Get it right, and suddenly everyone's speaking the same language.

5. Build one Dashboard you'll actually use

At Demodia, we run our business on EOS — the Entrepreneurial Operating System. One of the biggest lessons it teaches is that everything and everyone should have a number. That number tells you whether you're moving in the right direction or just floating around in circles.

It's the same with HubSpot. Most founders get excited when they see the reporting tools for the first time. Suddenly, there's a graph for everything — email opens, website visits, workflow completions, deals created per weekday. Before long, you've got a dashboard that looks like the cockpit of a 747 and about as much idea what all the dials mean.

That's why I encourage every company I work with to start with just one dashboard — their business scorecard. Pull into it the numbers that truly matter to your sales and marketing teams. For most companies, that's things like:

• New leads created
• Deals in the pipeline
• Conversion rate
• Revenue closed

Then, and this is the magic part, review it every week. Not once a quarter, not when things look slow — every week. Just that simple rhythm of checking the same numbers consistently is one of the most powerful ways to keep your team aligned and your business moving forward.

Think of it like a flywheel. If everyone's pushing it in different directions, it just wobbles. But if everyone gives it a steady push in the same direction, it builds momentum — faster and faster until it becomes almost self-sustaining. That's what your dashboard should do. It's not about measuring everything; it's about measuring the things that matter most, and using them to create momentum.

Start simple, then scale

HubSpot is one of those tools that rewards the people who take the time to do it properly. Get the foundations right, and it'll become the engine that drives your business forward. Rush it, and it'll quietly make a mess of your data, your processes, and your sanity.

If you've followed along so far, you'll already have ideas buzzing around in your head. Maybe you've spotted a few things you need to clean up. Maybe you've realised your pipeline is more of a jigsaw than a journey. Or maybe you've just discovered that your personal inbox is visible to your entire company. (Sorry about that.)

Either way, that's a good thing. Because now you're seeing HubSpot for what it really is - a system that can bring your sales and marketing together, if you know how to steer it.

And that's the part most founders struggle with. Setting up HubSpot is one thing. Making it work for your business, that's something else entirely.

I've been there with hundreds of companies. I know where the traps are and which tweaks make the biggest difference. So if you're ready to get your HubSpot working the way it should, don't go it alone. Let's build it right, together.