How Founder-led sales can be done right? • Founder at Sellestial • 3rd-time Founder • Don't be a stranger, follow me and reach out

Is one of your main projects for 2026 cleaning up your HubSpot data?  Want to run AI in production?

If you answered yes to anything, keep on; otherwise, stop reading this.

👉 How we are different to tackle data hygiene with your internal team only:

1. Deep Data Cleaning & Enrichment Expertise
We're data cleaning and enrichment specialists who know this problem space and its traps inside out. By cleaning and enriching 100+ HubSpot portals, we've developed a deep understanding of edge cases that first-timers don't anticipate. This is not general HubSpot admin work; it's pattern recognition from seeing hundreds of messy databases.

2. Dedicated Bandwidth + Project Discipline
Data cleaning is important but rarely urgent, which means it gets perpetually deprioritized by internal teams. We provide dedicated focus with clear project boundaries that prevent the "cleaning to infinity" trap or arbitrary abandonment that internal teams tend to fall into.

3. Production-Grade AI Expertise for Data Maturity
We've built specialized AI infrastructure designed for accuracy and reliability. We are regularly deploying 7+ different AI models for different parts of the process. We tested and evaluated over 50 LLM models over the course of the last few years, and have a comprehensive understanding of their capabilities and caveats. 

The ROI for you: Your internal teams and HubSpot admins can focus on what they do best while we handle the extremely complex, time-intensive data cleanup and/or enrichment with the AI resources your team doesn't have access to.


👉 Want to talk about Sellestial?
Shoot me a DM, and we can schedule an introductory call to discuss data.

Klemen Hrovat

Want better HubSpot marketing email open rate?

Fix this.

Regularly review your marketing contacts:
- remove non-personal contacts
- remove disposable domains
- check for mx records of domains
- remove fake contacts
- check contact's employment status

Clean recipient lists  --> higher open rates

#EmailMarketing #HubSpot #marketinghub

Talks about HubSpot data + AI daily | HubSpot Community Champion

A customer asked us to help them with lead scoring in their HubSpot

saying "We have data in a separate system."

They're paying for a subscription to an industry-specific database. 
The data is supposed to help them score leads.

But the HubSpot integration?
Broken.
And the vendor has zero intention to fix it.

So they asked: "Can you help us get this information into HubSpot somehow?"

We built an AI agent instead.

It takes basic contact and company info from their HubSpot, searches for the specific information they need, and writes it back to the CRM automatically.

Here's where it gets interesting:
The agent finds more accurate information than their paid database.
It's more up-to-date.
And it has a higher success rate at finding what they need.

They're now questioning why they're paying for that subscription at all.

This isn't magic.
It's just what happens when you design data flows around what you actually need, not around what vendors decided to give you.

The real unlock?

When the right signals live in your HubSpot, lead scoring works.
Relevant lead prioritization becomes possible. 
Marketing is handing over good leads.
Sales stops wasting time.


Curious to hear from other RevOps and HubSpot admins.

What's a data source you're paying for that you suspect could be replaced or improved by something smarter?

Your reps are wasting 5+ hours per week chasing wrong accounts that:

- Are duplicates of accounts that they already reached out to
- Closed down companies
- Moved to another job 8 months ago
- Aren't actually a good fit

This isn't a process problem.

It's a data problem.

I saw that in a portal recently ... 9 duplicates of Coca Cola, missing subsidiaries, wrongly enriched company records ...  the list goes on up to 43 companies with something like Coca Cola as a company name.

Multiply that by every corporation in your HubSpot 🤯 

Before you hire more people or buy another shiny AI tool, audit your CRM. 

You will be surprised by the value hidden in the data you already have. 

What was the strangest duplicate situation you found in your HubSpot?

I got an idea to help HubSpot users understand their data AI readiness.

What could be improved in how I set it up in HubSpot?

I developed a form with 10 questions in HubSpot.

Each question is a new property with 3 possible answers.

Each of the possible answers has a different score (0, 1, or 3)

I didn't know how to weight specific values in properties to build the logic for how many points you get for each question natively in HubSpot. So I built a simple script in Sellestial that calculates the AI readiness score and writes it to a property in HubSpot.

I set up a workflow that, based on the calculated score, customizes the email with the score and some thoughts about their AI readiness and sends it via a HubSpot sequence.

HubSpot experts, what could I do better?

p.s. Want to get your AI readiness score? Linki in the comment

RevOps teams are accountable for outcomes they can't control.


- You own forecast accuracy but don't control pipeline creation.
- You own the tech stack but can't enforce process adoption.
- You're measured on conversion rates but have no authority over how leads get handed off.

That's not tools problem.
That's not a headcount problem.
That's a mandate problem.

What does RevOps actually own?

Have you set up the cap on marketing email frequency?

If you have already or plan to, be cautious.

This lets you cap the number of marketing emails each contact receives within a set period to prevent over-communication.

I keep seeing that challenge with HubSpot users I talk to.
Marketing sets up several/numerous/countless workflows. 
They automate marketing emails and lead nurturing.
But they don’t think about customer’s experience. 

A human got 2 emails right away, in the first 10 minutes after form submission.
Who knows what they’ll get today 🙂

By setting this up, you define a cap for regular marketing emails, workflow automated emails, and blog notifications. It does not apply to transactional emails, one-to-one emails, feedback surveys, or conversations inbox emails.

The cap is calculated per contact on a rolling time basis. If someone receives an email on Friday with a weekly cap of 1, they won't get another until the following Friday.


Think about these things before you turn this on.

1. You can’t guarantee that emails will be really sent to a contact. If you have some emails that you want to make sure you send, you can exempt specific emails (like critical announcements or promotions) from the cap by unchecking "Apply send frequency cap" in the email's send settings.

2. With that turned on, each email you send should stand on its own; it should not assume the person has received the previous email in the workflow.

When was the last time you reviewed your HubSpot contacts?

The 90-day data decay problem
Why your HubSpot Data Cleanup won't stick
and what to build instead


You just finished a cleanup project.
Reports finally make sense.
Properties standardized.
Duplicates merged.

Give it 90 days. 

It'll be broken again.

Why cleanups fail

We've audited over 100 HubSpot portals. The pattern is always the same: a team spends weeks (or months) cleaning their CRM. Three months later, they're back where they started, or worse.

The problem isn't the cleanup. It's the cleanup model.

One-off fixes are a lie.
They feel productive but decay within months. 
Nobody owns ongoing accuracy.

The only real solution is a system that run themselves.

We call this Perpetual DataOps. 

It's a framework for building HubSpot data infrastructure that stays clean, not for a quarter, but forever.

The goal of the Perpetual Data Framework: Stop fixing data. Configure a system that prevents data decay.

Three pillars

1) CLEAN DATA - Duplicates merged. Gaps filled. Properties standardized.
- <2% duplicate rate on contacts and companies (continuously maintained, not one-time)
- 95%+ fill rate on "must-have" properties
- Standardized formats (not enforced at entry, but standardized right afterwards)

2) RICH DATA - ICP scores. Buying signals. Lead prioritization.
- Contact + company enrichment running on every new record
- Waterfall enrichment from reliable sources
- ICP fit score configured and maintained
- Relevant signals captured and associated to the right records

3) UNIFIED DATA - Systems synced and unified.
- Field mappings explicit (no "sync everything and hope")
- Potential data overwrites defined with guardrails

The build plan

Days 0–10 | Audit & scope
Document your current data model
Identify your "must-have" fields per object (the 10–15 that actually matter)
Map where data enters: forms, imports, integrations, manual entry
Quantify the problem

Days 11–30 | Build the foundation
Deploy automated deduplication
Implement waterfall enrichment on contacts and companies
Configure processes to standardize field formats

Days 31–45 | Add intelligence
Build lead scoring based on firmographics + engagement signals
Configure lead prioritization logic
Set up routing rules based on clean, scored data

Days 46–60 | Activate & monitor
Turn on 24/7 operation
Document: how it works, when to intervene, how to extend


Stop cleaning your HubSpot. Start building infrastructure that keeps it clean.

The companies winning with AI, with ABM, with outbound at scale - they're not the ones with 100% perfect data. They're the ones with systems that keep data good enough, perpetually.

Ship the system. Let it run. Move on to strategy.

p.s. Want to know where your HubSpot data actually stands? We can audit your HubSpot to show you what's broken, what it's costing you, and what it takes to fix it permanently. No obligation to continue after the audit. DM or comment below.

Stop adding to the mess (before you start cleaning it up)
Everyone wants to clean their historical CRM data.
That's the wrong place to start.

The first quick win in data hygiene
STOP ADDING TO THE PROBLEM

Perform a thorough HubSpot data audit to understand what's broken, with a focus on understanding root causes, not just symptoms.

Start cleaning up your CRM after you understand:
- the current state of data
- what's causing the mess
- where data is coming into HubSpot
- what data is relevant and important

By knowing where you currently stand, you can design an implementation plan toward clean data. 

Do you plan to clean up your HubSpot in 2026? Where do you plan to start?

Unified Customer View: Pipedream or Realistic Goal?
Join me, Casey, and Klemen Hrovat for a live workshop moving through the Unified Customer View Playbook.

🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://lnkd.in/dAaAJzce

Had a great conversation with Karen Ng at INBOUND about what it actually takes to run AI in production.

The insight that stuck with me: "Evals has become a core skill that product managers need to understand."

AI is non-deterministic. 

Same prompt, different results. 

So how do you trust it?

You build guardrails:
→ Human in the loop
→ Evaluations at every level (prompts, outputs, actions)
→ Citations that trace back to source data

Watch the clip for Karen's full breakdown on how HubSpot approaches this.

"How many customers do you have?"

Asked a few of our customers when we started working together. 

None of them could answer it from their HubSpot.

Here are the reasons
Enrichment tools were overwriting properties. 
Duplicate companies were created. 
Churned customers were not marked accordingly.

Everyone and every system creates data. Nobody owns the mess.

So many CRM can't answer basic questions:

- Who are our active customers? Unclear. 
- Where's our biggest opportunity? Depends who you ask. 
- Which segment is growing? Check the spreadsheet backup.
- What do we report at BoD? Give me a week to prepare the slides.

You can't segment. Can't forecast. Can't prioritize.

I've watched RevOps spend hours manually building lists because they couldn't trust data. 

Seen execs commit to decisions based on numbers that were flat wrong.

All because nobody defined, implemented, and maintained data standards.

Want better insights? Fix data first.

And here's the part most teams skip: it can't be a one-time project.

Data decays.
People leave.
Processes drift.

Whatever you build needs to run itself, or you're back here in six months.

If you don't protect the foundation, nothing built on top will hold.

🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://lnkd.in/dAaAJzce

Startup Founder and CEO

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈 𝐃𝐎 🤷‍♂️

► I help clients access World Class🥇Technology and Product Talent 👨‍💻 across the globe 🌍 to build out your technology requirements - through 2 channels - IT Outsourcing and IT Staff Augmentation.

► HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?
- Hop on a discovery call or drop a DM and we find out the below:
- Skills and Experience you are looking for
- Budget and Project durations you have
- Timezone and Work Hour considerations

►WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
- Within 48 hours you will have a list of candidates or outsourcing companies to review
- You meet and interview candidates/companies you've selected
- When you're happy with the candidates, the contract begins
- We handle all legal, tax and recruitment considerations, you just pay one invoice at the end of the month

My company, Lambda Group, has worked with clients all over Africa, America, Europe and the Middle East.

𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒 👨‍💼

✔ IT Outsourcing - Nearshore, Onshore and Offshore
✔ Staff Augmentation in the below skillsets
✔ Fullstack Developers
✔ Front End Developers
✔ Back End Developers
✔ Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers
✔ Business Analysts
✔ Product Managers
✔ Data Scientists
✔ Agile Project Managers

Shoot me a DM or book a free consultation: https://calendly.com/bojan-abe/discovery-call

Bojan Najdov

Yes I was the dude with long hair 

And all the stereotypical stuff that goes with it 

-------------

Still started a company
Still travelled the world
Still worked my butt off 

-------------

This year, I really want to focus on building relationships 

And I guess part of that, is sharing more about myself :)) 

-------------

What's a hobby you're into or something you want to get into this year?

P.S yes i still have the 6 pack

P.P.S no i dont, that's a lie :((

P.P.P.S yes it's coming back in 2026!!

I talk about hiring A-Players from Africa and the Balkans

Exploring new countries to hire from? 

This is Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ignore the beautiful scenery, architecture and nature - we'll get to that at the end with some interesting titbits

--------------

Here's why you should be looking at hiring from Bosnia for your company:

1. Culture - these guys went through wars, religious, cultural and political changes, there's a storied past. 

Yes, some sad and brutal chapters, but it's still lead to a wonderful and warm people, that value connection, communication and relationships 

2. Work Ethic - you wont go through war and political changes without thick skin and grit - Bosnians all work towards a better future, and they work hard towards it! 

These guys and girls are resilient hustlers! Not entitled babies...

3. Budget - this is a plus and a minus, the plus is, you will find affordable talent there, juniors can come in from as low as 750 Euro per month. 

That's a plus for you, but a minus for them, Bosnian average salaries hover around the 1000 euro a month mark, that's not great, but that leaves you with the ability to pay more, and attract the right talent. 

There is massive discrepancies here - Sales and Marketing is different to Finance and Operations, is different to Technology and Software Development. 

4. Timezone and Communications - I was going to make this a 5 point post, but lumping these two together

For EU and UK companies, Bosnia is in the exact same timezone, so you can easily synchronize your work and communcations

and on the topic of communications, Bosnians, like all Balkans, are direct and to the point, you wont get "yes" people (im looking at you APAC countries...)

you will get direct, honest and understanding communication, so don't be offended if they dont beat around the bush

In this case, it really is a case of "It's not you, it's me"

--------------

Ever heard of Bosnia, visited or hired from there? 

I'm happy to answer any and all questions 

--------------

P.S interesting facts time :D 

The city's name, Mostar, is derived from the word mostari, which refers to the bridge keepers who guarded the crossing during the Ottoman era.

People have been jumping off that bridge for hundreds of years! and not in the morbid way... Every year, people flock to Mostar, to jump off the bridge into the freezing cold waters of the Neretva River - thats a 25 meter fall... 

The river is known to be the coldest river in the world! It barely climbs above 10 degrees celsius, even in the summers 

P.P.S

This is a real image of Mostar, I had gemini just add the flag, and because of that, it watermarked the image - otherwise, no AI here, it really is that beautiful

Last week I had the WORST interview EVER 

It's actually even kind funny that they thought they could get away with it...

---------

I want your opinions here 

So listen up

I went into an interview with a developer candidate 
- it was kinda the usual, talk about them, their experience, what they built

Then we went into more of a technical discussion 
- thats when things went really crazy and I had to laugh

I asked a series of technical questions (not because i wanted to, the client insisted) - anyway, this candidate went from nervous and average at best communication skills 

To answering each technical question 
1. Immediately
2. Correctly
3. Fluently

Its like when the interview got harder, they got better lol 

He literally read out AI answers, verbatim 

---------

Im giving them the benefit of the doubt, and interviewing them again 

- lets not call it an interview, lets call it a meeting, 
- cause i dont want it to sound intimidating, 
- and i will be much more casual and supportive during the call

But what do you think?

Should candidates use AI to help them ace interviews?
Does AI use in interviews even help? 
Should we penalize AI answers?

Happy Sunday

Btw - wrist watch check

IYKYK 

--------

P.S my brother and I were in Macedonia, spending some time with my family 

P.P.S we're both no longer in Macedonia haha 

P.P.P.S my guns are looking gooooood. :P

Everyone and their mother is hiring from here

And this is what you're doing wrong

-----------

First - i love Latin America - so you should know where this post is going

Say something nice, then give the BUTTTTTT

Saying something nice - beautiful women, amazing football talent, coca plant (im taking the piss about this last one, calm down keyboard warriors)

Giving the bum

BUT 

Everyone is looking at Latin America 

What do you think happens when Supply stays the same but Demand increases? 

Prices go up 

-----------

You want amazing talent? 
You want people that speak english natively?
You want candidates with western mindsets but can add to your culture? 

South Africa 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

Btw, this picture was taken from my apartments balcony in Cape Town while i was living there - 800 USD per month, overlooking a golf course, mountains and a football stadium

The real reasons people stopped hiring remote?


The opportunities are boring
- they want you in the office to keep you away from distractions

They don't hire professionals 
- they just try to put a bum in the seat 

They can't afford to 
- ties back to the previous point, but professionals, aren't cheap, even if you go to "cheaper" countries, you still pay premiums for the good ones! 

They don't trust you
- What if you work another job, what if you don't perform, what if you dont work a full "8 hours"... 


If you're looking for remote work, these are the head winds you are facing in 2026

Most developers are obsessed with the wrong thing. 

And it’s costing their teams months of rework.

-----------

They'll spend days fantasising about the code base 
Programming language, 
naming conventions,
folder structures, 
design patterns 
 
And then treat the database like an afterthought.

They have it backward. 

You can refactor bad code in a few hours. 
You’ll be fixing a bad database schema for months. 

-----------

Here's some quick prompts to make sure you're treating your database schema with some respect

Database Audits - Everybody loves one

Hiring is a lot like dating

So here's some red flags to consider 

------------

1. Disrespectful behaviour 

How are they talking about colleagues, bosses, clients, they've had problems with or conflicts with?

2. Blame shifting 

Ask them about a time they took responsibility for a mistake or a delay or they developed a buggy feature

Are they taking ownership and accountability? Or is it the stakeholders? The QAs fault? The BA's fault? That other developer that no one likes fault? 

3. Dishonesty 

This one is easier to test then you'd think and its mostly because developers try to keyword stuff their Linkedin or Github or CV.

Push to find out what work they've done thats been Java, Dart, PHP, Next.js and Drupal... 

If they admit to, just having studied it, or having been part of the team where someone did something with it - fair enough - most times, they'll try explain what they built, keep pushing to hear what they built with the tech stack, pretty soon they will crumble :)) 

------------

Anyway, what red flags have you seen in hiring we should be aware of?

Developers looking for work 

Here's what you keep messing up

--------

Communication

I need to hunt you down
- First to contact you
- Second to follow up with you
- Third to get you into an interview 

Stop making it so hard to speak to you

Always have contact details easily available 
- Github, CV, Linkedin 
- This is email and cellphone number 

Always have a schedule where you are clearly available 
- eg any day between 14-16h 
- Monday to Wednesday after 16h 

Always be quick to respond, especially if you've been contacted 
- it doesnt mean check email every 10 minutes
- it does mean check notifications every hour if you're expecting something 

--------

And I know - hiring managers arent the best 

They reduce communication frequency
They make it hard to get feedback
They keep quiet and go silent

--------

Ignore that 
- there's nothing you can do about them
- there's a lot you can do about yourself 

--------

Anyway, market seems to be picking up in the start of 2026! 

So be prepared and be proactive, responsive and ready for opportunity

Good luck out there!

First - im upset youtube recommended this channel to me :P

But outside that...

I can't believe people are making videos about basically - "how to look like you've achieved something, without actually having achieved it" 

This generation is cooked

Dear everyone

This happens far more than you’d like to think

Once I promoted myself slowly to about 4X my earnings 😅

Top-paying tech careers in Europe | Remote life, taxes & relocation

True story, won't mention the company 

But last year a great (on paper) startup reached out to me to hire 3 Ruby on Rails developers 

They needed them ASAP 

They were happy to hire from the Balkans 

Now Ruby on Rails, is not a common tech stack, anywhere, let alone The Balkans! 

After searching for a week, doing some interviews and sending in really great candidates - I was sure we'd close this deal, one of the candidates even worked for a similar startup.

I send them through and the interviews begin

Then it starts to happen...

Delays...
Reschedules...
Postponements...

I speak to the VP of Engineering 

"No its just a slow down, we are still proceeding"

Two weeks later, the Engineering Manager that was hiring for the role and was working for them for 7 years updates their Linkedin "Open for Work"

One week later, major announcement - massive retrenchments across their tech team

-----------

Company had job posts
Company was hiring
Company still fired 

Btw, I said the startup was great "on paper" 
- this is what i meant, to the naked eye, everything seemed like greenlights
- but at the VP and C-Level, they knew they were going to be cutting
- yes they were a funded startup with Product Market Fit 

-----------

The funny thing is, I would still work with them :D 

Great brand, 
they will hire in the future, 
very strong technical teams, 
and at the end of the day profit is profit :))

This

Everyones complaining about how hard it is to get a job...

...But no one is talking about how little effort they put into the job hunt

As a recruitment agency owner, let me say this:

We post a detailed job on LinkedIn. Clear role. Clear requirements. Direct link to apply.

And then… 164 comments “I’m interested.” and 452 DM's "Hey, I'm interested."

If you don’t bother to read why should I bother to reply?

Candidates will click "apply" to job postings

- they haven't read
- they aren't qualified for
- they haven't researched beyond the job title
- they haven't tailored their CV to show actual outcomes
 
And then complain that the job market is difficult.

Yes
It is difficult. 
But your minimal effort 
only makes it more difficult. 

If you're treating the "Apply" button like a Tinder swipe, don't be surprised when you don't get a second date - this last line was AI generated - what do you think, did it work or not really? :D

Password1234 

is still the best password in 2026

Morning walks in Greenwich Park 

Honestly, while i was on holiday - did this every day 

Calming
Relaxing
Refreshing

Also Freezing - but thats besides the point haha

No lies here please - I know your default answer here is to pretend to be fair...

Or to say something facetious like "find more people like the one twice as good"...

I think most people would be selecting Option 3 
- Do Nothing and Just Be Happy 

If the option isnt here, let me know what you would have done, or have done in the past

You hired two people - one is twice as good as the other

What do you do? 

taplio

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taplio

The Battle

Klemen Hrovat

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