Everybody is building separately. That is the structural problem nobody in the HubSpot ecosystem is willing to name.
By Chris Carolan and V -- Value-First Team
Thirteen practitioners spread across multiple countries. Forty-three shows. One thousand and sixty-four episodes. Eighteen active client engagements. And the people doing the hardest work in the HubSpot ecosystem -- the ones sitting across from leadership teams, rebuilding trust after failed implementations, coaching adoption one session at a time -- are still doing it alone. With no shared methodology. No shared infrastructure. No shared anything.
In June 2024, on Let's Build Daily, I described the gap: "We've all been coming up with different ways to solve the same problem with the same tool set. How much time could be saved if we worked together?" That was before the Solutions Provider tier was sunset. Before Profoundly. Before the Collective had a name.
This week, Gregory Dirick published an open letter to HubSpot. Forty-five certifications. Certified Trainer. HubSpot Academy instructor for the French-speaking market. And the ecosystem he helped build just told him his contribution is worth either $400 a month or nothing at all.
His question: is there room in the partner ecosystem for independent consultants who specialize in adoption and operational enablement?
I've been sitting with that question since that June recording. Not because it's new. Because I already know the answer -- and it isn't the one Gregory is hoping for.
Part One: Stop Asking
Since 2020, HubSpot has consistently moved investment away from the Solutions Partner space and toward enterprise product and AI infrastructure. The Solutions Provider tier was sunset. The new Partner Program costs $4,800 a year. The message is clear: the partner program is an agency growth channel that rewards organizations selling HubSpot subscriptions at scale.
Gregory's letter is thoughtful and respectful. It asks HubSpot to consider a specific path for independents. I understand the impulse. I had it too.
In June 2024, I walked into HubSpot's partner team with a presentation titled "HubSpot Coaches Program." I identified the same problems Gregory named: professional isolation, limited resources, intense competition, and an ecosystem built around agencies rather than the consultants who actually drive adoption. I proposed shared resources, professional development, collaborative projects, a new partner type to bridge the gap.
HubSpot listened. They were gracious. Nothing happened.
The conversations that followed led me to Profoundly -- a marketplace that brokers relationships between displaced Solutions Providers and existing partners. The white-label model -- put on someone else's brand, access portals through their credentials, keep some of the revenue.
It works for some people. It didn't work for me. And it doesn't work for the practitioners Gregory represents, because the fundamental premise asks you to surrender the one thing you have: your identity.
Here is what eighteen months taught me: asking a platform company to build infrastructure for a population that doesn't generate subscription revenue is asking them to act against their own incentives. They're not going to do it. Not because they're wrong. Because they're a business, and their business is not your business.
The energy spent asking "will HubSpot create a place for me?" is energy that could be spent building something that doesn't require their permission.
Part Two: Stop Freelancing
This is the harder conversation, and nobody in Gregory's comments section is having it.
Gregory describes his work as "helping companies actually use HubSpot effectively." He stabilizes portals after failed implementations. He rebuilds trust with teams. He coaches adoption. He prevents churn.
That's not freelancing. That's consulting. Coaching. Strategic enablement. The distinction matters because the word "freelancer" is a commodity label -- it says "I'm available, I have skills, hire me by the hour." And the market for hourly technical HubSpot work is collapsing under AI.
If your value is setting up workflows, AI does it faster. If your differentiator is certifications, you're competing with everyone who passed the same exams. If your pitch is "cheaper than an agency," you've already lost.
But if your value is sitting across from a leadership team that spent six figures on a platform they're about to abandon and showing them it's not the platform that failed -- the implementation failed -- that's a different conversation entirely. That's the conversation AI cannot have. That's the conversation agencies don't stay for. And that's the conversation worth $2,500 a month, not $150 an hour.
Gregory knows this. His letter describes it precisely. But the framing -- "independent consultant seeking a place in the partner ecosystem" -- undersells the value by anchoring it to a system that was never designed to measure it.
This is what we call the Measurement Trap: optimizing for what's easy to count instead of recognizing what actually matters. Portal rehabilitations don't fit in a partner scorecard. Coached adoption doesn't register as a new activation. The value is real. The system can't see it. And no amount of open letters will change what the system is designed to measure.
If you are doing this work inside an agency that does not respect your expertise or your time, you should know: there is a model where you keep your brand, your clients, your schedule, and your dignity. The answer is not to fight harder for a seat at someone else's table. The answer is to build a better table.
So stop measuring yourself by their scorecard. Define your own.
The Timeline
June 2024 -- On Let's Build Daily, I described the gap: "How much time could be saved if we worked together?" Same month, I pitched the HubSpot Coaches Program to their partner team. They listened. Nothing happened.
September 2024 -- Joined Profoundly as Founding Pro. Twenty of their first twenty-five practitioners came through my relationships.
Late 2024 -- HubSpot sunset the Solutions Provider tier. The new Partner Program: $4,800/year. The ecosystem gap widened.
2025 -- Eighteen months inside the marketplace model. Built shows, grew channels, documented everything. Learned what doesn't work for methodology-driven practitioners.
March 13, 2026 -- Separated from Profoundly. Equity forfeited. Clarity gained. "We're both pretty stubborn about wanting it to work, but I do think this is a healthy move."
March 2026 -- The Value-First Collective launches. 13 practitioners. 43 shows. 1,064 episodes. 18 client engagements. The bridge exists.
Part Three: The Bridge
After the HubSpot Coaches deck went nowhere, after eighteen months inside Profoundly, I stopped waiting. The question shifted from "will HubSpot create a path?" to "what would the path look like if we built it ourselves?"
The platform I'm referring to is Profoundly -- a marketplace co-founded by Brian Garvey, the former SVP of HubSpot's partner ecosystem, and Jason Azocar. I was the founding Pro. Twenty of their first twenty-five practitioners came through my relationships. I built shows for them. I grew their community channels. I believed in the vision.
Profoundly solves a real problem: matching vetted HubSpot talent with clients who need help. It's a legitimate platform doing legitimate work. But the model asks practitioners to operate under someone else's brand, access portals through someone else's credentials, and route revenue through someone else's commercial structure. For some people, that's a good deal. For the practitioners I'm describing -- the ones with a methodology, a coaching practice, a point of view -- it's a trade that costs more than it returns.
In March 2026, Brian and I had the conversation we'd been avoiding. He named it clearly: "You have two brands right now." He was right. I forfeited my equity. I remain a certified Pro on the platform. There is no animosity -- Brian told me he'd recommend us personally, and I believe him. But the separation clarified something I should have seen sooner: the Collective and the marketplace model are solving different problems for different people. Profoundly connects talent to work. The Collective connects practitioners to each other -- with shared methodology, shared infrastructure, and shared identity. Both can exist. They serve different populations.
The answer is the Value-First Collective.
What it is, plainly: a constellation of independent HubSpot practitioners who share methodology, AI-native operational infrastructure, and partner portal access -- without surrendering their brand, their clients, or their independence.
What it is not: a white-label arrangement. Not an agency. Not a franchise. Not a marketplace. And not a competitor to HubSpot's ecosystem. The platform is extraordinary. The gap in the ecosystem around it is what we're addressing.
We all live under our own roofs, but we all spend our time at the community center -- because that's where the value happens. The Collective is the community center.
Three things the Collective provides that you cannot build alone:
Methodology that separates you from every other HubSpot consultant. The Unified Customer View framework lets you walk into a room with a CFO and have a conversation about how their customers experience their organization -- without mentioning objects, properties, or pipelines. It reframes every engagement from platform configuration to business alignment. When you lead with value instead of features, you stop competing with agencies, AI tools, and other freelancers. You operate in a category of one. That's not marketing language. In March, UCV closed a $9,995-per-month coaching engagement because the framework speaks the language business leaders already think in.
Infrastructure that gives you agency-level capability without agency-level overhead. Every session is synthesized. Every meeting is pre-briefed. Nothing is forgotten. The methodology is not a PDF -- it is built into how we operate. An independent practitioner with the Collective has more operational capability than most mid-size agencies. Without the headcount. Without the overhead. Without surrendering your name on the door.
Community that multiplies instead of competes. Forty-three shows. One thousand and sixty-four episodes. Office Hours every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday -- free and open to everyone. A practitioner directory. Revenue sharing on collaborative projects. Content opportunities. And partner portal access through the Value-First Team, which is the administrative capability that HubSpot's program change took away.
The Collective has three tiers -- not as feature gates, but as depth of participation:
- →Community Member (free). Show up. Attend Office Hours. Access the framework overview and ecosystem updates. See if this resonates. No commitment, no barrier. There's always a place for good humans over here.
- →Collective Practitioner ($497/year). You're active. You want the methodology, the infrastructure, and the community behind your independent practice. Partner link access, implementation guides, directory listing, project collaboration, revenue sharing eligibility.
- →Founding Pathfinder ($995 lifetime). You see where this is going and you want a permanent seat. Everything in Practitioner, permanently. Founding recognition, enhanced revenue sharing, direct input on direction, priority project matching, full AI infrastructure access.
Four hundred ninety-seven dollars a year. Not $4,800. The membership covers infrastructure costs. The real value is in the work: coaching engagements, rehabilitation projects, implementation collaboration, content creation. The Collective exists to make that work possible at a level independents cannot achieve alone.
The Real Question
Gregory asked HubSpot: "What role do independent consultants play in the ecosystem?"
I'm asking something different.
What role do you want to play?
If the answer is "I want HubSpot to recognize my value and give me a seat at their table" -- you'll be waiting. Their table seats agencies that sell subscriptions. That's their business.
But if the answer is "I want to build a practice on methodology, not platform access. On relationships, not transactions. On the value I create, not the certifications I hold" -- then we should talk.
The numbers tell the story: thirteen practitioners across the ecosystem already building this way. Forty-three shows producing content every week. Over a thousand episodes of methodology in action. Eighteen active client engagements where the work proves itself. This is not a pitch. This is what already exists.
HubSpot built an extraordinary platform. Use it. Build on it. Help your clients get value from it. But stop waiting for the company that built the platform to also build your career.
That's your job. We built the infrastructure to help you do it.
There's always a place for good humans over here. The bridge exists. The question is whether you'll cross it.
Office Hours (free, every week)
Related Reading
- →Stop Asking. Start Building. -- The companion piece: why the ask itself is the problem.
- →Why Is the Value-First Team? -- The origin story of the organization behind the Collective.
- →Week of March 9-13: The Practitioner Problem -- The build log from the week the Collective launched.
