Hubilo was once a pioneer in India’s virtual events industry and today it has been forced into a relentless quest for survival. The startup thrived during the pandemic period. It is now facing a drastic transformation that has cost it 95% of its workforce, forced investor refunds and ushered in a pivot to webinar tools.
Hubilo was founded by Vaibhav Jain in 2015 and it initially aimed to make physical events more interactive. It was not until COVID-19 that the startup gained substantial attention and swiftly evolved into a virtual events powerhouse. Its quick pivot to virtual solutions seemed prescient with conferences, networking sessions and summits abruptly moving online. The appeal of virtual-only platforms began to fade as the world reopened. Hubilo started facing a reality check as clients returned to in-person events.
The leadership of Hubilo has been candid about the challenges and is now operating with a reduced team of around 100 employees. Former employees said that the organization over-hired to meet pandemic demand and now burdened by the need for a new market fit. One of the former employees said that they were told the company was struggling to find product-market fit. The reality has been stark and it is large-scale layoffs, significant investor refunds totaling around $75 million and a reduction from a team of 500 to a core staff focused primarily on engineering.
Hubilo’s pivot to webinars reflects both resilience and a strategy of survival. It now seeks to serve established clients with sustainable revenue with a hope to ride out the downturn by focusing on a leaner as well as more specialized product offering. Jain is optimistic and highlights strong customer satisfaction as well as plans for long-term growth through the new direction.
