As you might have read, it’s been a busy Summer for Contentsquare and Hotjar. After years of following our own paths to transforming the world’s digital experience, we are joining forces to pursue this vision together. It’s a huge step for both our companies, and one we think will radically transform our ability to help businesses worldwide deliver better experiences for their customers.
Bringing new companies into the Contentsquare fold is always exciting, but it’s not everyday you get to join forces with a company like Hotjar.
The story of Hotjar is the stuff of tech legend. I, like others in our industry, followed with great interest the company’s early days — witnessed how David and the team took an idea and turned it into a solution that, 7 years on, is used on almost 1 Million websites globally. I watched as they built a unique team, brought together incredible talents from all over the world, and made their mark in the SMB space. It’s a company whose passion, creativity and drive I’ve always admired, and you could say that this coming together has been a longtime dream of mine.
So why does this mean so much to me and the team here at Contentsquare? And more importantly: what does this mean for anyone who creates experiences or interacts with businesses online? In other words — what does this mean for the world!
One shared vision, two unique approaches
As more and more of our lives shift online, our collective need for digital experiences deserving of love continues to grow. At Contentsquare and Hotjar, we understood from the start that making these types of experiences possible would mean giving the people behind them access to a better, deeper understanding of customers. After all — who knows better what works and what doesn’t than the end users? Contentsquare has been helping businesses across all industries meet this challenge since 2012, and Hotjar has since 2014.
Looking back, the vision of the 2 companies were very similar, but we each approached this mission from a different angle. Contentsquare developed its solution for enterprise clients, while Hotjar built a product around the needs of entrepreneurs and SMBs. Different approaches but ultimately, the shared goal of democratizing access to data insights and generating more quality from all that time we spend online today.
Put those two approaches together and what you get is a solution that serves the market end-to-end, and one that makes sure no customer is left behind. Because we believe every digital experience deserves to be great — whatever the size of the company or business behind it.
Customer-obsessed and team-first
And it’s not just our visions that are aligned.
Most companies today will cite customer-centricity or customer obsession as a value. But what’s exciting to me about Hotjar is just how central their clients’ success is to their innovation — a way of doing things that closely mirrors our own at Contentsquare. This sentence in their company values manifesto particularly resonates with me: “we care about delivering more value fast over being perfect – we choose progress over perfection.” Here at Contentsquare we also see our technology as an evolving solution that improves with our clients’ feedback and gets smarter with our product investments. We sometimes say that we have 250 people in R&D but 850 innovators in the company. Like Hotjar, we value learning and creating, and we strive to always be a few steps ahead of our client’s challenges so they are not only successful today, but prepared for what’s next — tomorrow, next month and beyond.
In short, we may serve different audiences, but we are equally committed to driving value for everyone we partner with, and we share an utter dedication to our clients’ success.
Another thing I’ve always admired about Hotjar is the strong culture they have built around their people. This was always our top priority at Contentsquare, too, and as we embark on this journey together, it has been a joy to discover the synergies between our two teams, as well as what makes us unique. At Contentsquare we don’t look for employees who ‘fit in’ with our culture, but for people who will enrich it, and we see that same openness at Hotjar. We currently have 57 nationalities represented in the Contentsquare team, while our colleagues at Hotjar live and work in 33 different countries. It’s pretty magical to think back to when we were just a handful of people in Paris, and to see how global a company we’ve become.
A dream but also a responsibility
To me, Contentsquare and Hotjar is a match made in SaaS heaven. We are both interested in the same thing: ensuring everyone has a great experience whenever they are online. And we want to go about it in the same way — putting our customers’ needs at the heart of everything we do and building a place where people want to stay and grow while we do it.
By joining forces, we’ll be able to partner with even more businesses, brands and entrepreneurs, yes, but what’s perhaps more important will be our ability to positively impact our digital society. Here at Contentsquare we’re committed to playing our part in building a more inclusive digital world that can be relied on and enjoyed by everyone, regardless of their ability. We envision a world where every site, every app, every online experience is accessible to all. We took a major step in that direction when we acquired AdaptMyWeb and launched the Contentsquare Foundation, but we know there is more to do and we’re in it for the long run.
We are also helping brands build more digital trust with their customers, as we collectively move into a world that demands more data protection accountability. We recently announced our new cookieless solution and moving forward, Contentsquare and Hotjar will work together to help businesses meet their customers’ expectations of privacy in the digital age.
There’s a lot for us to build and improve but the good news is that, when it comes to creating digital experiences your customers will love, we’re here for you now. Together.