How to Make Money While You Sleep: HubSpot and Revenue Operations in Action

Digital entrepreneurs spend a lot of time chasing revenue but often overlook the systems that allow sales to happen on autopilot. In a recent webinar hosted by Italo, founder of the rev‑ops agency Peddle, attendees learned how to build revenue engines that operate 24/7. Drawing on a decade of experience in SaaS, e‑commerce and healthcare, Italo shared his own journey, frameworks like Lean Startup and Revenue Operations (RevOps), and the tools that make HubSpot a true all‑in‑one growth platform. The goal was simple: show founders and go‑to‑market leaders how to use technology and process to generate revenue while they sleep.

Why Revenue Matters

During the session, Italo stressed that cash solves most problems. Healthy revenue buys you time, allows you to invest in marketing and product, and gives you options when unexpected issues arise. In today’s environment—where AI‑generated spam is clogging inboxes and cold emails are losing their punch—founders need repeatable ways to stand out and convert prospects. The webinar series aims to answer questions founders frequently ask Peddle, share automation tricks that have doubled the agency’s revenue two years in a row, and build a community of founders who want to operate smarter, not just harder.

Building Leverage: Code, Content, Capital and Collaboration

One of the webinar’s core messages is that sustained growth comes from leverage—systems that multiply your efforts:

• Code – Automation and workflows that run while you sleep, such as lead routing, email sequences and payment collection. HubSpot’s workflow builder allows you to clone your sales process and make it repeatable.

• Content – Assets like webinars, blogs and guides reach hundreds or thousands of prospects at once. Generative AI makes it faster to produce helpful content, but quality still matters.

• Capital – Investment buys time to experiment and scale what works. Italo’s own agency reinvests in technology, training and campaigns to accelerate growth.

• Collaboration – Building and documenting processes ensures your team can deliver consistent results. Peddle uses tools like Super and HubSpot Playbooks to capture best practices and train new hires.

Why HubSpot Is the RevOps Swiss Army Knife

Many growth teams cobble together a tech stack of 20 or more apps—one for CRM, another for marketing automation, a separate CMS, help desk software and yet another platform for quoting and billing. Italo argues that HubSpot can replace most of those point solutions. The platform now offers:

• CRM – centralised customer data with custom objects and advanced segmentation

• Marketing automation – email, workflows, forms and lead scoring

• CMS and content – blogs, landing pages, gated content and AI‑powered content generation

• Sales automation – quotes, product catalogues, CPQ and payment links

• Service and success – ticketing, knowledge base and customer portal

• Payments – built‑in tools for recurring subscriptions and one‑off invoices

He warns that you’ll still need accounting software like QuickBooks or NetSuite for taxes, but most early and mid‑stage SaaS companies can run 90 % of their revenue operations in HubSpot alone.

Understanding RevOps: Lean Startup Meets Six Sigma

RevOps is more than a trendy acronym; it’s a methodology that blends lean startup experimentation with Six Sigma process control. Italo broke the journey down into several stages:

• Customer discovery and validation (Lean Startup) – talk to potential customers, test if your solution solves real pain and whether people will pay for it.

• Prototype/MVP – build a minimal solution and deliver value quickly, even if it isn’t polished.

• Product–market fit – iterate on pricing, packaging and messaging until you know who buys and why.

• Go‑to‑market fit – find your most profitable customer segments and the channels that reach them. Don’t copy enterprise playbooks if you’re selling a $50/month product.

A common mistake is building the organisation upside down: hiring salespeople before documenting the process. RevOps flips the pyramid. Once you’ve proven a repeatable sales motion, write it down, automate it, train the team and hire for the roles you actually need.

Turning Your Business into a Revenue Factory

Borrowing from manufacturing, RevOps treats revenue as the product coming off an assembly line. Factories optimise for three goals—production, efficiency and quality—and so should your business:

• Accelerate growth – increase the volume of qualified leads and deals.

• Lower customer acquisition cost – automate where possible and align marketing with sales so you’re not wasting budget.

• Deliver consistent outcomes – every customer gets the same onboarding, value and support, which drives referrals and renewals.

That’s why Italo prefers HubSpot’s flywheel over the old marketing funnel. Instead of attracting leads once and letting them drop off, you attract, engage and delight customers who then become promoters, spinning the flywheel faster.

The Bow‑Tie Model: Measure What Matters

To run a revenue factory, you need to measure inputs and outputs at each stage. Italo introduced the bow‑tie model, which tracks:

1. Lead and opportunity volume – how many leads enter each stage (e.g., website visitors, sign‑ups, qualified leads, opportunities, deals).

2. Conversion rates – the percentage of leads that move from one stage to the next.

3. Time – how long it takes for leads to convert to customers and then renew.

With those three metrics, you can predict revenue within 95 % accuracy and see exactly where your process is leaking. Peddle defines different pipeline stages for product‑led, one‑stage SMB and two‑stage sales cycles and offers benchmarks for each. For example, a product‑led model might track free trials, product‑qualified leads and paid conversions, while a two‑stage motion would monitor marketing‑qualified leads (MQL), sales‑qualified leads (SQL), opportunities and customer onboarding.

Aligning Sales, Marketing and Success

Not all products should be sold the same way. Italo categorises go‑to‑market motions into three buckets:

1. Product‑led growth (PLG) – no sales rep needed; users sign up and convert based on the product experience. Suitable for low‑priced, low‑risk subscriptions (e.g., $10–$100/month). Win rates may be low (one in eight trials converts), so high volume and great onboarding matter.

2. One‑ or two‑stage SMB sales – deals typically under $10k–$20k/year require a light touch. You might have a discovery call and a demo, backed by inbound and outbound marketing. Win rates hover around 20–40 %.

3. Field or enterprise sales – high‑priced contracts ($100k–$1M+) involve named accounts, long cycles and multiple decision makers. Marketing uses account‑based tactics to generate intent, and customer success provides high‑touch onboarding.

Each motion has a corresponding marketing strategy—pure inbound for PLG, blended inbound/outbound for SMB, and account‑based marketing for enterprise—as well as appropriate customer success models (self‑serve community vs. dedicated CSMs).

Creating Content for Every Stage

To improve lead quality, start with the decision stage and work your way up the funnel:

• Decision content – case studies, comparison charts, demos and testimonials help prospects who are ready to buy choose you. Make sure every buyer persona can see someone like them succeeding.

• Consideration content – guides, webinars and templates that educate prospects about solving their pain points build trust 30–90 days before purchase. Offer value for free to demonstrate expertise.

• Awareness content – thought leadership and “problem unaware” articles create demand months before someone buys. For example, teaching new founders about revenue metrics builds early relationships and positions you as a trusted advisor.

HubSpot’s CMS, blog and knowledge base features make it easy to host and repurpose these assets, while marketing automation ensures leads see the right content at the right time.

Key Takeaways

• Systemise your business. Process and automation—not heroics—enable revenue to roll in while you sleep.

• Choose the right go‑to‑market motion. Don’t sell enterprise software like a freemium app or vice versa. Let your annual contract value dictate sales complexity.

• Measure three things: volume, conversion and time. Without clear stages and benchmarks, you can’t improve.

• Leverage HubSpot for end‑to‑end execution. The platform covers CRM, marketing, content, sales, service and payments, eliminating tool sprawl.

• Invest in RevOps early. Document what works, automate it, train your team and hire for specific skills. A repeatable revenue engine will carry you through market shifts and help you grow sustainably.

Conclusion

Making money while you sleep isn’t about a magic hack—it’s about building a machine that operates independently of your personal effort. By blending lean experimentation, Six‑Sigma precision and the right technology stack, Italo and his team at Peddle have doubled their revenue twice in as many years. Their webinar and the frameworks shared illustrate how startups can do the same: understand how customers buy, structure your sales process accordingly, measure what matters and continuously refine your flywheel. HubSpot may be the tool of choice, but the real secret is a disciplined approach to revenue operations. With the right processes in place, founders can finally catch some shut‑eye while their businesses keep growing.