Dharmesh Shah is the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot and has been a TechStars mentor for years. Dharmesh also runs OnStartups.com, an online community for entrepreneurs. It’s one of the top 10 most read startup blogs and receives thousands of visitors a day. We’re so grateful that he made time in his busy schedule to speak to us in Boston during FounderCon this month. Below are ten of his valuable insights and suggestions that struck a chord with our founders:

1. Inbound marketing is the best move for startups. Unless you’ve already hit escape velocity, you need marketing.
2. With ads, you’re not buying attention, you’re renting it. With PPC, rent can increase and you might be evicted.
3. Marketing isn’t something you sprinkle on. It should be baked in.
4. Creating your own search category takes ton of cash.
5. Google “your company name vs” and stop typing. Your competitors will come up.
6. Don’t just think different. Do different.
7. Create useful content, responsive designs and fast websites.
8. You can A/B your way to better. You can’t A/B test your way to awesome.
9. Author ranking: Google cares about the author and the content. Create a Google+ profile.
10. Look at your top ten pages every week with a critical eye and improve accordingly.

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend FounderCon as a founder in 2013. Applications for TechStars are open! Apply today.