Metric The Hopin Stats Company Name Hopin Founder Johnny Boufarhat Total Funding Raised ~$1 Billion Valuation at Peak $7.75 Billion (August 2021) Lifespan (Peak) 2019 – 2023 (Assets
| Metric | The Hopin Stats |
| Company Name | Hopin |
| Founder | Johnny Boufarhat |
| Total Funding Raised | ~$1 Billion |
| Valuation at Peak | $7.75 Billion (August 2021) |
| Lifespan (Peak) | 2019 – 2023 (Assets sold to RingCentral) |
| The Exit | Core assets sold for reportedly <$50 Million (estimated) |
| Cause of Death | Black Swan Dependency (The “Lockdown Bubble”) |
In the history of European startups, no company has ever grown faster than Hopin. In 2019, it was a buggy prototype with a handful of users. By August 2021, it was valued at $7.75 billion. It had raised over $1 billion from tier-one investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global. It was the fastest European startup to hit “Unicorn” status ever.
Founder Johnny Boufarhat was the poster child of the new remote world. He was building the “Venue of the Future.”
Then, gravity turned back on.
In August 2023, just two years after its peak, Hopin sold its core technology and engineering team to RingCentral. While the exact price wasn’t disclosed, estimates suggest it was a fraction of the capital raised—potentially pennies on the dollar for common shareholders.
From $7.75 billion to a fire sale in 24 months. This isn’t just a failure; it is an economic crater. It is the definitive lesson on what happens when your entire business model depends on a crisis that eventually ends.
To the world in 2020, Hopin was a savior. The world had shut down. Conferences, trade shows, and expos were illegal. Yet, businesses still needed to meet. Zoom was great for meetings, but terrible for events. You couldn’t “network” on Zoom.
Hopin solved this. It mimicked a physical event. It had a “Main Stage,” “Breakout Rooms,” and even “Speed Networking” where you matched with strangers for 3 minutes.
It felt like a video game for business. Revenue skyrocketed from $0 to $100 million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) in under two years. This is growth that defies physics.
Investors saw this and thought: “Physical events are dead. The future is virtual. Hopin is the new Convention Center.”
While the valuation was stratospheric, the foundation was crumbling.
1. The Churn Problem: Hopin’s revenue was massive, but it was “event-based.” A company would pay $100,000 for an annual license, host one big virtual conference during the lockdown, and then… never use it again. As soon as restrictions eased, people didn’t want to attend virtual events. They hated them. “Zoom Fatigue” was real. Hopin wasn’t selling a desire; they were selling a necessity. Once the necessity vanished, so did the customers.
2. The Acquisition Spree: To justify the $7.75 billion valuation, Hopin had to grow into it. They went on a manic shopping spree, buying companies like StreamYard ($250M), Jamm, Ecamm, and others. They were trying to glue together a “Video Suite” to compete with Microsoft and Google. But integrating five different companies while your headcount balloons from 8 people to 800 in a year is operational suicide. Culture didn’t exist. Processes were broken. It was a Frankenstein monster of software.
The specific moment Hopin died wasn’t in a boardroom. It was the day the world opened up.
In 2022, Coachella returned. CES returned. Dreamforce returned. People rushed back to physical events with a vengeance. The “Hybrid Event” narrative (that people would attend partially online and partially in person) turned out to be a myth for most industries.
Hopin bet the farm that human behavior had permanently changed. It hadn’t. It was just paused.
The deep failure here is Category Confusion.
Hopin was a Life Raft. When the ship (the economy) sinks, a life raft is the most valuable thing in the world. You will pay anything for it. But once you reach the shore (post-pandemic), you leave the raft on the beach. You don’t live in it.
Hopin’s investors and founders convinced themselves they were building a Yacht—a luxury vehicle that people would want to stay in forever.
They failed to distinguish between a Structural Shift (e.g., the move to Cloud computing) and a Temporary Displacement (e.g., lockdowns). They scaled for a crisis, not for a market.
This is the $7 billion lesson for every founder:
If your growth is driven by a massive external event (a pandemic, a war, a regulatory loophole), you must be paranoid.
Hopin had $100M ARR. But if your customers don’t renew, that “Recurring” Revenue is actually just “One-Time” Revenue in disguise.
Growing from 0 to 1,000 employees in 24 months is impossible to do well. You end up with mercenaries, not missionaries.
Are you building a “Crisis Company”? Check your exposure:
Risk: What happens if the law changes with a pen stroke?
Risk: Fear is temporary. Delight is permanent.
Risk: This usually means you are in a bubble. Prepare for the pop.
Hopin is a tragedy of timing and hubris. They had the world at their feet. They had $1 billion in cash. They could have pivoted. They could have bought a physical event company. They could have built the ultimate community platform.
Instead, they believed their own hype. They thought the “New Normal” was forever.
The market is elastic. It snaps back. Building for a crisis is profitable. Failing to pivot when the crisis ends is fatal.
Don’t mistake a temporary tailwind for your own genius.
