Valentina Akpan: Founder, Rellatech. Admin and technical virtual assistant for businesses and startups with teams.
I usually cover one story at a time, but the first stretch of August got away from me. So today you get the three pieces of news from this month that actually matter if you run a small business or a startup with a team.
HubSpot keeps growing, and so does its bet on AI
On August 5, HubSpot reported its second quarter results. Revenue came in at 911.7 million dollars, up 20 percent from the same quarter last year, and the company now serves 306,446 customers, up 14 percent. Two days before the report, its board authorized an additional 1 billion dollar share buyback. CEO Yamini Rangan said the company "made deliberate choices to accelerate our AI transformation," pointing to agents built for go-to-market teams and simpler pricing.
Here is why I care, and why you might too. HubSpot is the CRM many of our clients use or are considering. When the platform pours this much money and attention into AI agents, the tools your team touches every day will keep changing. Someone still has to set those tools up, keep the data behind them clean, and check their work. That someone should probably not be the founder.
The return to office is showing up in job postings
Robert Half published updated remote work data this month, and the shift is sharp. Fully in-office roles rose from 65 percent of job postings in late 2025 to 87 percent by the second quarter of 2026, and 36 percent of employers say they increased required on-site days over the past year. At the same time, Robert Half found that 46 percent of professionals are looking or planning to look for a new role in the second half of the year.
For small companies, I read this as an opening. If large employers pull back on flexibility, offering remote-friendly roles becomes a real hiring advantage for you. It is also a reminder that distributed teams need deliberate coordination. Someone has to manage the calendars, the follow-ups, and the small operational glue that offices used to provide by accident.
Google's data says AI is assisting, not replacing
Google's AI and Economy ATLAS report, released July 23 and covered this month by the Las Vegas Sun, found that AI in the workplace is mostly playing an assistive role. It helps with ideas, strategy, and similar tasks, while fully automated work remains rare.
That matches what I see every week. The businesses getting real value from AI are not cutting people. They are pairing the tools with a person who knows the business, decides what is worth automating, and catches what the software misses.
What this means for your team
All three stories point in the same direction. The tools are getting more capable, the way we work keeps shifting, and the constant is that someone has to run the operational side with care. That is exactly what our monthly retainers are for. If your team is juggling a changing CRM, a distributed schedule, and a growing pile of admin, a Rellatech assistant on retainer gives you a steady person who handles all of it, so you and your team can get back to the work only you can do.
Contact MeNot ready for a call? Take the free operations assessment and I will send you a written breakdown within 24 hours.
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