The Stack Overflow Podcast What an MCP implementation looks like at a CRM company
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Sep 16, 2025 In this discussion, Karen Ng, EVP of Product at HubSpot, dives into the implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for their CRM platform. She tackles the challenges of integrating this open-source protocol with existing systems and highlights the importance of establishing standards for agentic interactions. Karen also shares insights on fostering innovation through AI in developer tools, the evolution of user experience in CRM, and the role of open-source collaboration in driving technological advancements.
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MCP Became Prominent After Big Players Align
- MCP emerged as a likely standard after major providers adopted it rapidly following OpenAI's endorsement.
- Standards often solidify when major platforms align and ecosystem needs (agents/tools/context) converge.
MCP Spec Is Evolving, Not Complete
- MCP is still evolving and lacks complete agent-to-agent and unified auth semantics.
- Implementers must interpret and extend the spec for scopes, auth flows, and agent interactions.
HubSpot Ran Multiple MCP Servers
- HubSpot ran two remote MCP servers and one local server with slightly different versions and APIs.
- One exposed core CRM search APIs built on Rust and the other implemented an OpenAI-specific search/fetch spec.