G2 is a unicorn startup that's stayed in the game for over a decade. G2 CEO Godard Abel deep dives into his original vision for G2, going multi-product, selling with multiple sales teams, demand gen spend, and why AI is the most important thing right now.
After rescuing his first startup BigMachines from the brink of bankruptcy and building it to positive cash flow, Godard Abel thought the express lane of life was opening up to him. But after the board replaced him as CEO, Godard — now the CEO of B2B tech buying firm G2 — found himself on a rocky road for 10 years. He had all the money he could want, but also overwhelming fear, anxiety, and depression. To break out of this funk, Godard says he had to embrace presence and reckon with why entrepreneurship called him. In this episode, Godard and Joubin discuss the mental benefits of running, Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom, ex-Apple CEO John Sculley and “scale at all costs,” turning around a failing startup, a young founder’s “FU mentality,” Jim Dethmer and conscious leadership, the importance of “wallowing in the muck,” the best part about entrepreneurship, WFIO moments, and the advantage of getting older. In this episode, we cover: The first company Godard co-founded, BigMachines (09:00) The race to IPO as soon as possible, and the “dot bomb” bubble (18:41) Rock bottom for BigMachines: “I felt like a massive failure every day” (23:20) How Godard lost the CEO job: A “Trojan horse” swap (26:55) Financial success and debilitating anxiety (32:30) Conscious leadership, being present, and embracing one’s emotions (36:12) Godard’s redemption: Joining, building, and selling SteelBrick (42:55) How often are you happy? (51:05) The humbling moments of starting G2, and staying an entrepreneur (53:35) Links: Connect with GodardTwitter LinkedIn Email: godard@g2.com Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
As digital business and collaboration models have been permanently accelerated by the events of 2020, our panel of SaaS experts discuss who's buying in the Enterprise, and how to drive conversions across multiple business functions. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/buying-patterns-in-the-enterprise/
Godard Abel is the Founder & CEO @ G2, the company helping millions of business make better product buying decisions every month. To date, Godard has raised over $100m in funding with G2 from the likes of Accel, IVP, High Alpha, Pritzker Group and Chicago Ventures just to name a few. As for Godard, he founded his first business, BigMachines, in 2000, a business he scaled to $50m in revenue and over 300 people up until it's acquisition to Oracle 11 years later for $400m. Godard then became CEO @ Steelbrick where he took them from 5 to 200 employees and increased bookings by 37x in 7 quarters. Steelbrick was ultimately acquired by Salesforce where he spent a year and a half before starting G2. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How did Godard make his way into the world of SaaS over 20 years ago? What was the a-ha moment for the founding of G2 for Godard? Having been a Founder through the bust of 2000, how did seeing that macro environment impact his operating mentality today? What did it teach him about capital efficiency and investing ahead of time? Taking the team from 70 to 20, what were his lessons on the right way to let someone go? Where do many people get it wrong today? Why does Godard advocate for working with people that you have worked with before? How can you find the zone of genius for the people that you work with? How does Godard set a culture of ambition and determination around goals but also prevent dejection if the goals are not hit? How often should rep quota be hit? Why is that the right ratio? Where does Godard believe that things really start to break down in the scaling of an organisation? What can you do to get ahead of those moments and minimise their impact? How many direct reports does Godard believe is the optimal and then the maximum for a manager to have? How have his thoughts on this changed over time? Godard's 60 Second SaaStr: What would Godard like to change in the world of SaaS today? What does Godard know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? If an investor can provide one value, what would it be and why? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Godard Abel