Insight
Abel: Legacy software analysts don't use the software they evaluate
“You know, I said it's like a restaurant critic that literally can't eat the food, right? The analyst can't use the software, and they just stand outside the restaurant asking other people, how is your meal? And I'd rather ask the people eating the meal, right?…”
Insight
Abel: Hiring Young Generalists Beats Using Recruiters
“You just hire young, smart people, and then see who grows with you, and that's a much better way than using recruiters”
Opinion
Godard Abel internally positioned SteelBrick rival Apttus as 'the bad guys.'
“In high level, we just said, we're the good guys, and we had a competitor. Well, I didn't use their name anymore, Aptus. They were the bad guys.”
Insight
Abel: Every employee and leader in a startup is ultimately replaceable
“And I've always found, you know, everyone is replaceable ultimately.”
Opinion
Godard Abel says Salesforce's V2MOM framework is better than OKRs.
“And but just writing down every year, every quarter, what are your key priorities in some ways like the OKR, but it's better.”
Insight
Passing a startup 'Keeper Test' is only valid for one year.
“And really, a keeper test in high growth companies is only true for a year. Are they the right person in the job right now, this year? And if not, either rely on another job or move them out”
Insight
Abel: Initiating an acquisition process never leads to a good outcome
“Good companies are bought, not sold. I think that's true with good strategic outcomes. If you initiate it, I don't think it's ever good.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Abel: G2 Gross Revenue Retention Is Running Around 80%
“And we're probably running, like a lot of marketing solutions, maybe it's too low, our retention's probably running around 80%. Higher in enterprise, lower in SMB.”
Insight
Abel: Vendors with perfect 5.0-star ratings are not believable
“A vendor with all five point overviews, I would never believe it. It's bullshit. The world isn't that way. Even if you're perfect, which maybe you are, Nathan. Nathan Latka: Thank you very much. Godard Abel: But even if you are, some people will perceive you a…”
Insight
Abel: Initiating M&A talks as a founder never leads to good outcomes
“If you listen to Mark Benioff or John Smorjai at Salesforce, they always say good companies are bought, not sold. I think that's true with good strategic outcomes. If you initiate it, I don't think it's ever good.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Godard Abel says G2 generates just over $80 million in ARR.
“80. Just over 80.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Godard Abel scaled SteelBrick from $1M to $60M ARR in two years.
“But then, and at the time Max's original product had about a million ARR.
And then in two years we scaled it.
Actually we beat that plan.
That was a plan, but we scaled it to sixty million in two years and got acquired by Salesforce.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Apr 2052
Godard Abel predicts the software market will 10x over 30 years.
“And the good news for us, I think it's going to continue another 30 years. And this is, I think, some battery ventures data. But it's, you know, the market's going to 10 X again.”
Assertion Supported
G2 reviews power AWS, Azure, and IBM Red Hat cloud marketplaces.
“But I think partnering also with Giants, we partner with AWS Marketplace. We partner with Microsoft Azure. We partner with IBM Red Hat. So three of the four largest cloud marketplaces in the world are now powered by G-II reviews.”
Insight
Abel: The best acquisition strategy is partnering before buying
“I also think the best way to make acquisitions happen is to partner first, and certainly that's what Salesforce does, you get to know each other, you actually make sure your products work together, do customers love them together, and then it can lead to very …”
Disclosure
Godard Abel replaced G2's entire executive team upon reaching 500 employees.
“I brought in a whole new leadership team the last year, new chief product officer, Sarah, new chief revenue officer, Mike, new CMO, Amanda, new chief people officer, and I'm looking for a CFO, so I've kind of found, wow, once we hit five, 600 people, it just,
…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Abel predicts G2's buyer solutions will surpass vendor solutions within ten years
“My 10 year vision,
Is certainly that the buyer solution becomes even bigger because the TAM there is literally every company in the world.”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
G2 aims to break $100 million in ARR during 2022
“Our goal is to break that next year.”
Assertion Supported
Abel: SteelBrick reached a $360M exit to Salesforce in seven quarters
“Because there in seven quarters, we achieved, you know, a three hundred sixty million dollar exit to Salesforce.”
Disclosure
G2 CEO: Slack has never paid G2 despite ranking number one
“You can be number one on our quadrants, or we call them grids. You can be number one in our ratings, and also our sort is just based on reviews, so if you're number one, like Slack has never paid us, to my chagrin, but they've always been number one rated on G…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Abel: G2 Exceeds 130% Net Dollar Retention
“We're going over a 130% net dollar.”
Insight
Abel: Freemium B2B Platforms Retain Churned Customers for Easy Winbacks
“And the good, one good thing about churning, though, like my last company is, if we churned a CPQ customer, they went to a competitor after this, we couldn't get them back for 10 years. Beauty of G-II, it's a marketing platform. They just go back to free. They…”
Disclosure
Abel: Diversifying Salesforce stock post-acquisition was a mistake in hindsight
“I had a financial advisor, and unfortunately they encouraged me to diversify. So I did. So sold. A lot. I mean, I kept a little bit, but obviously in hindsight, but it doubled, right? Obviously, but you have such a concentrated financial position, every financ…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Abel: Slack has never paid G2 despite ranking number one
“Like Slack has never paid us, to my chagrin, but they've always been number one rated on GQ, and we don't change that.”
