Godard Abel

Keynotes

Godard Abel keynotes at SaaStock

1. Why Sharing Your Weaknesses Elevates Your Leadership | Godard Abel, CEO and Founder, G2

   SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin · Keynote · 74 YouTube views

   CEO and Co-founder, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   I was at a football game on Saturday in Colorado with my sons Gavin and Gray. They're sophomores now at the University of Colorado, and if any of you are fans of American football, there's been a lot of hype in Colorado around Coach Prime. It was a very exciting game. With four minutes to go, Colorado scored the go-ahead touchdown — we were up 28–24 against Kansas State. I and the whole stadium, all 53,000 people, were screaming our heads off thinking we were going to win. And then, sadly, it tu…

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2. How CEOs Can Seize Opportunities to Drive Smart Growth

   SaaStock USA · Austin · Keynote · 34 YouTube views

   Co-founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   Thank you, thank you Matt for the kind introduction. We did become a unicorn two years ago, in 2021. I remember that was really exciting, but it does feel like a really long time ago. This fast world is maybe tripping up a lot of us now. Whereas two years ago it was all about growth — how many of you out here are SaaS entrepreneurs or SaaS leaders? Almost all of us. Two years ago, capital was freely available and our investors were just asking: grow faster. It didn't matter if you were efficient…

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3. How Global Software Buying and Selling Will Change in the Age of AI

   SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin · Keynote · 52 YouTube views

   Co-Founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   Thank you, Matt, for the introduction. Is anyone besides me a fan of Coach Prime? Very American reference — one Coach Prime fan. It was a tough game for us last Friday, blew a 29-0 lead. But I do live in Boulder, Colorado — I moved there during the pandemic — beautiful place to be. Really excited to be back here in Dublin. I was here last year, and I think I first came to SaaStock in 2019 right before the pandemic. Awesome to see the community really back in full force. What I want to talk about…

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4. How CEOs Can Seize Opportunities to Drive Smart Growth

   SaaStock USA 2023 · Austin · Keynote

   Co-founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   As a SaaS founder, it's important to create operational efficiencies that drive smart growth for your business. This becomes even more critical in uncertain economic times. In this session, G2 co-founder and CEO Godard Abel will share how he and his team approached the past year to remain resilient – the metrics they focused on, the plans they revised, and the innovation that continued. Leaning on lessons from his 25+ years as an entrepreneur as well as data from G2's own software marketplace, Godard will offer insights that can guide SaaS leaders to embrace operational efficiency while still focusing on their top priority: delighting customers.

5. The Team That Wins, Godard Abel Co-founder and CEO at G2

   SaaStock Europe 2022 · Dublin · Keynote · 323 YouTube views

   Co-founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   Hi goddard how are you today good how are you doing shelley i'm great so super excited to talk about this topic because creating the winning team as you scale i think is one of the keys to success and you have done this four times now four times so i think four times so i think that you have a lot of experience in this and so when we talk about creating the winning team i want to first focus on kind of the c-suite right the c-suite that's a direct report to the ceo could be different titles And…

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6. Surviving & Thriving in a Downturn: Lessons On Weathering Economic Storms Over 25 Yrs Building SaaS

   SaaStock Europe 2022 · Dublin · Keynote · 175 YouTube views

   Co-Founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   I last came to SaaStock back in 2019, and I never would have thought it'd be three years until we could all come back. Just curious — how many of you were here in 2019? Raise your hand. So quite a few of you. What I want to talk to you about is: how can we adapt? We just heard about the downturn, funding, and valuations — it's clearly a tougher time now for all of us in SaaS. I want to talk about the lessons I've learned. I've been building SaaS companies for over 20 years now, so we've seen a f…

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7. Building your winning playbook: the vision of SaaS success with Godard Abel [SaaStock 2019]

   SaaStock Europe 2019 · Dublin · Keynote · 692 YouTube views

   CEO & Co-founder, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   Thank you, Steven, for the kind introduction. I'm so excited to be here in his hometown of Dublin — it's actually my first time, and I'm amazed at how it's really become a tech hub. Going through Dublin, I'm thinking: wow, this is just like Silicon Valley, and frankly even more concentrated, all the tech companies in one place. I'm really excited to share what I've learned in the past 21 years building four successful SaaS companies in the cloud, and to share with you — especially as European fo…

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Fireside chats & panels

Godard Abel fireside chats and panels

1. Fireside with G2: To Search or to Chat? | Godard Abel (G2) and Stephen Cummins

   SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin · Fireside Chat · 87 YouTube views

   Co-Founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   Thank you for the kind intro, Stephen. Good to be here with you. I have been building SaaS companies for a long time — 25 years. G2 was really inspired by those experiences. When building my first company, BigMachines, it was a very long struggle — about seven years to find product-market fit and thirteen years start to finish until Oracle acquired us. And partly what made it so hard was that it was very hard for software buyers. Eventually our customers — big global manufacturers like GE Energy…

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2. Work Smarter, Live Smarter - How Unicorn Companies View The Ultimate Work/Life Balance For Success

   SaaStock Europe 2023 · Dublin · Panel · 133 YouTube views

   Co-Founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   In my first company, Big Machines, I started it in 2000 and then the dot-com crash hit — which I think was even more severe than the current downturn. I could no longer raise money, almost went bankrupt three years in, and my dad was my first angel investor. I'd recruited my best friends from college. I just felt like I was failing everyone. It was a storm cloud of anxiety that never lifted. I couldn't stop working because I always felt I needed to do more — I'd just get so tired that at 11 p.m…

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Interviews & podcast appearances

Godard Abel interviews and podcast appearances

1. Fireside with G2 - To Search or to Chat?

   SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin · Interview

   Founder & CEO, Appselekt (at the time of the talk)

   From the transcript

   G2 is a unicorn that has built a matchmaking platform successfully helping buyers find the right software, and vendors find the right customers. But with 180,000 products split into 2,100 categories and almost 3 million reviews, should we find new ways to navigate such a marketplace? Godard Abel is a 6x successful SaaS entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in creating and scaling innovative SaaS solutions all focused on the buyer-seller experience. Godard's most successful scaleup yet is G2. Godard will take us through what's been happening to G2 in the years since it achieved unicorn status in 2021. He'll take us through his vision for the future of software purchasing and sales. And what that means for you, the software and service providers. And we'll find out if a conversational AI Chatbot called Monty can change the way we learn about, buy, and sell software?

Other appearances

Other SaaStock appearances by Godard Abel

1. Let's Talk M&A - Knowing When it's Time to Sell & Lessons Learned

   SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin

   Co-founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

2. People for Growth - Who Will Get You to £10M? Org Design, Hiring Profiles & Comp

   SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin

   Co-founder & CEO, G2 (at the time of the talk)

All appearances

Every SaaStock appearance by Godard Abel

FAQ

Frequently asked about Godard Abel

• Who is Godard Abel?

  Godard Abel, Co-Founder & CEO at G2 has made 12 SaaStock appearances between 2019 and 2024, speaking at SaaStock Europe 2024, SaaStock USA, SaaStock Europe 2023, SaaStock USA 2023, SaaStock Europe 2022, and SaaStock Europe 2019. Talks include "Fireside with G2: To Search or to Chat? | Godard Abel (G2) and Stephen Cummins", "Why Sharing Your Weaknesses Elevates Your Leadership | Godard Abel, CEO and Founder, G2", "How CEOs Can Seize Opportunities to Drive Smart Growth". This page collects every recorded SaaStock keynote, fireside chat, panel, and podcast appearance by Godard Abel.

• How many times has Godard Abel spoken at SaaStock?

  Godard Abel has spoken at SaaStock 12 times between 2019–2024 — including 7 keynotes, 2 fireside chats and panels, and 1 podcast interview.

• What did Godard Abel speak about at SaaStock?

  "Fireside with G2: To Search or to Chat? | Godard Abel (G2) and Stephen Cummins" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "Why Sharing Your Weaknesses Elevates Your Leadership | Godard Abel, CEO and Founder, G2" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "How CEOs Can Seize Opportunities to Drive Smart Growth" at SaaStock USA; "Let's Talk M&A - Knowing When it's Time to Sell & Lessons Learned" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "People for Growth - Who Will Get You to £10M? Org Design, Hiring Profiles & Comp" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "Fireside with G2 - To Search or to Chat?" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "Work Smarter, Live Smarter - How Unicorn Companies View The Ultimate Work/Life Balance For Success" at SaaStock Europe 2023; "How Global Software Buying and Selling Will Change in the Age of AI" at SaaStock Europe 2023; "How CEOs Can Seize Opportunities to Drive Smart Growth" at SaaStock USA 2023; "The Team That Wins, Godard Abel Co-founder and CEO at G2" at SaaStock Europe 2022; "Surviving & Thriving in a Downturn: Lessons On Weathering Economic Storms Over 25 Yrs Building SaaS" at SaaStock Europe 2022; "Building your winning playbook: the vision of SaaS success with Godard Abel [SaaStock 2019]" at SaaStock Europe 2019

• What is Godard Abel's most-watched SaaStock talk?

  "Building your winning playbook: the vision of SaaS success with Godard Abel [SaaStock 2019]" delivered at SaaStock Europe 2019 has 692 YouTube views.