G2 Crowd
{{Short description|Peer-to-peer review site}}
{{COI|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox website
| name = G2
| logo = File:G2 Crowd logo.svg
| logo_size = 175px
| type = Private company
| image =
| image_size =
| image_caption =
| traded_as =
| founded = {{Start date and age|2012}}
| location = Chicago, Illinois
United States
| founder = {{ubl|Godard Abel| Tim Handorf| Mike Wheeler| Matt Gorniak| Mark Myers}}
| key_people = Godard Abel (CEO)
Tim Handorf (GM)
Mike Wheeler (CTO)
| industry = Internet, Research, B2B, SaaS, Services
| products = Reviews
| operating_income =
| net_income =
| num_employees = 575 (2022)
| homepage = {{URL|https://www.g2.com}}
}}
G2.com, formerly G2 Crowd, is a peer-to-peer review site headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was known as G2 Labs, Inc. until 2013. The company was launched in May 2012 by former BigMachines employees, with a focus on aggregating user reviews for business software.
Service
Platform users can sign in with a LinkedIn account and can review the products they use. To encourage reviewers to participate, some users are compensated by G2.com with gift cards, contest rewards and reputation points on the website.{{cite web|author=Menegaz, Gery|date=June 12, 2013|title=G2 Crowd – disrupting the Gartner quadrant model|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/g2-crowd-disrupting-the-gartner-quadrant-model/|website=ZDNet|publisher=ZDNet|access-date=February 17, 2016}} G2 attempts to identify fraudulent user reviews through an algorithm that identifies employees at companies reviewing their own products and employees at companies reviewing their competitor's product. In addition, reviews are manually screened and voted on by the community to discourage spam and unhelpful comments.{{cite web|author=Desmarais, Christina|date=May 20, 2014|title=The Art and Science of Sniffing Out Fake Reviews|url=http://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/how-this-website-uses-data-to-eradicate-fake-reviews.html|website=inc.com|publisher=Inc.|accessdate=February 17, 2016}} G2 also requests screenshots of the reviewer using the product for verification purposes.{{cite web|author=Kutik, Bill|date=January 4, 2016|title=A New Yelp for HCM Software!|url=http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534359734|website=hreonline.com|publisher=Human Resource Executive Online|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
Information from reviews is aggregated to score business software products on The GridSM{{clarify|date=October 2018}}, which acts as a competitor to Gartner's magic quadrant review model. Satisfaction and market presence ratings are generated based on product reviews and market presence data, which are then used to plot products onto a quadrant. The four quadrants in a G2 Crowd Grid are Leaders, High Performers, Contenders and Niche.
= Research reviews =
History
In 2012 five former employees of BigMachines – Tim Handorf, Godard Abel, Matt Gorniak, Mark Myers and Mike Wheeler – founded G2, with Abel serving as president.{{cite web |author= |date=February 17, 2016 |title=Company Overview of G2, Inc. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/Stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=228545085 |accessdate=February 17, 2016 |website=bloomberg.com |publisher=Bloomberg}}{{cite web|author=Weinberger, Matt|date=July 29, 2015|title=The 'Yelp for business software' raises $7 million to help corporate shoppers|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/g2-crowd-raises-7-million-2015-7|website=businessinsider.com|publisher=Business Insider|accessdate=February 17, 2016}} When Abel left to continue building Steelbrick (now Salesforce CPQ) with Salesforce, Handorf took over as CEO, a role he continues in today.
A beta version of the review site launched in December 2012, with several thousand users testing the service before its full launch in 2013.
In early 2018, G2 Cofounders Godard Abel and Matt Gorniak returned to the company after a brief period building Salesforce acquired Steelbrick CPQ.{{Cite web|last=Reporter|first=Bulldog|date=2018-06-27|title=G2 Crowd Co-Founders Godard Abel and Matt Gorniak Return as CEO and CRO|url=https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-agency-news/g2-crowd-co-founders-godard-abel-and-matt-gorniak-return-as-ceo-and-cro/|access-date=2020-12-29|website=Agility PR Solutions|language=en-US}}
In May 2019, G2 acquired Advocately, a B2B customer advocacy platform, with the aim of amplifying customer voices and accelerating review collection.{{Cite web|url=https://www.demandgenreport.com/features/news-briefs/g2-acquires-advocately-to-streamline-software-review-collection|title=G2 Acquires Advocately To Streamline Software Review Collection|last=Schoening|first=Elise|website=www.demandgenreport.com|date=9 May 2019 |language=en-gb|access-date=2020-03-18}}
Funding
In 2014, G2 raised $2.3 million in seed funding from investors, including Chicago Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Andrew Filipowski, and Greg Jones, founding CEO of uBid.{{cite web|author=Dorbian, Iris|date=May 19, 2014|title=G2 Crowd nabs $2.3 mln seed funds|url=https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/g2-crowd-nabs-2-3-mln-seed-funds/|website=venturecaptialjournal.com|publisher=Venture Capital Journal|accessdate=February 17, 2016}} In 2015, G2 raised an additional $7 million in Series A funding led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Investors included 2014's contributors in addition to co-founder Godard Abel, Thomas Lehrman, and Scott Dorsey. G2 Crowd announced it would use these funds to invest in its leadership and capabilities.{{cite web|author=Goldfisher, Alastair|date=July 29, 2015|title=Pritzker Group leads $7 mln funding of G2 Crowd|url=https://www.pehub.com/2015/07/pritzker-group-leads-7-mln-funding-of-g2-crowd/|website=pehub.com|publisher=The PE Hub Network|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
In 2017, G2 secured a $30 million Series B, led by VC Accel with participation from LinkedIn and the company's founders. The funds are being used to help the company expand into services.{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/24/g2-crowd-a-glassdoor-for-software-reviews-gets-30m-from-linkedin-and-more/|title=G2 Crowd, Glassdoor for software reviews, gets $30M from Accel, LinkedIn|date=24 May 2017 }}
In 2021, G2 reached a $1.1 billion valuation with a $157 million Series D funding.{{Cite web |last=Abel |first=Godard |title=G2 Raises $157M at a $1.1B Valuation |url=http://company.g2.com/news/g2-series-d-announcement |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=company.g2.com |language=en}} The Series D funding brought G2's total funding to $257 million and put G2 on the list of Unicorn startups that are valued at over $1 billion.{{Cite web |last=Wilkins |first=Pete |title=How A Conscious Company Culture Propels G2's Unicorn Success |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterandrewwilkins/2021/08/31/how-a-conscious-company-culture-propels-g2s-unicorn-success/ |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=Forbes |language=en}}
Significant milestones
In December 2015, G2 surpassed 50,000 verified-user product reviews, more than 28,000 of which were submitted that year. The firm also reported that more than 3,000 reviews were submitted per month on average.{{cite web|author=|date=December 28, 2015|title=G2 Crowd Eclipses 50,000 Business Software Reviews|url=http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/15/12/p6076684/g2-crowd-eclipses-50-000-business-software-reviews|website=benzinga.com|publisher=PRWeb|accessdate=February 17, 2016}} In January 2016, G2 reported more than 400,000 sessions per month, and includes more than 400 product categories.{{cite web|author=Lee, Danielle|date=January 4, 2016|title=G2 Crowd Passes 50K Reviews, Adding New Reports|url=http://www.accountingtoday.com/accounting-technology/news/g2-crowd-passes-50k-reviews-adding-new-reports-76846-1.html|website=accountingtoday.com|publisher=Accounting Today|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
In September 2016, G2 reached more than 100,000 reviews.{{Cite web |url=https://culture.g2.com/blog/100000-reviews/ |title=100,000 Verified Reviews: Thank You! |access-date=2019-06-05 |archive-date=2019-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605183730/https://culture.g2.com/blog/100000-reviews |url-status=dead }}
Awards
G2 has been nominated for and earned a number of awards since its founding for its growth and culture.
= 2013 =
= 2015 =
- Adrienne Weissman, G2 Crowd (Crain's Chicago Business){{cite web |title=People on the move |url=https://www.chicagobusiness.com/section/people-on-the-move/3235028 |website=Crain's Chicago Business |date=20 February 2015 |publisher=Crain's |access-date=30 June 2015}}
- Top 100 Small Business Influencer Award (Small Business Trends){{cite web|author=Taylor, Ivanna|date=November 24, 2015|title=Announcing The Small Business Influencer Awards Champions for 2015|url=http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/11/small-business-influencer-awards-champions-2015.html|website=smallbiztrends.com|publisher=Small Business Trends|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
- 50 on Fire Award nominee (Chicago Inno){{cite web|author=Flanagan, Will|date=October 13, 2015|title=Introducing the 150 Nominees for Chicago Inno's 50 on Fire|url=http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2015/10/13/the-150-nominees-for-chicago-innos-50-on-fire/|website=chicagoinno.com|publisher=ChicagoInno|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
- Coolest Companies nominee (Chicago Inno){{cite web|author=Flanagan, Will|date=July 14, 2015|title=Announcing This Year's #CoolestCompanies Nominees!|url=http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/all-series/coolest-companies-chicago-100-windy-city-businesses-with-great-culture/|website=chicagoinno.com|publisher=ChicagoInno|accessdate=February 17, 2016}}
= 2016 =
- G2 Crowd hires ex-IDC analyst Mike Fauscette as head of research{{Cite web|url=http://analystrelations.org/2016/05/23/iiar-webinar-why-peer-review-sites-matter-influence-and-the-digital-buyer/|title=IIAR Webinar with G2 Crowd: Why Peer Review Sites Matter: Influence and the digital buyer|last=Leforestier|first=Ludovic|date=2016-05-23|website=Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR)|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-05}}
= 2018 =
- 50 on Fire Award nominee (Chicago Inno){{Cite web|url=https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/50-on-fire/chicago-innos-2018-50-on-fire/|title=Chicago Inno's 2018 50 on Fire|website=www.americaninno.com|access-date=2018-09-21}}
- No. 179 Fastest Growing Company (Inc. 500){{Cite news|url=https://culture.g2.com/blog/inc-500-2018|title=G2 Crowd Ranked No. 179 Fastest-Growing U.S. Company|last=Abel|first=Godard|access-date=2018-09-21|language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}