In 2012, as the champagne bottles from his $400 million exit popped, Godard Abel should have been on cloud nine. Instead, he found himself restless in his Chicago suburban home, itching for a new challenge.

“I remember I was home, I was feeling lonely and kind of just missing something,” Abel confesses, his voice tinged with the irony of a successful entrepreneur grappling with an existential void.

This restlessness would soon birth G2, now the world’s largest software marketplace. But G2’s origin story isn’t just about a bored millionaire’s next venture. It’s a tale of industry frustration, audacious vision, and a fundamental reimagining of how businesses find and choose software.

The spark ignited in Abel’s basement, where he huddled with four former colleagues from Big Machines, his previous company. Armed with flipcharts and fueled by a desire to build something meaningful, they began to dissect the software industry’s pain points.

One issue loomed large: the antiquated system of software evaluation. Abel recounts, chuckling at the memory, “We chafed under the Gartner model and having to wait for Magic Quadrants. Took us nine years to get a Gartner report at Big Machines. Twelve years to become a leader.”

This frustration became the cornerstone of G2’s mission. The team envisioned a platform that would democratize software reviews, turning the industry on its head. “We always said it was like a restaurant critic that couldn’t eat the food,” Abel says, describing the traditional analyst model. “Because the reality is, none of the analysts could actually use the software in the right business context.”

The idea was radical: create a Yelp-like platform for B2B software, where actual users could share their experiences. It seems obvious now, but in 2012, it was revolutionary. Abel admits, “Shockingly to us is that it didn’t exist for industry, because in the consumer Internet world, it had become obvious.”

But G2 wasn’t just about reviews. It aimed to solve a critical problem: software discoverability. Abel recounts conversations with customers who lamented, “Wow, we wish we discovered you two years earlier. We’ve been trying to build software in-house. We didn’t know vendors like you existed.”

From its humble beginnings, G2 has grown into a behemoth, boasting over 2,100 software categories and millions of reviews. It’s become more than just a platform; it’s a kingmaker in the SaaS world, with Abel proudly noting, “We’ve helped create five unicorns. And that’s really cool.”

As the software landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, G2’s founding story serves as a reminder: sometimes, the most disruptive ideas are born not from a desire for profit, but from a genuine urge to solve an industry-wide problem. For Abel and his team, that solution began in a suburban basement, fueled by frustration and a vision of a more transparent software ecosystem.

Listen to the full interview with Godard Abel: 

How B2B Market Categories Are Created with G2’s Godard Abel (Behind the Category)