Podcasts about bigmachines

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, we sit down with Philip Cunningham—CPQ veteran and co-founder of Shiftlogic—to explore his journey from the early BigMachines days through Oracle, SteelBrick, Salesforce, and now to leading one of Europe's fastest-growing Salesforce Revenue Cloud consultancies. Philip shares how his experiences at global CPQ leaders shaped his vision for Shiftlogic, a bootstrapped firm that reached Summit Partner Status in under three years and is now delivering high-impact Revenue Cloud Advanced solutions across industries like manufacturing, automotive, high tech, and financial services. With a deep focus on Europe—including the UK, DACH, France, and the Nordics—Shiftlogic is thriving without outside investors, and Philip explains why that matters. We discuss: Why demand for Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced is growing fast in 2025 How Shiftlogic's company culture fuels feedback-driven growth and high performance Their plans to launch proprietary AI agents in response to growing customer demand What it takes to scale a specialized consultancy across diverse industries How Philip balances entrepreneurship with audiobooks and cycling If you're interested in Salesforce Revenue Cloud, CPQ innovation, or building founder-led consultancies in Europe—this episode is for you. Shiftlogic contact information: 

Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO of G2 joins the show to discuss his decades of experience as a serial entrepreneur, what excites him about G2 and AI, and his views on the future of GTM. Having built and exited companies like BigMachines and SteelBrick Godard's journey to building G2 into the trusted marketplace for B2B software is full of insights. He also has a great perspective on how AI and data are reshaping the future of sales. For more from ZI Labs visit ⁠⁠⁠www.zoominfo.com/labs⁠⁠⁠ Ben on LinkedIn - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensalzman⁠⁠ Millie on LinkedIn - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/milliebeetham⁠

Ever wondered what Salesforce CPQ customers are asking about migrating to RLM? This episode dives deep with CPQ veteran Phil Rapp, who's seen it all from Big Machines to his own company, Ascribe IT. Phil unpacks current projects with Salesforce and Logik.io, shares insights from the Mile Hi Dreamin' event, and reveals the top integration needs and customization trends he's encountering. Learn what drives Phil's clients and get a glimpse into the future of CPQ! Bonus: Get Phil's perspective on the current business climate for CPQ users and discover the top 3 customer requirements he sees most often. Connect with Phil: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-rapp-7460b42a Website: https://ascribe-it.com/

In this episode you hear from Sri Nagavarapu, Sr. Director of Business Applications at Crowdstrike. Sri has 20+ years of business experience and was with companies like PwC, Splunk, Brocade and Tech Mahindra before he joined Crowdstrike in 2022. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family. Here he talks about Salesforce CPQ, Dreamforce 2023, hypergrowth for SaaS customers, eCommerce, AI, his experience as CPQ customer and CPQ consultant, customer satisfaction with CPQ Solutions, demands for user experience much more website www.crowdstrike.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagavarapu/ 

Godard Abel is the Co-Founder and CEO of G2, the largest and most trusted software marketplace, making B2B tech buying easy by connecting buyers to vendors based on authentic customer reviews and real-time ratings of business software and services. Previously, Godard built cloud CPQ pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). He is also chairman of Logik.io and ThreeKit, helping to create the next generation of configuration technology.

Godard Abel is the Co-Founder and CEO of G2, the largest and most trusted software marketplace, making B2B tech buying easy by connecting buyers to vendors based on authentic customer reviews and real-time ratings of business software and services. Previously, Godard built cloud CPQ pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). He is also chairman of Logik.io and ThreeKit, helping to create the next generation of configuration technology.

A documentary showed his weakness….… then it elevated his leadership and inspired thousands.Godard Abel is a 5x B2B SaaS Entrepreneur and Co-Founder and CEO of G2, the world's largest and most trusted software marketplace, which he co-founded in 2012. G2 is used by 80 million people annually with over 2 million authentic peer reviews. It's valued at $1.1B today.While Godard's career on the surface looks like a massive succession of “homeruns”, he wasn't feeling successful on the inside. He was struggling mightily with his mental and physical health. He was in a bad place and made an incredible personal comeback.Then he felt compelled to share the darkest moments in a LinkedIn/Hubspot documentary because he believes it can help others.I love his story, and I think you'll be inspired as I was.—-He also serves as Executive Chairman of ThreeKit, a leading 3D visualization technology company, and Logik.io, a next generation configuration technology. Previously, he was Founder and CEO of SteelBrick, which was acquired by Salesforce and also previously co-founded BigMachines, where he served as CEO and built it into a leading software-as-a-service provider which was acquired by Oracle in 2013.LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/godardabel/Company Link: https://www.g2.com/What You'll Discover in this Episode:What drives him.The impact of attending a Waldorf school as a child.Why he decided to show his most vulnerable side in a documentary.Using anxiety and uncertainty as fuel to create.How having a coach has helped him.His “Entrepreneur Alter Ego”.What happened when his company faced bankruptcy.How a forum he joined changed his life.What happens in his CEO peer-group meetings.What he's doing now that he's never done at previous companies.How authenticity is transforming his business and industry.Why Linkedin is becoming the gold standard of trust.What he learned from his first business as a teenager.A tip for talking to your kids about business.Resources:Spiraling Up: Spotlighting startup founders on their paths to becoming unicorns. https://www.hubspot.com/startups/docuseries -----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter

Guest host Russell Bradley-Cook, Senior App Partner Manager at Hubspot sits down with Godard Abel, CEO and Co-Founder of G2. Godard shares invaluable insights into the world of software buying and selling from G2, as well as his 2 $400m+ exits SteelBrick to SalesForce and BigMachines to Oracle. He highlights the importance of building a trusted reputation, how tech partnerships unlocked organic growth at BigMachines, the importance of data and content integrations, and the future of software recommendations with Monty, G2's AI tool. Are you interested in leveling up your sales skills and staying relevant in today's AI-driven landscape? Visit www.jbarrows.com and let's Make It Happen together!Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/Connect with John on IG: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/Check out John's Membership: bit.ly/JBMembershipConnect with Russell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellbradleycook/Connect with Godard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/godardabel/Visit the G2 Website: https://www.g2.com/Visit the HubSpot Website: https://www.hubspot.com/

In this episode you hear from Tim Beck, CEO & Founder of SaaSteps and Ron Costa, Co-Founder of SaaSteps. Tim has 20+ years of business experience with companies like Conga, FPX and BigMachines and lives in Denver, CO. Ron has 10+ years of business experience with companies like Embraer and lives near Sao Paolo in Brazil. Here they talk about their product incl. ecommerce, payment processing, CPQ, subscriptions, Billing, Renewals and more.  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasteps/  email: tim.beck@saasteps.com   

Today's guest is Godard Abel. He is the Co-founder & CEO of G2.com, a software marketplace with authentic peer reviews to make purchasing software that much easier. With his vast experience as an executive heading up multiple high-performing companies (like SteelBrick and BigMachines - purchased by Salesforce and Oracle respectively), Godard offers valuable advice on what it means to be a stellar operator. In this episode, he sat down with Patrick Campbell at SaaStock 2022 and broke down a number of fundamental learnings.High Level OverviewEstablish a strong company culture that fosters trust and collaboration.Leverage the power of partnerships to create synergies and generate value.Develop a performance-oriented mindset to ensure success.Utilize peer reviews and customer feedback to build trust with potential customers.Utilize data to make informed decisions and improve efficiency.Adopting G2's P.E.A.K. CultureInvesting in your team and developing a strong company culture is one of the best ways to ensure your business is successful for years to come. You can follow the G2 method of P.E.A.K. Culture which stands for Performance, Entrepreneurship, Authenticity, Kindness. Performance: It's important to have goals and objectives but tantamount to that all is to measure that progress. This can be done by creating a baseline of what you have currently, whether it's tracking your MRR, CAC, or LTV or even the reach you see in your social campaigns. Additionally, no one better understands the buying process than your customers. Utilize customer feedback, reviews, and other buyer data to make informed decisions and improve efficiency.Entrepreneurship: Fostering a culture where operators can have ownership over certain facets of the business will pay dividends. Oftentimes, just doing what works isn't going to move the needle. Empowering others who you work with to challenge the status-quo can result in game-changing results. Don't get this confused with hustling your face off, however. Poor sleep patterns can negatively impact growth and satisfaction.Authenticity: I'm sure we all see ourselves as authentic to varying degrees. Authenticity in itself feels like a binary measure, but there's always that one person who holds their cards close to their chest. Dan Martell managed to shift Patrick Campbell's perception of authenticity after speaking with him on an earlier episode of Protect the Hustle. Vulnerability is strength. encouraging transparency and open communication can develop a healthy culture within any business.Kindness: It isn't just about being nice and respectful to those you work with (although that's a great place to start), creating partnerships with likeminded businesses is crucial to your own success. By practicing the golden rule where you treat others how you want to be treated can lead to strong relationships with investors, peers, and your direct reports that will come back to help you in the end. You can't expect the same measure of response, but it can, at the very least, put a warm feeling in someone else's heart.Further LearningsYou can learn more about Godard Abel by following him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Matt's an enterprise software leader with experience growing businesses, building global teams, and delivering products. Before founding Vivun, he worked at Zuora, BigMachines, and Deloitte.

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 Godard Twitter LinkedIn Email: godard@g2.com Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In this episode you hear from Andy Pieroux, Founder & Managing Director + Ingmar Hermans, Senior Managing Partner at Walpole Partnership. This IT consultancy is based in the UK + both have 20+ years of business experience. Here they talk about CPQ Solutions they support, the top CPQ related customer requirements they see and much more walpolepartnership.com    LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingmarhermans/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/apieroux/  andy@walpolepartnership.com    ingmar@walpolepartnership.com  

In this episode you can learn more about the newest company of Chris Shutts and Godard Abel, the two co-founders of BigMachines. Both have 20+ years of experience and success in the CPQ space and beyond. Here they talk about how Logik.io was started, what customers they target, what team they have assembled, how they work with Threekit, their giving pledge and more Chris@logik.io  Godard@g2.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-shutts-0622237/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/godardabel/

In this episode you hear from Original Shift co-founder Joe Jagassar. Original Shift is a Salesforce CPQ & Billing focused System Integrator and has numerous leaders & employees that previously worked at SteelBrick and Salesforce. Here Joe talks about founding Original Shift, company growth during the pandemic, industries they focus on, key Salesforce CPQ & Billing requirements, and challenges and much more. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-jagassar/  email: Hello@originalshift.com  website: originalshift.com 

Nothing lights me up more than a meaty conversation with a successful entrepreneur. I just bagged the elephant (You can thank me later.) Godard Abel is one of the most successful SaaS entrepreneurs you'll meet. And G2 is his Unicorn baby. After wrapping his studies at Stanford MBA and MIT Engineering, Godard was Co-Founder & CEO of BigMachines, a pioneer of the Configure, Price, Quote software category. He scaled the business from scratch to $50M revenues & 300 people, before its acquisition by Oracle. As CEO of SteelBrick, the leading Quote-to-Cash software platform, he built the team from 5 to 200 people, before its acquisition by Salesforce. And currently, Godard is Co-Founder & CEO of G2, which makes B2B tech buying easy by connecting buyers to vendors. It's “Yelp for Business Software & Services” with 1 million customer reviews & real-time ratings. 5 million tech buyers visit each month. And he's onto something big… G2 has raised over $200M from top investors: Accel, Chicago Ventures, Emergence, High Alpha, Hyde Park Venture Partners, IVP, Permira, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Salesforce Ventures, HubSpot Ventures. I was curious to understand how Godard makes it look so easy (It's not.) He attributes not some… but ALL… of his success to “hiring & nurturing incredible people.” In this 20-minute conversation, he reveals step-by-step how to build your Unicorn team.  

Entrepreneur delivering success to B2B tech buyers and vendors via G2.com marketplace...and supporting ThreeKit in building the world's most amazing 3D visual selling platform. Previously built cloud CPQ software pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). Following the conscious path to reach the PEAK in my work, personal, and family life.

Entrepreneur delivering success to B2B tech buyers and vendors via G2.com marketplace...and supporting ThreeKit in building the world's most amazing 3D visual selling platform. Previously built cloud CPQ software pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). Following the conscious path to reach the PEAK in my work, personal, and family life. 

Entrepreneur delivering success to B2B tech buyers and vendors via G2.com marketplace...and supporting ThreeKit in building the world's most amazing 3D visual selling platform. Previously built cloud CPQ software pioneers BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/georges-khalife/support

Matt has been at the forefront of commerce in his C-level positions at BigMachines (acquired by Oracle), Steelbrick (acquired by salesforce) and Salesforce's Quote-to-Cash cloud. He also co-founded G2 Crowd. He is now CEO at Threekit, which generates product images for companies like Crate & Barrel and provides cutting edge AR for commerce, which you can see for yourself at https://quickdemo.threekit.com/product/1 (on a mobile device)

This week's episode of the SaaS Revolution Show is a live recording from SaaStock 2019. In this episode Philipe Botteri, partner with Accel, interviews G2 cofounder and chairman, Godard Abel. It was a really interesting conversation that followed Godard's entrepreneurial journey from his first startup BigMachines, to founding and scaling G2. As an experienced entrepreneur he offered lots of fascinating insights on everything from SaaS pricing, sales, and financing. This is a must-listen for early-stage SaaS founders, with tons of practical takeaways.

Godard Abel is well known in the CPQ business community through his leadership of BigMachines and Steelbrick which were both success stories when they were sold to Oracle and Salesforce. In this interview he talks about his latest adventure G2, the leading online software review site, he shares how they compete with Industry Analysts, how their software reviews work, why 20% of their reviews are rejected, what new capabilities they plan to add and much more.  email Godard@g2.com Website www.g2.com 

On this month's episode of the Struggle, with talk with Joachim Klein, President of ThreeKit. Originally from Germany, Joachim has been living in San Francisco for the past three years.  ThreeKit is Joachim's fourth foray into Enterprise SaaS, a field he is fully subscribed to at this point. He started off his path in a company called BigMachines, the subject of the conversation on this episode.   Joachim joined it in September 2000 as EMEA MD, nine months after BigMachines had been started. The startup helped manufacturing companies provide the best possible quotes for their big machines. Joachim remembers the first year as particularly exhilarating. They were receiving a lot of interest from prospects, had many great conversations with them and all in all got a lot of praise for the problem they were tackling. On top of that, they had raised $30 million in funding so there was plenty of money in the bank. Bullish about the future of the company, BigMachines hired a lot of people that year, preparing for the demand they would get once these prospects became customers.  Sounds great, doesn't it? This wouldn't be an episode of the Struggle if BigMachines lived happily ever after, would it? They ran out of money before they had sold anything. On the verge of bankruptcy, BigMachines was forced to lay off 70% of its workforce. Joachim lost his entire team. One night during this rocky period, Joachim's wife asked him, "Would you invest in BigMachines right now?" and Joachim admitted, "No, I wouldn't put even $100 in. The company is dead."  The company didn't die and instead eventually got acquired by Oracle but not before a major turnaround, achieved thanks to a lot of self-reflection, change, and learning how to sell. That's the story of this episode of the Struggle.   If you can be as honest and open as Joachim or any of the other guests we have hosted on the Struggle, get in touch and send us your story on podcast@saastock.com. Thanks for listening, see you next time.

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  

Joachim recently joined ThreeKit, an online platform for visualization solutions that partners with CPQ and eCommerce providers. In this interview, Joachim talks about how he got interested in CPQ, how he got involved with BigMachines, SteelBrick and Salesforce, what the plans are for ThreeKit, how companies like Crate & Barrel use ThreeKit and much more. Contact him on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachimklein/ or on email @ joachim.klein@threekit.com  The website is @https://www.threekit.com 

Chris co-founded BigMachines in 2000 and sold the Company in 2013 to Oracle. In this interview he talks about why he loves muscle cars, the founding days of BigMachines, why they focused on the P and Q, why they have part of their team in Chicago, what the team has been working on, what he is excited about  and much more Contact Chris on Linkedin @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-shutts-0622237/ The Oracle CPQ Cloud website is @ https://www.oracle.com/applications/customer-experience/cpq/ 

Mark Cuban is famous for saying “In business, you only need to be right once.” Godard Abel doesn't believe in that. He's already been right twice and is working on his third project now. In 2013 Abel sold his software company, BigMachines to Oracle for $400M. Then in late 2015 he sold his next company, SteelBrick to Salesforce.com for $360M. But Abel isn't an overnight success story. BigMachines took nearly a dozen years to build and Abel told me that they missed their sales numbers every year for the first seven years. With only $1.5M left in the bank, he and his team decided to continue onward and the rest is history. Abel mentioned that a major piece of his success has come as a result of mindfulness. He follows Jim Dethmer's Concious Leadership style, he reads books from Eckhart Tolle, and meditates using Headspace every day. His focus on health and wellness has allowed him to think more clearly and become a more successful leader. And if being right twice is great, a third time would be icing on the cake. That's what Abel is working on right now with his team at G2 Crowd. In this interview, we talk about the impact that mindfulness has had on his life, how to build a great company and the best way you can book a meeting with someone important via email and LinkedIn. Listen Here: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Connect with Godard: G2 Crowd LinkedIn Twitter Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle

Mark Cuban is famous for saying “In business, you only need to be right once.” Godard Abel doesn’t believe in that. He’s already been right twice and is working on his third project now. In 2013 Abel sold his software company, BigMachines to Oracle for $400M. Then in late 2015 he sold his next company, SteelBrick to Salesforce.com for $360M. But Abel isn’t an overnight success story. BigMachines took nearly a dozen years to build and Abel told me that they missed their sales numbers every year for the first seven years. With only $1.5M left in the bank, he and his team decided to continue onward and the rest is history. Abel mentioned that a major piece of his success has come as a result of mindfulness. He follows Jim Dethmer’s Concious Leadership style, he reads books from Eckhart Tolle, and meditates using Headspace every day. His focus on health and wellness has allowed him to think more clearly and become a more successful leader. And if being right twice is great, a third time would be icing on the cake. That’s what Abel is working on right now with his team at G2 Crowd. In this interview, we talk about the impact that mindfulness has had on his life, how to build a great company and the best way you can book a meeting with someone important via email and LinkedIn. Listen Here: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Connect with Godard: G2 Crowd LinkedIn Twitter Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle

Godard Abel, founder and executive chairman of G2 Crowd, a fast-growing tech startup in Chicago, has been building businesses for more than a decade.   His first startup, BigMachines, was sold to Oracle for more than $400 million in 2013. His next startup, Steelbrick, raised more than $50 million in less than four years and was acquired by Salesforce for $360M.   But, none of this would have been possible without the underground network of talent that follow him from one venture to the next. He refers to this core group as his startup squad. He’s trained this team on how to grow businesses from the ground-up quickly and efficiently. It includes engineers, designers, sales and marketing reps and customer service specialists.    Godard shares his insight on how to build this team with special focus on how to maintain their loyalty through mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs.