Back in February, we gathered as a global team at our Chicago headquarters for our annual kickoff event. It’s the most anticipated event of the year at G2 because it’s the only time that our AMER, EMEA, and APAC teams all come together in person.
Across four days, we strategize and set the plan for the upcoming year. We also celebrate our accomplishments and all that we achieved from the past year — including the announcement of our PEAK Professionals of the Year.
Every month at G2, we award 2 individuals who have driven meaningful business impact while fully embodying our PEAK values. These outstanding individuals, a total of 24 for the year, are nominated by their colleagues, and monthly winners are selected by G2 Leadership.
At the end of every fiscal year, the G2 Global team votes on the list of 24 winners, with ELT casting the final vote to determine the top 3. The top 3 earn the title of PEAK Professionals of the Year.
This year, that honor goes to Monty Robins from our EMEA team, Courtney Raver from our AMER team, and Deepan Kumar from our APAC team. They showed tremendous focus, agility, and ambition, all while living and embodying our PEAK values and navigating the rapid AI transformation of our industry.
We truly believe that Monty, Courtney, and Deepan are some of the best in our business, which is why we wanted to share their insights on how to reach professional goals and how they are using AI to their advantage.
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First Place
Monty Robins |
Any advice for those pursuing, or looking to advance in, a SaaS sales role? Getting a job in sales right now is tough. My best advice is to treat a job application as a sales process. Engage with multiple points of contact in the business, message the team, and check that the culture is right for you. As with prospecting, it's important to stand out for the right reasons in a process. Having sold at various businesses, I learned I much prefer selling to sales and marketing leaders vs. highly technical buyers. It's important as it will significantly change how much you enjoy who you're working with on the customer side. How have you used AI to help you become a PEAK performer? AI has been a fundamental part of my success in the last 12 months. From how I prepare to how I follow up on customer conversations. Leveraging AI at every point possible enables me to better serve my customers and spend more time doing the bits of the job I enjoy, which is talking to them! |
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Second Place
Courtney Raver AMER |
Any advice for those pursuing, or looking to advance in, a SaaS partnership role? Partnerships is, at its core, a relationship-driven field. Invest in your network before you need it. Attend industry events, engage authentically on LinkedIn, and don't be afraid to reach out to people doing the work you aspire to do. Most opportunities in this space are won through trust and connection, not just an application portal. The mindset I'd encourage you to develop is what I call being a WIFM expert — What's In It For Me. Understand what motivates your internal teammates so you can build programs they'll champion. Understand what success looks like for your partners so you can spot opportunities that create real, mutual value. When you train yourself to think through the lens of the other person, you stop being just a relationship manager and start becoming a true strategic asset. How have you used AI to help you become a PEAK performer? AI has made me a sharper communicator and a more prepared partner. I've leaned into AI to pressure-test messaging, anticipate objections, and walk into important conversations with my thinking fully developed. One of the biggest game changers has been using AI to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. AI helps me surface what I may have missed. In a role where follow-through can make or break a relationship, that's huge. I've also built basic automations to manage co-sell relationships, scheduling partner meetings, and auto-generating agendas. Tasks that used to eat up my day. Ultimately, PEAK performance is about showing up fully for your team, your partners, and your goals. AI helps me do that more consistently. |
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Third Place
Deepan Kumar APAC Principal Engineer |
Any advice for those pursuing, or looking to advance in, SaaS engineering? Be strong in the basics. Understand how your systems work under the hood and know your frameworks well. That foundation never goes out of style, and it's what lets you debug the hard problems, design scalable solutions, and hold your own in architecture discussions when something breaks in production. But what really accelerated my growth was going wide — thinking beyond just my code and starting to influence how the team works, how we make technical choices, and how engineering connects to the bigger picture. Ship things that matter, not just things that are interesting. It's tempting to chase the shiniest technology. What sets you apart is the ability to identify what moves the needle, whether that's reducing friction for users, improving team velocity, or simplifying a system that's grown too complex. Impact over novelty. How have you used AI to help you become a PEAK performer? AI has fundamentally changed how I operate as an engineer. Not by replacing what I do, but by removing the friction around it. Instead of context-switching between a dozen tools and dashboards, AI brings the right information to me at the right time. AI handles the repetitive, high-effort, low-creativity parts of my work like boilerplate code, test scaffolding, data lookups, and status reports. What excites me most is that this isn't just personal productivity. I've been able to share these AI-driven workflows with my team, raising the bar for everyone, not just myself. My advice to anyone: start small. Use AI to speed up one thing you do every day and then keep pushing the boundary. The compound effect is massive. |
Monty, Courtney, and Deepan represent the very best of G2. They perform at the highest levels and set ambitious goals — all while maintaining authenticity and professionalism and doing so with kindness and a collaborative spirit. We are lucky and grateful to have them as part of our global G2 work community.
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