Why I Wanted to Work at G2: Reflections from G2’s VP of Security Market Research

There are a lot of reasons anyone looks for a new job. Usually it's for financial reasons. I can say with all honesty that my desire to work at G2 was not financially motivated. Not that it’s not a great company with solid finances and great benefits, but G2 has a higher purpose and lots of really valuable data and insights. That's what immediately drew me to work for this company.

G2 is giving the B2B software market exactly what it needs: honest end user reviews.
What is the first thing that we do when we want to “know” about something today? If we want to know what the best restaurant is in an area we jump on Yelp. If we are looking for information on technology for our homes we go to CNET or a Google review. I love golf and am always on GolfNow to learn which courses have the setup and playability that I prefer.

So, why are those applications so valuable to us? It’s the data, reviews, information, and end user statements that we covet to help us make the decisions with where we spend our hard earned money. G2 is doing the same thing and providing that valuable data, insights, and honest reviews — but for enterprise software. In my opinion, this is exactly what the industry needs, and I am glad to be on board to help that vision come to life in the security space.

The security space needs to be shaken up.
The growth of zero trust is a market initiative that has done a lot to shake the foundations of the old failed security model and is finally upending the way we collectively address security strategically. But the time has come for organizations to now begin to move even further into strategic technology selection for security operations. Beyond this, the analyst relations space in security needs to be turned on its head. For too long, major companies, big organizations, and vendors have been in the driver's seat and have been maneuvering the “review” and analysis market for security software with outdated and biased processes.

For years, I have been reading research and publications from vendors in large organizations touting their solutions as the “best of breed” for whatever the current problem is. In that same time, I have read a variety of publications and seen commentary from experts talking about the need for insights from end users and small and midsize businesses. But those insights and that data has not been present in the market because of the legacy analyst and vendor relationships. The analyst community has been doing its best to make educated guesses about the different aspects of security that end users are actually focused on, but it’s been g an uphill battle against the entrenched vendor analyst relations cabal.

G2 is uniquely positioned to lead this change with its security category, vendor, and product insights.
The data that is needed to level the playing field for analysts, vendors, and enterprises will be made into digestible content now that G2 has a focused security offering. Going forward, we will make those data and insights more accessible in a curated, managed, and analyzed format that will fundamentally change the space.

G2 has the data that will fuel the future of analysis in security. G2 has the insights from the tens of thousands of end user reviews, thoughts, and survey responses to help the market better understand the needs and solutions that are in use by end users and organizations across the globe. As we roll out these insights in a more formalized way, the security research team at G2 will guide the market by providing deep, data-driven insights from those who are doing the work and putting the time in on the keyboard and in the boardroom.

Things are about to change, and G2 is going to lead that change.