The Exchanges

Q Where are you spending money when you are getting new customers? Obviously it sounds like you have an inside sales team. Are you doing any paid?

A Um, we get, um, so obviously we're spending on, on product, right? So product drives, product, uh, It gives you like pricing power, it gives stickiness, uh, and it gets people to talk about too. So that's like, always like, uh, our thinking. Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our, I think our inbound, it's, it's hard to measure exactly, right? Because things are new things that are all like intertwined, but content marketing is like, it's been like very strong for us, especially on social media. So we have like, we create, Uh, content is like very different and, and people absolutely love, right? We have like three attributes for content. First, that it's like, it's easy to consume. So not like 13 pages, white papers that nobody wants it to read. Second, it's immediately applicable. It's not some kind of like, you know, bold ideas that you could apply in 20 years. Something I could use right now. You said about those words or things. And three, it is relevant to our, Audience, but only through our audience. Like, you know, it doesn't interest doctors or dentists or beauticians, right? It only interests people. So it's kind of like self-qualifying and that's creating a lot of following. Um, and you drive, not necessarily someone reads the blog post. I mean, I got it by gone, right? But it does over time, it does create like recognition. People say, oh, this is interesting.…

AI assessment note: “Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our, I think our inbound”

Q Like, are you measuring call volume in the first month? Like, what do you have to get people to do to get them sticky quickly?

A Login. So, so call volume doesn't mean, Gong records the call, so it affects someone recording call doesn't mean that they actually use the product, right? That's what we learned early on. So we, we, we check engagement in, in a number of ways. So how many logins and how many people are logins like, uh, three times a day or four times a day. And, and we, we saw early on that it was a pretty, Pretty engaging. We did some optimization. People, um, were engaged more, and then, like, uh, within five months into the beta, we said, we did a trial close, so everybody, beta is over, time to buy, and 11 out of 12 companies bought.

AI assessment note: “Login. So, so call volume doesn't mean, Gong records the call”

Q Where are you spending money when you are getting new customers? Obviously it sounds like you have an inside sales team. Are you doing any paid?

A Um, we get, um, so obviously we're spending on, on product, right? So product drives, product, uh, It gives you like pricing power, it gives stickiness, uh, and it gets people to talk about too. So that's like, always like our thinking. Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our, I think our inbound, it's, it's hard to measure exactly, right? Because these are new things that are all like intertwined, but content marketing is like, it's been like very strong for us, especially on social media. So we have like, we create, Uh, content is like very different and, and people absolutely love, right? We have like three attributes for content. First, that it's like, it's easy to consume. So not like 13 pages, white papers that nobody wants it to read. Second, it's immediately applicable. It's not some kind of like, you know, bold ideas that you could apply in 20 years. Something I could use right now. You said about those words or things. And three, it is relevant to our, Audience, but only to our audience. Like, you know, it doesn't interest doctors or dentists or beauticians, right? It only interests people. So it's kind of like self-qualifying and that's creating a lot of following. Um, and you drive, not necessarily someone raised the blog post. I mean, I got it by gone, right? But it does over time, it does create like recognition. People say, oh, this is interesting. Who's tha…

AI assessment note: “Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our... content marketing”

Q Help me understand adoption inside these 1500 customers. How many total reps are using the platform across this paid customer base?

A I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000, uh, for tens of thousands for sure. Uh, the adoption is, is fantastic. And the dog is also unique. You're like in something like almost like bizarre. Uh, our net promoter score is, is seven to two right now. Uh, which work for people that don't know what it means. It's like, uh, net promoter scores, we can be like a minus a hundreds to plus 100. Um, and the iPhone when it was launched was at 66, right? And that's the, that's probably the most successful consumer product that you can think of. Dong is rated higher, which is an anomaly for an enterprise software product, right? It's not, usually it's not something people get so excited, but it is like a consumer level Um, excitement, and that, that helps drive it a little.

AI assessment note: “I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000”

Q So, so, break, um, with that sort of understanding, obviously, the, the growth has also been impressive in terms of just valuation, also customer growth over the past two, three years. Um, help me understand how your team has changed over that time period. So, you told me you had 50, just 52, uh, folks on the team back in early 2018. What are you at today?

A Uh, close to 300, I think three 30. It changes by the day. So yeah, about 330 people. Um, we have been like pretty cash efficient, uh, largely, uh, because of the product strength and which drives like strong unit economics. So we haven't even touched, we're still running on a series B money, right? We, we raised the series B. We did not start touching, um, The Serious, uh, Serious C money we raised in December, and we still have a pretty long way to go with a Serious B, right? So we've been, like, pretty efficient in how we got to, like, uh, 2.2 valuation, right? Which reflects, kind of, like, different roles that are still ahead of us with, like, very low gaps. So, um, the team is actually, like, um, I mean, definitely grew substantially, um, compared to, Uh, 217 or whatever, whenever we spoke back then, but, uh, we've been pretty, pretty efficient and never got, never had to go crazy.

AI assessment note: “close to 300, I think three 30. It changes by the day. So yeah, about 330”

Q Help me understand adoption inside these 1500 customers. How many total reps are using the platform across this paid customer base?

A Um, I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000, uh, for tens of thousands for sure. Uh, the adoption is, is fantastic. And the dog is also unique in like, in something like, almost like bizarre. Uh, our net promoter score is, is seven to two right now. Uh, which for, for people that don't know what it means, it's like, uh, net promoter scores, we can be like a minus a hundreds to plus 100. Um, and the iPhone when it was launched was at 66, right? And that's, that's probably the most successful consumer product that you can think of. Dong is rated higher, which is an anomaly for an enterprise software product, right? It's not, usually it's not something people get so excited, but it is like a consumer level Um, excitement, and that, that helps drive it a little.

AI assessment note: “I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000”

Q Where are you spending money when you are getting new customers? Obviously it sounds like you have an inside sales team. Are you doing any paid?

A Um, we get, um, so obviously we're spending on, on Right? So product drives. Product, uh, gives you, like, pricing power. It gives stickiness, uh, and it gets people to talk about too. So that's like, always like, uh, our thinking. Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our, I think our inbound is, it's hard to measure exactly, right? Because things are new things like are all like intertwined, but content marketing is like, it's been like very strong for us, especially on social media. So we have like, we create, uh, content is like very different and, and people absolutely love, right? We have like three attributes for content first, but it's like, It's easy to consume. So not like 13 pages white papers that nobody wants it to read. Second, it's immediately applicable. It's not some kind of like, you know, bold ideas that you could apply in 20 years. Something I could use right now. You said about those words or things. And three, it is relevant to our audience, but only to our audience. Like, you know, it doesn't interest doctors or dentists or beauticians, right? It only interests people. So it's kind of like self-qualifying. And that's creating a lot of following. Um, and it drives, not necessarily someone reads the blog post. I mean, I got it by gone, right? But it does, over time, it does create, like, recognition. People say, oh, this is interesting. Who's that compan…

AI assessment note: “Second, we do some paid ads. Um, most of our, I think our inbound”

Q like the one that hits quota, you know, you'll say, hey, they use words like, um, your, and you will, and, and, and the one that doesn't hit never uses the word you or your, or, you know, if you pay us, you will get X. Um, this is the obviously unique insight. Now do other sort of Platforms in your space do that, or is that unique to gone?

A I mean, we're not the first to do that. So first they're like in contact centers, they're like technology doing something like, ah, similar. It's like, it's pretty far, but I mean, just the idea of like, um, I get it by which word people are saying that we did not invent that. Um, there is some other platforms that do some of them, like even Zoom has some, you know, transcription capabilities, definitely the CRM has some, some lightweight capabilities. So It'll allow you to, uh, identify what people are saying, right? But not, to my knowledge, that anything that compiles in terms of, like, actionable insights that you could actually use to improve. So, that we're, right now, we're kind of, like, alone, you know, I, you know, probably not staying like that forever.

AI assessment note: “we're not the first to do that... right now, we're kind of, like, alone”

Q Help me understand adoption inside these 1500 customers. How many total reps are using the platform across this paid customer base?

A Um, I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000, uh, for tens of thousands for sure. Uh, the adoption is, is fantastic. And the dog is also unique in, like, in something like, almost like bizarre. Our Net Promoter Score is, is seven to two, right? Now, uh, which for, for people that don't know what it means, it's like, um, Net Promoter Score is, like, minus a hundred to plus 100. Um, and the iPhone when it was launched was at 66, right? And that's, that's probably the most successful consumer product that you can think of. Dong is rated higher, which is an anomaly for an enterprise software product, right? It's not, usually it's not something people get so excited, but it is like a consumer level Um, excitement, and that, that helps drive the road.

AI assessment note: “I think it's, uh, something to the tune of 60,000”

Q Okay, and tell folks that are not familiar with the product. Can you, can you tell a customer story of how they're using it?

A Yeah. So, uh, most of our customers are sales organizations in, in companies with anywhere from 10 to hundreds of salespeople, uh, and they use Gong to understand what's going on in the conversation. Gong listens to sales conversation where people, salespeople are talking with customers, and then It helps salespeople improve their pitch by highlighting areas where they can improve anywhere from becoming better listeners to positioning companies and, uh, and, uh, how to get clear next steps. And it provides managers with insights where people need coaching. Uh, so it shows them like problem calls or great calls or our spots in the areas where, uh, They could coach their teams on and get better and convert more deals.

AI assessment note: “they use Gong to understand what's going on in the conversation”

Q So I asked that very specifically, right, because now I want to dive into that. How on earth do you essentially add 1.5 billion dollars in enterprise value over a six month period when the world is also shutting down?

A Uh, there, there's a number of reasons for that. So we always grew, like, very fast. We almost, like, we always, like, tripled the valuation about the same time. Like, the last round was a significant, like, multiplier. So this is, we're not growing just because of, like, COVID. We, we did pretty well before that. I think we've done well regardless. Uh, but there are a few reasons. First, it does give us, like, some tailwind. Um, and, um, Second, the potential for gone is so, um, infinite that, and now more and more people in the investment community have started to recognize this. And you're looking at something like massive market potential, um, very nice execution and traction, uh, seems to be faring well with the new, um, new normal, right? So, and there aren't a lot of investment opportunities. There's a lot of liquidity and, uh, so there you have it.

AI assessment note: “First, it does give us, like, some tailwind... massive market potential... a lot of liquidity”

Q So I asked that very specifically, right, because now I want to dive into that. How on earth do you essentially add 1.5 billion dollars in enterprise value over a six month period when the world is also shutting down?

A Uh, there, there's a number of reasons for that. So we always grew like very fast. We almost like, we always like tripled the valuation about the same time. Like the last round was a significant like multiplier. So this isn't, we're not growing just because of like COVID. We, we did pretty well before that. I think we've done well regardless. Uh, but there are a few reasons. First, it does give us like some tailwind, um, and, um, Second, the potential for gone is so, um, infinite that, and now more and more people in the investment community are starting to recognize this, and you're looking at something like massive market potential, um, very nice execution and traction, uh, seems to be faring well with the new, um, new normal, right? So, and there aren't a lot of investing opportunities, a lot of liquidity, and, uh, so there you have it.

AI assessment note: “First, it does give us like some tailwind... and now more and more people”

Q So, three X. So, I asked that very specifically, right, because now I want to dive into that. How on earth do you essentially add 1.5 billion dollars in enterprise value over a six month period when the world is also shutting down?

A Uh, there, there's a number of reasons for that. So we always grew like very fast. We almost like, we always like tripled the valuation about the same time. Like the last round was a significant like multiplier. So this isn't, we're not growing just because of like COVID. We, we did pretty well before that. I think we've done well regardless. Uh, but there are a few reasons. First, it does give us like some tailwind. Um, and, um, Second, the potential for gone is so, um, infinite that, and now more and more people in the investment community are starting to recognize this when you're looking at something like massive market potential, um, very nice execution and traction, uh, seems to be faring well with the new, um, new normal, right? So, and there aren't a lot of investment opportunities. There's a lot of liquidity and, uh, so there you have it.

AI assessment note: “First, it does give us like some tailwind... massive market potential, very nice execution”

Q Who would you say you compete with most directly?

A So what Gong does, it's, it's actually for B to B sales, for long sales cycle. Uh, it is, we sell to VP of sales. It is, it is a new space. Okay. We're winning, Okay, because the, the customer experience is, is addictive. People start using it, and it goes viral. Like, just, the toughest thing to adopt new technology is to get the salespeople to adopt the product and to actually use it. Salespeople are pretty picky in what they use, right? Gong, you start the trial, and then it just starts to spread like fire within your organization. People get excited. I mean, just look, I just posted something on LinkedIn today, and you can see the responses. I mean, they're, I love Gong. Gong is insane. It's crazy. That's, That's the response that we're getting, and that's why it does something extremely valuable for salespeople, and the user experience, it's very, very easy to use, and there's nothing that they need to do. They just get insights, and they get information, and they can ask for help. That's why companies bygone. Competition really isn't our problem. It is a new space.

AI assessment note: “Competition really isn't our problem. It is a new space.”