Join us in the AI Product Kitchen this week as we talk to Eilon Reshef, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Gong. We dive into topics like building AI products before the current boom and Gong’s journey creating the leading revenue AI platform that's transformed how sales teams operate.

Eilon shares fascinating insights from Gong's 10-year journey, starting when customers were genuinely scared of AI technology, through to building a multi-billion dollar platform that processes millions of sales conversations. As one of the pioneers who saw AI's potential back in 2015 (he even bought NVIDIA stock!), Eilon offers unique perspectives on what it takes to build world-class AI products that customers actually love.

In this episode, we go deep on:

• Building AI Before It Was Cool: How Gong pioneered conversation intelligence when buyers were skeptical of AI, and the strategies they used to overcome early market resistance.
• The Design Partner Philosophy: Eilon's extreme approach to customer collaboration, where every PM works with a dozen design partners to iterate rapidly and ensure product-market fit before launch - his "secret sauce" for building AI products that provide real value.
• AI Augmentation vs Replacement: Why Gong deliberately chose to augment rather than replace salespeople, and Eilon's contrarian view on why the obsession with AI SDRs and replacement technology misses the bigger opportunity.
• From Single Feature to AI Platform: The strategic journey from simple call recording to a comprehensive revenue orchestration platform, including lessons on when to expand beyond your initial wedge and how to build defensible moats in AI.
• Measuring AI Product ROI: Practical approaches to demonstrating value from AI products, from talk ratio insights that became viral LinkedIn posts to building multiple value propositions tailored to different stakeholders (productivity, predictability, growth).

Here's how to connect with us:

• Find Eilon on LinkedIn
• Follow Matt on LinedIn and X
• Learn more about Gong
• And make sure to check out Sauce AI and follow us on LinkedIn!

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introducing Eilon Reshef 

02:15 - Building AI Before It Was Hot

04:45 - Early AI Conviction and NVIDIA Investment

07:20 - The Inefficiency Problem in Sales Organizations

09:50 - Meeting Bots and Customer Fear

12:30 - Overcoming Early AI Skepticism

15:10 - Creating the Conversation Intelligence Category

18:25 - Category Creation Strategy and Naming

21:40 - Climbing Everest: Lessons and Mistakes

24:20 - The Power of Design Partners

27:45 - Design Partner Execution and Rituals

31:10 - Talk Ratio: The First Breakthrough Insight

34:30 - Big Brother Problem and Seller Value Creation

38:15 - One-Click Call Sharing Product Loop

41:00 - Expanding Beyond Single Product

44:20 - Measuring AI Product ROI

47:35 - Killing Products: Talk Tracks Feature

50:45 - Augmentation vs Replacement Philosophy

54:10 - Revenue Orchestration Platform Vision

57:25 - Building Product Moats in AI Era