Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)
Aug 15, 2026 · 37 min · 14 segments
Every leader eventually faces a moment when the numbers stop making sense. For **Amit Bendov**, Co-Founder and CEO of Gong, that moment came during what he calls **"the quarter from hell."** Sales…
Everything was going well and then all of a sudden I'm getting the quarter from hell.
You look bad in the eyes of the investors who just paid a generous valuation in the company.
I meet Bindop as the co-founder and CEO of Gong, the AI powered revenue platform that has grown to more than 500 million in annual recurring revenue.
That was like when it dawned on me, how hard would it be for AI to understand customers better than salespeople? Automatically capture information from customer interactions.
meetings video from voice from emails and tell us what's happening with every deal and guide the rep so they can succeed
what you faced 10 years ago how much money could you have saved if you had a gong type solution in that moment oh man did you have to remind me of that quarter Welcome back to Lead the Team.
I'm your host, Ben Fanning, and this conversation that you're going to hear is meant to challenge, inspire, and ripple out.
Amit, you've scaled three separate startups into multi-billion dollar unicorns with Gong recently crossing 500 million in ARR.
But I understand that the spark for this entire empire came from a painful quarter at a previous company where the data looked fine, but you couldn't get a straight answer as to why you were losing.
Looking back, what did that brutal moment teach you about blind spots and leadership?
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Everything was going well and then all of a sudden I'm getting the quarter from hell.
You look bad in the eyes of the investors who just paid a generous valuation in the company.
I meet Bindop as the co-founder and CEO of Gong, the AI powered revenue platform that has grown to more than 500 million in annual recurring revenue.
That was like when it dawned on me, how hard would it be for AI to understand customers better than salespeople? Automatically capture information from customer interactions.
meetings video from voice from emails and tell us what's happening with every deal and guide the rep so they can succeed
what you faced 10 years ago how much money could you have saved if you had a gong type solution in that moment oh man did you have to remind me of that quarter Welcome back to Lead the Team.
I'm your host, Ben Fanning, and this conversation that you're going to hear is meant to challenge, inspire, and ripple out.
Amit, you've scaled three separate startups into multi-billion dollar unicorns with Gong recently crossing 500 million in ARR.
But I understand that the spark for this entire empire came from a painful quarter at a previous company where the data looked fine, but you couldn't get a straight answer as to why you were losing.
Looking back, what did that brutal moment teach you about blind spots and leadership?
