In this episode, James Kaikis (Co-Founder, PreSales Collective; Founder, GTM Shift) joins Adam + Todd to unpack the rise of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) and what it signals for the future of presales: a world where proof beats polish, and the teams that win are the ones who can show it working—fast.
We get into:
What an FDE actually is (and why it’s not as “new” as it sounds)
The real driver behind the trend: the burden of proof and collapsing trust
Why the “harbor cruise” demo needs an upgrade
How AI is accelerating skepticism (and why “see it to believe it” is the new default)
A practical approach for leaders: start with jobs-to-be-done + small experiments, not a massive org redesign
Two PreSales in a Pod