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EP 40Jul 20, 2026· 6 min

Forward Deployed — Real or Buzzword?

0:000:00↓ MP3
Separating what's new about FDEs from what's just repackaged.

FDE is on every job posting and triggering half the industry. Nate and Ava separate what's genuinely new about Forward Deployed Engineers from what's repackaged.

What Nate and Ava discuss

  • Outcome-based selling: deliver first, contract after the KPIs hit
  • The failure mode — expensive bodies firefighting a walled-off pilot
  • Why the org design (inject, extract, hand off) is the actual hard part

The move

If you're standing up FDEs, get ruthless about the org design before the title: where the role gets injected, how it gets extracted, and who it hands off to.


🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales

📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call

Your hosts

Nate Hargrove

Nate Hargrove
The Seasoned Pragmatist

Ava Vasquez

Ava Vasquez
The Modern Builder

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