Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Stauch: Forward-deployed engineers replace legacy software implementation consultants

Jake Stauch · Go hard early: How lessons from Verkada shaped this AI-native IT platform | Jake Stauch (Serval) · Oct 23, 2025 · at 49:49

Jake Stauch, founder and CEO of Serval, discusses why forward-deployed engineering has surged in popularity across modern AI software startups.

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“I think in many ways, what the forward deployed engineer role has actually replaced are the implementation consultants for large organizations, large companies like Workday and ServiceNow and Salesforce that are customizing that software to meet these organizations needs. Now the forward deployed engineer is coming in and doing that for AI products for, you know, startups instead of large enterprise software companies.”

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