Author
Antoine Buteau

Antoine Buteau

Profile 8 min read Free

Lessons from Mike Mentzer

Mike Mentzer was a pioneering bodybuilder, philosopher, and the architect of the "Heavy Duty" high-intensity training system. By integrating the principles of Objectivism and logic into physical culture, he challenged mainstream fitness dogma and advocated for brief, hyper-intense workouts over endless hours in the gym. His
4 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #10: The Last Mile Is the Market

The Last Mile Is the Market Software companies often talk about the last mile as if it is an unfortunate implementation detail. The product is built. The deal is signed. Now someone has to get the customer live. That framing is backwards in many AI and workflow-heavy markets. The
3 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #9: The Services-to-Software Conversion Rate

The Services-to-Software Conversion Rate The most important metric in a forward-deployed company is not services revenue. It is not utilization. It is not implementation hours. Those metrics matter, but they do not answer the strategic question: is field work becoming software leverage? The core metric is the
3 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #8: Where Forward Deployment Reports

Where Forward Deployment Reports Org design decides what forward deployment becomes. Put it under Sales, and it may become deal support. Put it under Customer Success, and it may become implementation and retention support. Put it under Product, and it may become field discovery and productization. Put it under Services,
3 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #7: Pricing and Packaging the Forward-Deployed Company

Pricing and Packaging the Forward-Deployed Company The forward-deployed company has a pricing problem: it is selling software, learning, implementation, trust, and sometimes outcomes at the same time. If it prices everything like software, it hides services cost and teaches sales that human labor is free. If it prices
3 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #6: Customer Selection Is the Strategy

Customer Selection Is the Strategy Forward-deployed companies do not just sell to customers. They learn from customers. That makes customer selection more important than in a normal software motion. A bad-fit customer is not merely a difficult account. It can teach the product the wrong lessons, consume scarce
3 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #5: Domain Experts Are Product Infrastructure

Domain Experts Are Product Infrastructure AI makes domain experts more important, not less. This is easy to miss because AI demos often imply that expertise has been compressed into the model. Ask the tool a technical question, get a plausible answer, move faster. For broad knowledge work, that can feel
4 min read Free

Forward-Deployed Company Series #4: How Not to Become Accenture

How Not to Become Accenture The forward-deployed model has a dark side: it can become body-shopping with a product demo attached. The slide says “strategic services.” The reality is custom work, weak repeatability, vague scopes, overloaded deployment leads, and a product roadmap quietly captured by whoever pays the
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