Dear SaaStr: Should I Hire More FDEs or CSMs for Our AI Agent Product?
In the AI B2B space, deployment is the new bottleneck. This article explores whether founders should prioritize hiring Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) or Customer Success Managers (CSMs) based on their current operational constraints.
Dear SaaStr: Should I Hire More FDEs or CSMs for Our AI Agent Product?
That depends entirely on where your bottleneck actually is right now.
In AI B2B, deployment is the new constraint — not retention.
If customers are signing but not going live, or they’re live but underperforming, you need FDEs. If customers are live and hitting their targets but starting to churn because nobody’s checking in on them, you need CSMs.
The real issue most founders miss: They scale sales aggressively, then wonder why churn is brutal. The answer is almost always that they starved the implementation team.
For an AI SDR product specifically, here’s my framework:
Hire FDEs first if:
- Deals are closing but time-to-value is long (agents aren’t productive for 60+ days)
- Customers are training agents themselves and getting 40-50% of potential performance
- You’re seeing silent churn — customers sign, go quiet, disappear
- Your NPS is being dragged down by “couldn’t get it working” feedback
Hire CSMs if:
- Your agents are already live and performing for most customers
- Churn is happening at renewal despite successful deployments
- You have predictable, repeatable onboarding that doesn’t require customization
- Most customers hit their goals in the first 30-60 days
What I’d actually recommend: Don’t choose. Sequence it. Get one really strong FDE embedded with your top 3-5 customers. Document what they do. Systematize the training. Then hire CSMs to maintain those relationships at scale.
The worst outcome? Massively scaling CS before deployment is solved. You’re just hiring people to manage unhappy customers.
Source: SaaStr
