Asher Mathew

CEO at Partnership Leaders | Helping partnership and business leaders build modern businesses through partnerships

Join Partnership Leaders at www.partnershipleaders.com

Co-Founder & CEO

Joined full time in Feb 2023

Partnership Leaders is a private network built to elevate the role of partner teams in their companies. Partnership Leaders is the only organization designed exclusively to enable the success of 1,500+ of the world’s top partner professionals.

Apply at www.partnershipleaders.com

Preparing CROs & CEOs for the future of B2B SaaS | GTMshift | CRO Functional Head @ Pavilion | Former CRO | Co-Founder @ PreSales Collective (Acquired) | Breaking The GTM Playbook |

I’ve always been fascinated by what makes a great customer experience—not just good, but truly memorable. My interest piqued while working in hospitality at Hyatt, where I learned how small details could turn a routine interaction into something special. 

That same obsession led me to tech, where I learned to scale exceptional experiences across sales and GTM teams at Showpad and Salesforce.

Then in 2020, I saw an even bigger opportunity—the need for a real community in PreSales. So I built one.

The PreSales Collective started as a simple idea and grew into a global movement with 35,000+ members, four business lines, and a full-time team dedicated to elevating the profession. In 2021, it was acquired, a milestone that cemented just how powerful community can be in shaping an industry.

Now, at TestBox, I’m taking that same passion for innovation and connection and applying it to how businesses evaluate software. The B2B buying experience is broken: endless sales cycles, generic demos, and a lack of real hands-on experience before making a decision. TestBox is changing that by enabling buyers to test-drive software in live, pre-configured environments before they buy, leading to better, faster, and more confident decisions. 

We’re redefining the way companies purchase technology, making the process easier, more transparent, and built for today’s fast-moving GTM teams.

Outside of work, you’ll find me traveling, hunting for the best new restaurant, or diving into a new challenge—whether it’s fitness, an unfamiliar experience, or a tough problem that needs solving. I believe the best insights come from staying curious and never getting too comfortable, and that’s how I approach everything I do.

James Kaikis

This is a long time coming.... I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Co-Founder at SolutionExec!

This announcement reminds me of an important moment.

Rewinding back to March 2020, when the pandemic turned our world upside down, Yuji and I decided to launch PSC months earlier than planned; as the world moved to remote work, it was clear we could step in to fill a void.

Over those few years, I have never been more professionally satisfied. The impact the business had on the entire profession, across the WORLD, was a dream.

When I left the business, I was chasing validation. I felt I needed to be a Head of GTM and CRO in a VC-backed business to complete my experience. I learned that I was a great fit for that type of role in today's GTM; however, the role felt empty.

Jeff Margolese has been more than a mentor to me for years; he has become a friend. He is surely someone I admire and look up to. Jeff and I have discussed ideas to serve the profession for years, and we decided to go for it.

I am SO PROUD to bring you SolutionExec, a private, executive-level network built specifically for senior Solutions leaders because the role of the Solution executive has fundamentally changed. Yet the support structures around it have not kept pace.

We are here to change that.

Please join us on this incredible journey ahead. I will be sharing more over the coming weeks, but I have four actions for you to take immediately:
- Stay informed by signing up on our website
- Join us on March 4th for our Virtual Kickoff as we bring the brightest minds in the profession together and share our vision for SolutionExec.
- Watch or listen to our first two podcasts on YouTube
- Subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about our why

There is a major need in the market, and we are here to service it.

2026 might be the most challenging and rewarding year of my career.  
And I’m also going to be a better husband, father, son, brother, and friend than I’ve been in a long time.

How?

As I stepped down from my in-house CRO role in July, I went all-in on entrepreneurship, and I’m bucking the conventional wisdom of focusing on one thing.

Why? Because context switching and thinking on my feet are two of my strengths. 

That said, I can only do this because I’m partnered with trusted operators who share the same values.

Here’s what I’m building:

GTMshift - Media Company
- Monthly Newsletter (via substack)
- Interview Series (via YouTube)
- Keynote Presentations 
- Brand Partnerships 
- Consulting & Advising Services (w/select companies) 
- Upcoming: In-Person Events (Looking at you The Transaction - Craig Rosenberg, Matt Amundson, and Jorge Soto)

AI Revenue Studio with Jody Geiger - Professional Development & Enablement Workshops
- Revenue Drivers
- Revenue Owners 
- AI-Powered Solutions Engineer Workshop w/David Maloof 
- Company Custom Workshops & Trainings

One more I’ll share around Jan 21 - Private Network
- Newsletter
- Podcast
- Virtual & In-Person Events

This is the path to very meaningful work, but the only way this is successful is if I run it like a system: clear priorities, a tight calendar, and real boundaries.

I still sign off at 6pm most days to be with my family. And yes, I’ll occasionally take a long day when it matters.

Thank you to everyone who’s supported me along the way.

Most people still don’t understand the Forward-Deployed Engineer. They need to.

Because no matter your role in GTM, this motion is becoming one of the clearest signals of where software buying is heading.

In a recent conversation with Jeff Margolese, GVP of Solutions Consulting at ServiceNow, he mentioned something that keeps coming up in every enterprise room I’m in:

Customers want to see their problems solved with their data, inside your product, before they ever sign a contract.

Buyers aren’t buying promises anymore. They’re buying proof.

And the sins of our selling past are here to collect their debts.

So where do FDEs fit into all of this?

FDEs are high-context, customer-embedded technical experts who build real workflows, integrations, and lightweight applications directly in or on top of the product.

-They don’t run “better demos.”
- They build actual outcomes.
- In many cases, they even write production-level code.

Think of this role as the intersection of Software Engineer, Solutions Engineer, and Consultant (and, some would argue, what the SE role was meant to be before the function evolved). 

The motion isn’t new, but it’s accelerating. Palantir made it famous, and many modern enterprise companies are adopting versions of it under different names. 

We ran it at my last company, too.

Why should you care?

Because in a world of skeptical buyers and collapsing product moats, proof is a competitive advantage. FDEs create it on day one. It’s another tool in the GTM toolbox that matches how buyers evaluate risk today.

CROs, SEs, Ops - this is a motion worth leaning into.

I’ll drop resources in the comments and cover this in more depth on upcoming podcasts and newsletters.

This looks much cleaner, right?! Head over to GTMshift YouTube to learn from the best in the business.

The crazy AI headlines are EVERYWHERE. Productivity gains ARE real in certain places; however, trust in AI is very low. 

How do we bring our teams along in the journey? 

We need to focus on turning Skeptics into Believers and that is done through reshaping behavior with AI. 

Thank you, ☁️ Cliff Simon and Polaris Ops, for having me on the roadshow.

Did you know Jody Geiger and I teach AI workflow to GTM teams every week?

The most common misconception we run into: Teams think they need “better tools.” They don't. 

They need a workflow that simplifies their day-to-day.

In B2B SaaS, we've severely overcomplicated the actions needed to deliver value. 

What actually moves the needle is boring and specific:
- Pick one revenue moment (outbound, deal progression, expansion)
- Define what “great” looks like
- Use AI to remove the busywork
- Measure the impact
- Repeat 

Jody and I are teaching GTM professionals to think about their work differently - to think in systems and outcomes. 

Minor, but exciting, update on the work behind this:
What started as an idea under the GTMshift brand(AI Sales Studio) is now a standalone business called AI Revenue Studio (do you like the branding?)

Two programs we’re running monthly through June:
- Revenue Drivers: An AI Workshop for Customer-Facing Revenue Roles
- Revenue Owners: Designing an AI-Native Revenue System

For the SEs, we are also partnering with David Maloof to teach "The AI-Powered Solutions Engineer: Boost Discovery, Demos, and Deal Influence". This workshop will run at least in January and March.  

If you are looking to become AI Proficient, lean in. Let's talk! 

If you want the quick brief, we do lightning lessons on Maven. 

Link in the comments.

PS - we are training through open live workshops and custom workshops for businesses. Let's talk!

Let's have some fun this Friday! Can anyone guess what my new business name is? I've left multiple "easter eggs" across different platforms over the past few months.

Also, what type of business do you think it is?

I decided to take a break from my usual "AI is changing GTM" posts for this one.

P.S. Since we're in the spirit of guessing games, does anyone recognize this park? The picture was taken a few days before NYE, when it was 50 degrees, and it even reached the 70s on NYD.

Building a culture of experimentation is the difference between winning and losing right now. 

AI isn’t replacing entire functions (yet), but it does allow you to deconstruct and rethink your work.

How do we put our best people in a position to build trust and deliver value? 

Where can AI take the grunt work tasks?

How do we best apply human in the loop? 

I discussed these items at the Polaris AI Roadshow and shared more of my learnings in my keynote, “The Future of GTM is Customer-Focused & AI-Powered.” 

How are you leaning into building a culture of experimentation?

Marc Andreessen said something that should reset how operators think about 2026: This wave of AI companies isn’t growing on hype. It’s growing on real demand and real dollars hitting bank accounts.

After watching Marc's 2026 Outlook, below are six of my top takeaways that Operators need to be aware of:

1. AI is in hyper-growth mode, with “real revenue” showing up fast
- Marc's saying this wave is different because adoption is immediate and monetization is working. Consumer tiers at $200–$300/month are becoming normal, and enterprise demand is pulling hard because “intelligence” maps directly to business outcomes.

2. We are early, and today’s AI products won’t be what we use in 5–10 years
- Marc is bullish that the current UI and “shape” of AI is temporary. Expect significant shifts in product form factors, sophistication, and how people interact with AI (not just better chat boxes).

3. Costs will fall aggressively, which will expand demand even more
- He argues the “price of AI” is dropping faster than Moore’s Law, and that shortages (GPUs, data centers) will drive massive buildout that turns shortages into gluts. Net: cheaper tokens, more usage, bigger markets.

4. Small models will chase big models fast, and both will coexist
- Pattern: big models push the frontier, then smaller models catch up within 6–12 months and become cheap enough to run locally. Marc expects a pyramid: a few “god models” in giant data centers, plus a massive volume of smaller models everywhere, down to embedded devices.

5. China is a real competitor, and open source is a geopolitical lever
- Marc frames AI as a two-horse race: US vs China. The surprise is not just capability, but China releasing strong models as open source, which accelerates diffusion and puts pressure on the US to avoid self-inflicted regulatory damage.
State-level regulation is a near-term risk to US competitiveness.

6. Marc is less worried about federal AI legislation than a messy patchwork of state laws (he cites ~1200 bills). The key fear: laws that assign downstream liability to open-source developers, which would chill open source and research. He expects the US to move toward a federal solution, but it has to happen.

https://lnkd.in/gqH_4fp5

Open video: Marc Andreessen's 2026 Outlook: AI Timelines, US vs. China, and The Price of AI on youtube.com

Marc Andreessen's 2026 Outlook: AI Timelines, US vs. China, and The Price of AI

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The Battle

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James Kaikis

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}James Kaikis's LinkedIn Performance

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