1 min lesson
Disarm the skeptic before they fire
Answer this as if it were happening now: "You have a 15-minute slot with the CTO and CFO together to present the business case. How do you structure it?" Say what supports your choice.
Step 1 of 2
Disarm the skeptic before they fire
On a technical, low-process buyer, the objections are predictable. Raise them yourself - it reads as confidence and steals the skeptic's ammunition.
- "Will it actually get adopted?"
- Show POC active-usage data and name your rollout/enablement plan
- "Is our code safe?"
- Bring the data-handling and privacy answer before Security asks; offer to loop them in early
- "Isn't this just Copilot?"
- Position honestly on codebase context and Agent; concede where a competitor is fine and win on the difference
- "What if the model's wrong?"
- Name the guardrails - review stays in the loop; you're augmenting engineers, not replacing judgment
In the mock pitch round, open with their outcome and a single number, not "let me show you Cursor." Then run pain → impact → proof → ask in under five minutes and close on a dated next step. Interviewers at a flat, low-process company are screening for someone who can drive a decision without a playbook holding their hand - a crisp arc and a real ask is the signal.
Ending on "let me know if you have questions" is how deals die. Always close on a specific next step and a decision date. A meeting with no agreed action is a meeting you'll be chasing for a month.