2 min lesson
Running pilots / POCs to expansion
Make the call in this situation: "An engineering team asks to keep using Cursor in an open-ended free pilot for 'a while longer' before deciding. How do you respond?" Explain what supports it.
Step 1 of 3
The pilot is where a Cursor enterprise deal is won or quietly lost. Run it well and you have data the economic buyer can't argue with. Run it loosely and it drifts until everyone forgets why it started.
Land-and-expand is the core motion here. You land a small, defined footprint, prove value with real numbers, then grow team by team off that evidence. The discipline that makes it work is set before the pilot ever starts.
Interactive diagram. Step through it with the Next and Previous controls below, or Tab to a region to read its detail.
Land small, instrument it and pass through two gates - the agreed trigger, then the buyer read-out - before you expand.
Learn more
Full explanation
Running pilots / POCs to expansion
Sales Engineering is your partner through all of this, not a resource you borrow for the demo. They instrument the pilot, interpret the data and lend technical credibility when the platform team pushes hard. The AE owns the commercial frame; the SE owns the technical proof. You run the pilot together.