CIENCE was winning software awards before we became a software-first company: and that paradox is the most honest part of our transformation story.
From Thomas Cornelius, Founder & CEO, graph8 (formerly Founder, CIENCE): "Most companies treat go-to-market as a staffing problem. The question isn't how many people are working the pipeline: it's whether those people have the right system underneath them. Software awards don't lie: the tools were ready before most teams knew how to use them together."
Last Refreshed: March 2026: Updated with graph8 transformation context, Forward Deployed Engineer model, and current pricing.
SourceForge, the world's largest software review platform serving nearly thirty million users monthly, honored CIENCE with the Fall 2022 Leader award. Both GO Data: our 300M+ record sales intelligence platform: and GO Digital: our programmatic ad targeting platform: placed in the top 5% of favorably reviewed products across the entire SourceForge directory.
We were a services company that happened to build award-winning software. The graph8 transformation flipped that equation.
What Leading in Software Reviews Taught Us
The Fall 2022 SourceForge win revealed a tension that most companies try to hide: our software was excellent, but our business model was still built around people.
GO Data had over 300 million validated B2B records. Users called it "powerful" and "a game-changer for prospect generation." GO Digital's programmatic targeting got praised for filters that competitors couldn't match. But both products were being sold as add-ons to our core business: outsourced SDR teams.
The reviews told us the software could stand on its own. The P&L told us it wasn't designed to. We had built award-winning tools and then staffed hundreds of people around them instead of letting the technology do what technology does best: scale without linear cost increases.
That disconnect: great software trapped inside a services wrapper: became the central problem graph8 was built to solve.
"GO Data has really helped us in prospect generation, greatly exceeding our expectations.": Meadow H., verified SourceForge reviewer
Does This Sound Familiar?
You've probably experienced a version of this yourself, just from the buyer's side. You bought a data platform. It's good. You bought an ad management tool. It works. You've maybe even added intent data and a sequencing platform.
Each tool does its job. Your outbound results are still flat.
The pattern is predictable: you buy tools that earn great reviews, hand them to your sales development team, and expect the team to make them sing together. But your SDRs aren't platform engineers. They're not going to connect your data signals to your ad targeting to your outreach sequencing in real time. They're going to use each tool in isolation, toggle between tabs, and produce results that reflect the gap between the tools: not the power of any single one.
You're buying best-in-class components and assembling them into a mediocre system. CIENCE has served 2,500+ clients across 250+ industries: and this is the most common pattern we see at every company size.
You don't need better tools. You need someone who knows how to make the ones you have work together.
"CIENCE created a scalable, predictable pipeline: we generated 4,000+ leads in just four months.": August Ash
From People to Platform
CIENCE is now part of graph8, and the SourceForge-winning products sit at the core of the transformation. graph8 was built on a single thesis: go-to-market should be an engineering discipline, not a staffing exercise wrapped in software.
The model centers on Forward Deployed Engineers: a concept borrowed from Palantir's approach to defense and intelligence. Palantir doesn't sell software licenses and walk away. They embed engineers who understand both the technology and the operational reality. graph8's Forward Deployed Engineers for GTM work the same way.
What changed for GO Data and GO Digital under graph8:
- GO Data went from "a database clients search" to "a targeting engine that Forward Deployed Engineers operate." Your FDE maps your ICP, builds dynamic audiences across firmographic, technographic, and intent signals, and connects targeting directly to outreach: updated continuously, not quarterly.
- GO Digital went from "an ad platform clients manage" to "a coordinated demand generation channel." Ads fire based on buyer behavior signals, not manual schedules. And they're synchronized with email and LinkedIn outreach through the same graph8 system.
The result isn't just better tool usage. It's a fundamentally different GTM architecture. Clients regularly see cost-per-meeting drop 40 to 60% within the first two quarters. New campaigns deploy in days. And the system compounds over time: learning from every interaction.
Why This Matters Now
Fall 2022 was the season when CIENCE was leading in software reviews while the leadership team was already asking: "What if we stopped being a services company that sells software and became a software company that deploys engineers?"
In 2026, that question has been answered. graph8's Forward Deployed Engineers take the same platforms that won SourceForge awards and run them as a single, integrated GTM system: purpose-built for each client's market, continuously optimized, and priced at a fraction of what an outsourced SDR team costs.
Engagements start at $5K one-time setup + $2,499/mo managed, with the graph8 platform at $499/mo. The software is still award-winning. The difference is that now it's run by engineers instead of staffing.
"Working with CIENCE increased our monthly appointments by over 500%.": Silicon Valley Insight, IT Services
FAQ
What was the SourceForge Fall 2022 Leader award? SourceForge honors products in the top 5% of user reviews with the Leader designation. CIENCE GO Data (300M+ validated B2B records) and GO Digital (programmatic ad targeting) both earned this recognition from SourceForge's nearly thirty million monthly users.
How do GO Data and GO Digital work under graph8? Instead of functioning as standalone SaaS products, GO Data and GO Digital are now operated by Forward Deployed Engineers as part of an integrated GTM system. Engineers map targeting, orchestrate multi-channel outreach, and optimize in real time: delivering compounding results instead of linear ones.
What is a Forward Deployed Engineer for GTM? Modeled on Palantir's FDE model, graph8's Forward Deployed Engineers are technical operators who build, deploy, and continuously tune your go-to-market system: connecting data, ads, outreach, and conversion optimization into a single pipeline engine.
The SourceForge award proved the products. graph8 runs them as the system. CIENCE delivers the outcome.