The FDE Playbook for AI Startups with Bob McGrew

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Bob McGrew helped build some of the most influential technologies of the past two decades. Bob was an early engineer at PayPal, an early executive at Palantir and was recently Chief Research Officer at OpenAI – where he led the development of ChatGPT, GPT-4 and the o1 reasoning model.

During his time at Palantir he was a pioneer of the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model, a strategy that is at the heart of the AI boom today. On this episode of The Lightcone, he explains how FDEs became central to today’s startups, why “doing things that don’t scale at scale” works, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for founders working in AI.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

Chapters:
00:29 – From PayPal to Palantir to OpenAI
02:19 – The Role of a Forward Deployed Engineer
03:19 – How Palantir Invented It
07:56 – Product Discovery in the Field vs. Sales
09:51 – Echo and Delta Teams Explained
13:34 – Training Ground for Founders
14:35 – Consulting or Real Software?
17:54 – The Birth of Palantir’s Ontology
23:04 – Why AI Companies Adopt It
36:17 – What Success Metrics Look Like
41:14 – Building with Demo-Driven Development
44:56 – Joining the US Army Reserve
47:43 – Opportunities for Founders

From: Y Combinator

Date: September 8, 2025

30 thoughts on “The FDE Playbook for AI Startups with Bob McGrew”

So we basically changed the name of a Sales Engineer or Solutions Consultant to FDE? Bc this has been around forever.

kinda mind blown by how simple this is

isnt this what we already do as devs?? lol kinda silly slapping the term FDE on it and pretending this is somehting new

i had no idea about the fde stuff

Bob's talk about understanding customer needs is what Rumora excels at-getting our brand noticed by the right people at the right time.

can we get more videos like this pls

@14:15 – insert Claude Code

TL;DR 💡
The forward deployed engineer (FDE) model, pioneered at Palantir, is now crucial for AI startups due to the need for deep product discovery and customization within diverse enterprise environments.

💡 Key Points
– FDEs embed with customers to tailor products, bridging gaps between generic software and specific user needs. 🛠
– Palantir invented the FDE model to handle diverse, complex government use cases where no single product fits all. 🏛
– FDE teams include domain-savvy analysts (echo team) and rapid prototyping engineers (delta team), resembling startup founders. 🚀
– The product team generalizes FDE insights into scalable features, balancing customization and maintainability. ⚙
– AI startups adopt the FDE model because AI agents lack incumbents and require ongoing discovery, making outcome-based pricing essential. 💡

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