The FDE Playbook for AI Startups with Bob McGrew

In this episode of The Light Comb, Bob McGrew, formerly Chief Research Officer at OpenAI and an early executive at Palantir, discusses the Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model, which originated at Palantir and is now gaining traction among AI agent startups. McGrew explains that an FDE is an engineer who works at the customer site, bridging the gap between the product's capabilities and the customer's needs by acting as product discovery. He details Palantir's structure with Echo (embedded analysts) and Delta (deployed engineers) teams, emphasizing the importance of hiring domain expert "heretics" for the Echo team and prototyping-focused engineers for the Delta team. The conversation covers how the FDE model differs from traditional consulting, the necessity of product teams to generalize customer-specific solutions, and strategies for pricing and securing executive buy-in. McGrew also shares his new role with the U.S. Army Reserve, drawing parallels between the FDE strategy and advising the Army on technology adoption, and identifies opportunities for startups to bridge the gap between AI capabilities and real-world adoption.