a16z picks 65 inaugural FDE fellows from thousands of applicants
a16z · x · 2026-07-23
a16z names 65 inaugural Forward Deployed Engineer fellows
Andreessen Horowitz announced the first class of its Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) fellows.
- 65 people were selected from thousands of applicants
- many are Palantir alumni now building the FDE playbook at AI and infrastructure startups
- the list includes people from Anthropic, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Hex, Snowflake, Decagon, Notion, Ramp, Harvey, Exa, Pylon and others
The cohort highlights how the FDE role has become a recognizable talent pipeline across the AI startup ecosystem.
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