a16z names 65 fellows for its inaugural FDE program
a16z Newsletter · rss · 2026-07-23
a16z announces 65 inaugural FDE fellows
The newsletter introduces the first cohort of the a16z Forward Deployed Engineer Fellowship, an 8-week program for FDEs and applied AI leaders working on real enterprise deployments.
Key points:
- Thousands of applications were received globally
- 65 fellows were selected for the inaugural cohort
- Participants include people leading FDE work at companies such as OpenAI, Mistral, Cognition, HappyRobot, Poetic, and Decagon
- Many fellows are Palantir alumni or builders behind fast-growing applied AI startups like Hex, Anthropic, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Kepler, Notion, Ramp, Harvey, Nixo, Stuut, Strala, Saronic, Pylon, Netic, Exa, and Spade
The post is essentially a snapshot of the growing forward-deployed engineering ecosystem around applied AI.
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