Fitzpatrick: Palantir uniquely foresaw the necessity of forward-deployed engineering
Matt Fitzpatrick · Matt Fitzpatrick: Who Wins the Data Labelling Race & Why Al Needs Forward-Deployed Engineers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Dec 31, 2025 · at 49:17
Matt Fitzpatrick, CEO of Invisible Technologies, explains why he respects Palantir most among enterprise AI competitors, citing their early commitment to forward-deployed engineering when tech services were disdained.
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“I think I call out Palantir because I think they realized 10 years before the rest of the kind of tech market that forward-deployed engineering and customization would be important, and I think that was a very countercultural leap at the time. You know, I, cause I, look, I mean, I spent a lot of time running forward-deployed engineering teams and most of what I saw with players like Accenture, that was not a, like, What was called tech services back then was not a place that anyone wanted to play in, and so Palantir spent a decade before anyone realized it was important building good tech, right? And so I have a ton of respect for that and the culture they built out of that.”
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