YC partners say AI founders are closing huge deals fast by taking a page out of Palantir’s early playbook

Some AI founders are landing big enterprise deals by doing something old-school: showing up, writing code, and building the perfect demo — fast.

YC partners say this strategy is taking off, and it’s straight out of Palantir’s early playbook.

Startup founders should see themselves as “forward-deployed engineers,” said Garry Tan, YC’s CEO, on an episode of the “Y Combinator” podcast published Friday.

The term, popularized by Palantir, refers to engineers who embed…