What you learn
How to choose a real problem.
Define the user, job, counterfactual, evaluation bar, governance constraint, and economic discipline before investing in a full AI product build.
GROW by Good Combinator
Course 1: Forward Deployed Engineering Foundations
A free public gateway course for builders turning AI experimentation into measurable value, adopted workflows, and an evaluation rubric that can survive real use.
Free foundations. Paid implementation. Real ecosystem access.
Course status
FreeCourse 1 remains public and ungated for video access.
CourseThe playlist has been converted into a native YouTube Course.
FoundationsDesigned for founders, operators, builders, practitioners, and civic leaders.
YouTube Course
Watch Course 1
This embed uses the YouTube Course playlist, so the lesson order stays aligned with the Good Combinator channel course surface.
Learning outcome
Leave with an implementation plan.
The course is built around one concrete output: a one-page forward deployed engineering plan, a defensible problem definition, and a working evaluation rubric for the first AI workflow.
Courses 2 through 8 move into the paid GROW Skills Library from Good Combinator with implementation templates, labs, office hours, and certification support.
Course frame
What learners get from Course 1
What you build
A practical venture artifact.
Draft a one-page venture plan, the thinnest credible MVP, and a measurable rubric for deciding whether the first AI workflow is ready to ship.
Who it serves
Serious builders and operators.
Founder, operator, builder, practitioner, and civic leader audiences who need applied AI decisions grounded in evidence, cost, trust, and workflow reality.
Lesson path
Course 1 topics
- The economics era of AI and the move from experimentation to value.
- Problem selection and the bar for real workflow adoption.
- Mapping users, jobs, and counterfactuals.
- The thinnest possible AI workflow implementation.
- Evaluation before launch.
- Provenance, trust, compute economics, workflow modeling, governance, commercialization, and the first 90 days.
Next step
Continue into implementation.
Course 1 is intentionally public. The paid GROW Skills Library from Good Combinator carries the advanced courses, templates, worksheets, prompt libraries, playbooks, applied labs, project review, office hours, and certification pathway.
FAQ
Course access and positioning
Is Course 1 free?
Yes. Course 1: Forward Deployed Engineering Foundations is the free public gateway course for GROW by Good Combinator.
Is this linked to the YouTube Course?
Yes. The embedded player uses the YouTube Course playlist ID so the website stays aligned with the course already configured in YouTube Studio.
What do learners build?
Learners work toward a one-page forward deployed engineering plan, a defensible problem definition, and a working evaluation rubric for a first AI workflow.
What comes after Course 1?
Courses 2 through 8 are paid implementation courses inside the GROW Skills Library from Good Combinator, with templates, labs, office hours, project review, and certification support.
Is GROW a separate brand?
No. GROW by Good Combinator is the education vertical. Good Combinator remains the parent authority brand.