Become a Forward Deployed Engineer.
The second cohort of a hands-on 5-weekend course for anyone who wants to sit next to the customer, prototype in hours, and ship real AI-powered systems into production. Taught by Vinod Kumar Bhovi — founder of Databag.ai and EarthEmission, and a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
- No prerequisites. Designed for both coding and non-coding backgrounds — you'll build and ship either way.
- Build your own idea. Bring the app you've always wanted to build — you leave with it live on a real URL, not a demo repo.
The market just moved.
Every major AI lab and consultancy is racing to hire the same role. This isn't a trend piece — it's four newsrooms independently pointing at the same shift.
Demand is up 2,100%. The seats aren't.
Get ahead of it — €299 ↗I'm Vinod — an entrepreneur, trainer and community builder working where AI meets real-world delivery.
I founded two companies — EarthEmission, using AI to measure and reduce emissions, and Databag.ai, building intelligent data tooling. Along the way I've deployed AI products into messy, real customer environments — the same work a Forward Deployed Engineer does every day.
As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, I've taught AI and technology to countless engineers, students and professionals. I also run two YouTube channels and a live podcast where I share what I learn building in public. This cohort distils all of that into 5 focused Saturdays.
Five Saturdays.
One deployable skill.
- 01SAT · OCT 10, 2026The FDE Mindset & Foundations
- 02SAT · OCT 17, 2026Rapid Prototyping with LLMs
- 03SAT · OCT 24, 2026Data, APIs & Integrations
- 04SAT · OCT 31, 2026Deploying to Production
- 05SAT · NOV 7, 2026Discovery, Delivery & Demo Day
What you'll build,
week by week.
Every Saturday combines a short teach, a live build, and a working deliverable — all applied to your own project idea. By the last session you have the app you always wanted to build, deployed yourself, ready to show any hiring team or customer.
The FDE Mindset & Foundations
What Forward Deployed Engineers actually do, how they operate at the seam of product and customer, and the systems-thinking toolkit for messy real-world problems.
- →The FDE role — Palantir, OpenAI & modern variants
- →Reading a customer environment in the first 30 minutes
- →Scoping the smallest useful thing to ship
- →Problem framing, hypothesis-driven work, and “no” as a tool
- →Dev environment & starter kit for the cohort
Rapid Prototyping with LLMs
Go from a customer whiteboard to a working prototype the same afternoon — the core FDE superpower.
- →Prompting patterns that survive production
- →Tool use, function calling & structured outputs
- →Agentic loops without over-engineering
- →Evaluations you can run on a Saturday
- →Live build: prototype from a blank repo → demo in 4 hours
Data, APIs & Integrations
Real customers have messy data and 12 systems. Learn to plug in, transform and expose data cleanly.
- →Modeling messy real-world schemas
- →ETL & lightweight pipelines that actually run
- →Working with REST, GraphQL, webhooks, and MCP servers
- →Auth patterns — API keys, OAuth, service principals
- →Handling PII, secrets, and customer trust
Deploying to Production
Turn the demo into something a customer can rely on — infra, security, observability, and the boring stuff that separates hobby from work.
- →Deploy targets: serverless, containers, App Service, edge (cloud srevices)
- →CI/CD you can hand back to the customer
- →Logs, metrics, tracing & useful alerts
- →Cost, rate limits & fallback strategies
- →Security review checklist for AI features
Discovery, Delivery & Demo Day
The human half of the job — running discovery, managing stakeholders, delivering under pressure, and ending with a live demo of the app you built.
- →Discovery interviews that surface the real problem
- →Roadmap in a room — the FDE facilitation kit
- →Handoff — from FDE prototype to product team
- →Your project demo (each participant presents)
- →Certification & next steps
Everything you need
to ship — nothing you don't.
40 hours of live teaching
Five 8-hour Saturdays with me — small group, real questions, real code, real customers-in-the-room energy.
All sessions recorded
Every Saturday is recorded and shared with you afterwards. Miss a session, rewatch a section, or come back to it after the cohort ends.
The app you always wanted to build
Bring your own idea — the project you've been meaning to start for years. You'll build it across the five Saturdays with my feedback, wire it to real data, and ship it to a live URL. You leave with your app, not a slide deck.
Certificate by Databag
On completion of the cohort and your project demo, you receive a signed Forward Deployed Engineer certificate issued by Databag.ai.
Cohort channel + alumni access
Direct chat with me and the other engineers, plus ongoing access to the alumni space after the course wraps.
Invoice from training budget
Prefer to pay from your company's training budget? I issue proper invoices so your L&D or finance team can process it easily.
One flat price.
Invoice-friendly for your company.
Pay personally with card, or ask your company to cover it from the training / L&D budget — I issue a proper company invoice on request.
Bring one more participant — a colleague, a co-founder, a friend — and you both get 10% off. Just email me both names before you pay and I'll send the discounted link.
- ✓No prerequisites — coding and non-coding backgrounds welcome
- ✓5 live 8-hour Saturdays (40h total)
- ✓Every session recorded, keep forever
- ✓Your own app idea — built and deployed to a live URL
- ✓Databag Forward Deployed Engineer certificate
- ✓Cohort chat + alumni access
- ✓Company invoice on request
- ✓Refer or bring one more participant — 10% off for both
Save your seat.
Small cohort — I keep the room tight so each participant gets real feedback on their project. Once seats fill, the next cohort won't run until 2027.
Pay by card — confirmed instantly
Secure checkout via Stripe — it collects your name, email and billing details directly, no separate form. You're confirmed the moment payment lands.
Let your employer cover it
Ask your employer to cover it from the training / L&D budget — email me and I issue a proper invoice on request.
https://academy.databag.ai/register
Common questions.
Do I need to know how to code?01
No prerequisites — this cohort is designed for coding and non-coding backgrounds alike. Engineers, tech leads and technical founders get the full FDE toolkit — prototyping with LLMs, wiring up messy data, deploying to production. If you're new to code, you'll build the same skills using no-code/low-code AI tools and the same discovery, delivery and customer-facing playbook.
What if I miss a Saturday?02
Every session is recorded and shared with you. You keep the recordings, so you can rewatch anything and catch up on your own time.
Can my company pay for me?03
Yes — this is the most common route. Email me with your company details and I'll send a proper invoice your L&D or finance team can process from a training budget.
What do I get at the end?04
The app you always wanted to build — your own idea, live on a real URL. Plus all the session recordings, cohort + alumni chat access, and a signed Databag Forward Deployed Engineer certificate.
What time zone do the sessions run in?05
CET (Central European Time). Each Saturday runs 09:00 – 17:00 CET with breaks. Calendar invites include auto-converted times for your local zone.
Is there a discount if I bring someone?06
Yes — refer or bring one more participant and you both get 10% off the €299 fee. Email me both names before paying and I'll send you a discounted checkout link. Works for colleagues too, so two people from the same company each pay 10% less.
How big is the cohort?07
Deliberately small — I cap it so each participant gets real feedback on their own project. Once the seats are full, the next cohort will not run until 2027.