Placement Pitch

Let Oliver
work at Groq.

I think Groq is in exactly the right place in the AI stack at exactly the right time. This page is my argument for why, what gap I see, and how I’d like to help during my placement year.

01 / Context

How I see Groq in the AI value chain

The way I see it, there are two likely futures in AI:

Scenario A

Training race plateaus and frontier gains get brutally expensive.

Scenario B

Models keep improving, but most real-world use cases hit “good enough.”

In both cases, the value shifts to cheap, fast, reliable inference – getting answers out of models into products fast and at scale..

You’re perfectly position for either scenario.

02 / The Problem

We made apps smarter, but slower

Historically, software engineering has obsessed over shaving milliseconds off latency so products feel instant and snappy. Then we glued LLMs into everything and just accepted 3–10 second waits as normal.

That’s normal now, but long term, users will expect latency that feels like normal software again.

That’s the gap Groq fills: making AI feel like software again – fast, predictable, and affordable.

03 / Motivation

Why I personally want to be part of this

I care because I expect Groq will be an incredibly important company going forward. You’re aligned with where the value ends up long term. I want to be a part of it.

I want to:

Bet my time on a team that is clearly going to win something important.

Work with people who are much better than me so I can learn fast.

Feel slightly out of my depth walking into the office and come out sharper every week.

Ideally, that’s during my placement year, in a role based in London. But the core point is simple: I want to be in the room while this is being built.

04 / Observation

The gap: developer mindshare with the next wave of builders

Through running Accelerate ME (the UK's leading student-led startup accelerator) and engaging with broader student/startup communities, I see:

  • Students & Engineers building serious AI projects
  • Hackathon teams where everyone uses LLMs
  • Side projects doing real revenue with AI

Almost none of them are using Groq.

They default to OpenAI, Anthropic, or whatever option has the most mindshare – even when they're building things where latency and cost-per-call matter more than frontier intelligence. That's not a product problem. That's a mindshare and GTM problem.

How I noticed this (short story)

One of the most capable builders I know, George – who works with me and runs products doing tens of thousands of pounds in MRR – hadn't heard of Groq until we sat in a Groq masterclass at Web Summit.

Once he saw the latency and cost profile, his reaction was basically: "Why was I not already using this?"

If someone like that isn't aware, there's clearly a mindshare gap.

05 / Strategy

The segment I think Groq can quietly own

Technical students, young founders, and hackathon teams. They are cost-sensitive, latency-sensitive, and tool-loyal.

Students &
Founders
Build on
Groq
Scale &
Lock-in
Bring to
Companies
If Groq becomes their default inference platform now, you get bottom-up adoption, long-term lock-in, and a generation of builders who instinctively think "Groq".
06 / Execution

What I'd do in a placement

University & Accelerator GTM

Work with accelerators, hackathons, and AI societies to make “building on Groq” a default option.

Hands-on developer activation

Workshops, mini-hackathons, and “build on Groq” days that actually ship things – not just talks.

Simple, opinionated examples

Clear templates and examples that show when Groq is the obvious choice (and how to plug it in quickly).

Tight feedback loop

Bring back blunt, unfiltered feedback from builders into product and GTM to sharpen the story.

I'm willing to wear whatever hat is most useful – GTM, community, dev-ops, project management, product-adjacent, something hybrid – as long as I'm close to the work and the team.

What I’m asking for

Let me do my placement year with Groq.

If it makes sense, point me at this “next generation of builders / mindshare” problem and let me help turn it into a repeatable GTM motion. If not, give me another problem to work on. I mainly want to be in the room, learn fast, and contribute.

Career Context
Age 16
Founded company, scaled to six-figure revenue
Age 17
Co-founded high six-figure blockchain project
Age 20
VC-backed AI prop-tech startup (London)
Age 21
Director, Accelerate ME (UK's leading student-led accelerator)