Frontier models appears in this channel's material as a practical building decision, not just a label for the biggest AI systems. In the conversation with Granola's Chris Pedregal, frontier models are the latest and most capable AI models available at a given moment — and the material explores what they mean for how app-layer builders should design, fund, and ship products: small teams can afford to run them expensively, startups can ship features powered by them that giants physically can't roll out at scale, and the right move is to build for the product two years out while trusting that inference costs will plummet [^e780a42f-b16e-5a92-b18c-685de50ce822@0]. Use this entry to explore how that frontier-model mindset connects to Granola's bets on volatile AI economics, startup advantages over big tech, specialization, and augmentation over agents.