@unknownuser said:

there's another way to use the follow me tool that i suppose you're unaware of.

-select the path first
-choose the follow me tool
-click on the profile face

this way, you don't have to manually drag the profile along the path.
doing it this way will also allow you to do what (i think) your question is asking.

That draws the resulting form using the face as a starting point. In other words, if the path is 20' away it will start at the shape. I want it to start AT the path.

In practice I have a series of curves drawn along a curved face. I want to extrude a shape along each of those curves. If I could just define the profile curve once and then have it extruded starting at each path's location, that would be ideal. Make sense?

I'm going to look at Tig's plugin. Hopefully that will save me from having to place the profile curve at the start of each path individually.