
Why Palantir Makes My Head Hurt - skmurphy
http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hurt/
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skmurphy
This is an interesting analysis of Palantir. His conclusion:

    
    
       Palantir is a different type of company.
    
       Like a system integrator (SI), they have a small sales force, a large 
       field technical staff, solve whole problems, and ask for big checks.
    
       Like a software company, they hire world-class engineers and try 
       to capture everything in product.
    
       Is Palantir an enterprise software company with no sales, marketing, 
       or services (as they would like to believe) or are they the first SI to 
       figure out how to build a world-class software business as most SI’s aspire?
    
       You can argue the difference is just semantics, but I’d argue the latter.

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Jd
Generally speaking you are correct, but practically speaking I think Palantir
is absolutely correct in claiming they are a new kind of company. Their hiring
focus from early on has been on top notch engineering talent and even though
they have people in forward deployment, they focus their hiring on people who
have engineering/comp-sci degrees.

Even though in a certain sense there is really little difference between a
salesperson and a "sales engineer" as far as their tasking, the difference in
mentality is quite different. A sales engineer actually understands the
underlying technology and probably has contributed to it in some way, whereas
a salesperson relies on distributing hype.

I've spent a fair amount of time in major silicon valley firms (including
Palantir) and I can say the mentality seems quite different. It is a bunch of
brilliant people solving difficult problems. I think in a certain sense their
marketing actually isn't that good, since it appeals largely to a technical
audience but I couldn't figure out if their core product actually made that
much of a difference.

How do you measure, for instance, if you catch more terrorists with a certain
terrorist-catching tool than another? There wasn't much presented here except
cool visual displays that claimed that they were connecting data from across
previously distinct data silos. Is that amazing? Not really -- although
certainly it is more than the government can probably do effectively
internally, so I have some reasonable degree of optimism that they are
delivering far over governmental norm and are worth whatever large cheques the
government gives them.

Full disclosure: I briefly considered working for the company.

~~~
joezydeco
If they managed to lure Michael Lopp (Rands) away from Apple, they must have a
special appeal to engineers.

------
fleitz
Credible doesn't mean telling the truth, it means being believed.

Credibility IS key in marketing, and Palantir makes people believe they are
credible enough to hand over a big cheque. And then after they get that cheque
they deliver. The person who cut the big cheque doesn't care that Palantir
isn't really a billion dollar company, they care that Palantir delivered what
they told them they would.

The marketing claims are just social proof.

~~~
lawnchair_larry
I am sure their $450k in lobbying helps too.

[https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D00005517...](https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000055177&cycle=2011)

And the fact that their VC firm was the CIA.

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125200842406984303.html>

They are a very shady company. Taking big checks from the .gov to "fight
terrorism" never works well. But it usually makes a few people very wealthy.

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jtchang
The article starts with a roast on Palantir's marketing tactics but later
brings up some really good points about enterprise software.

I think Palantir is closer to a end to end solution for governments. If they
are just hiring engineers it means they can pretty much build any product
needed to fit a government/corporate spec.

~~~
checker
It's not just that they have a high engineer/sales ratio, they're also hiring
top engineers. Not all contractors do this so aggressively, and it can show in
the quality of the products they deliver.

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tryitnow
I don't think anyone can predict where Palantir will go. They seem to be doing
a lot of things right, but cult-like environments always have a high downside
risk.

The one thing that makes me think they are on the right track is that they
have the backing of Peter Thiel. Anyone familiar with Thiel's personal
philosophy realizes that he's highly individualistic, so let's hope Thiel has
enough influence to ensure that Palantir doesn't succumb to groupthink.

I wish them well and if they succeed I am sure there will be a lot of spinoff
entrepreneurs who go on to do other really cool stuff.

~~~
IsaacL
Sometimes groups of very individualistic people can be especially prone to
groupthink - the fact they believe they are not susceptible is what makes them
more vulnerable. Example: "Randroids".

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robjohnson
As someone who had close interaction with Palantir through many rounds of
their interview process, I can say that they do radiate a cult-likeness. The
two most important points seemed to be: you need to be brilliant (not a huge
surprise) and that you needed to fit in. (the later still seems very strange
and contrarian to the rest of their vision)

~~~
afterburner
Brilliant enough to fake fitting in?

~~~
krakensden
Don't do that. It can seem like a good idea if you're kind of desperate for a
job, but it'll drive you mad.

~~~
afterburner
I wouldn't do it, but I see others doing it all the time. Sure, they go mad,
but mad becomes the norm for them, and they _really want to fit in_. If you
get enough money from it, you can go on pretending until you die.

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bobwise
I was about two paragraphs in before I realized that this has nothing to do
with Lord of the Rings.

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jonah
They're a quiet giant.

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pnathan
I have no knowledge of Palantir worth speaking of, but I do know that
traditional engineering services (not by software firms) can charge enormous
figures regularly.

