
Palantir Has a $20B Valuation and a Bigger Problem: It Keeps Losing Money - erex78
https://www.wsj.com/articles/palantir-has-a-20-billion-valuation-and-a-pretty-big-problem-it-keeps-losing-money-1542042135
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mothsonasloth
I interviewed at Palantir as one of their "front line" developers in London.
The office looked like they had taken the concept of a hamster cage and scaled
it up for human usage. The recruiter even said people like to hang out and
stay late for dinner.

The interview was super hard and didn't really tie up with the expectations of
the job.

Needless to say I didn't pursue the application further.

~~~
throwaway77384
That is very interesting to know. What was the interview like? What is a
'front line' developer? Loving the faux military designation as well. Wankers.

~~~
secrettechie
I interviewed with Palantir a few years back.

The interview process didn't differ much from Microsoft or Google, or probably
many other tech start-ups and large firms: 4-5 technical interviews with
whiteboard coding that lasted all day, plus a lunch interview.

Key differences:

1\. There were several people that were interviewing that day; we started with
a pep talk of sorts with someone higher up, and met again in the middle of the
day. As the day went on, the group was shrinking.

2\. I had little idea what Palantir was actually doing until the middle of the
day, when they showed us a demo of their product -- something they developed
for a police department in CA. They now have a 3-minute demo on Youtube which
probably contains the same information, but back then there was an air of
secrecy around that presentation.

3\. The management pep talk was really pushing the "we are saving the world!"
narrative, to the extent that it seemed cultish to me. I mean, at the time, it
could be interesting to work for the Big Brother to see how the cookies taste
like on the dark side, but I couldn't pull off enthusiastically pretending I
was literally saving the world working for Palantir.

In the end, I believe I did well on the technical side (that part was not much
different from several other places I passed interviews at), but I was very
skeptical about their corporate agenda.

They asked me if when I needed the result, and I said I wanted it quickly. I
got a prompt "no" in a couple of days - and I'm satisfied with that result.

Dear Palantir people, if you are reading this: presumably, you aren't looking
to hire dumb people. Why play the doublethink? Let's be honest, programmers
aren't the _most_ ethical crowd out there to begin with. A modicum of honesty
in the interview process, along the lines of "we are developing powerful
technology with good applications, but also a wide potential for misuse, along
the lines of the 1998 movie Enemy of the State" would go a long way. Bonus
points for talking about what you do to prevent _that_ from happening (and
again, if you want to lie - _that_ is the kind of lie I'd eat, because it's
something I'd both want to - and maybe could - believe. </rant>

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tangentspace
I interviewed at Palantir last month, and the process is still very similar to
what you've described. However, regarding the last point, after the product
demo they did directly address the potential for misuse of the product.

They described a culture that encourages asking hard questions, and doing the
right thing in ethically complex situations, even if that meant turning down a
business opportunity. It came across as frank and sincere, and I didn't get
any sense they were grooming for a cult, more that they were looking for
people who were smart and passionate.

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neonate
[https://outline.com/DUx7Kj](https://outline.com/DUx7Kj)

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leroy_masochist
It seems like they are staking most of their future value on Foundry, which
according to the article does away with the need for meaningful FDE support
for integrations.

Does anyone know what the "secret sauce" is for Foundry? If we were to assume
the USG/Gotham business is worth $10bn, that would mean Foundry-related
business is worth ~$30bn if the whole company is in fact worth ~40.

What is the killer use case for Foundry? What does it do, that competitors
don't, that makes it worth so much? And to what extent are the current success
stories actually stories of the product succeeding without FDEs?

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true_tuna
If you keep posting wsj articles we get a closed internet. Do you want a
closed internet?

~~~
Justin_K
Do you expect quality journalists to work for free?

