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Palantir has a core team of engineers building out a very general data analysis framework. Their core product consists of a GUI for manipulating and sharing ann

by hendzen 11y ago

Palantir has a core team of engineers building out a very general data analysis framework. Their core product consists of a GUI for manipulating and sharing annotated graphs (i.e. edges and vertices). The actual edges and vertices of the graph can have complex types defined by some arbitrarily detailed ontology. The GUI also includes tools for producing visualizations and charts from numerical and textual attributes of the edges/vertices. The core product is very powerful when configured properly and it is used to solve important problems in both government and industry. Palantir also has a much larger corps of consulting engineers (FDEs in Palantir parlance) who actually build the ontologies, import a customer's data in to Palantir, and then provide ongoing support to users. A huge portion of this work is writing scripts to munge the data from arbitrary formats (SQL tables, CSV, Excel, etc) to the format supported by Palantir. A core reason for Palantir's success is that they convince large numbers of top engineering students from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc, to do this relatively unglamorous work for below-market pay. Due to the imbalance in headcount between core engineering and the consulting division, Palantir, in practice, operates more similarly to Accenture or McKinsey than to Google or Facebook. However, for some unknown reason, their valuation seems to be calculated like that of a high margin software company, rather than like that of a low-margin services business. In particular, to increase revenue by N dollars, Palantir needs to hire O(N) employees.

dkarapetyan 11y ago
Yup, correct on all counts.
serge2k 11y ago
> A core reason for Palantir's success is that they convince large numbers of top engineering students from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc, to do this relatively unglamorous work for below-market pay. how?
- lordlarm 11y ago
  https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ should give you a hint. They're doing Google style benefits.
  - eru 11y ago
    But Google also gives Google style benefits and better than below market salaries. (I guess, there's no mystery: some people apply at Palantir. Even more apply at Google.)
- eva1984 11y ago
  Maybe it is the mysteriousness that they succeeded to build along the years. As a company it feels far-fetch, likes to hire young, smart yet egotistical engineers and the bar is relatively high.
- cmdkeen 11y ago
  In part seemingly by sending them off around the world. I know of people permanently based in Dubai for instance - below market pay but no tax and a very expat lifestyle is appealing to many twenty-somethings. Plus the Accenture/McKinsey model is pretty famous in terms of the jobs people go on to afterwards, lots of people who don't really know what to do but are smart go into them with no expectation of doing more than a few years. I don't know if they've also got that concept going as well though.
- kqr 11y ago
  From a high-level point of view, the work they do appears very interesting. They really try to leverage the strengths of the computer in combination with the strengths of the human mind to provide a superior analysis. It's basically what I think will be the most fruitful (near) future of AI – intelligent human-computer interaction, rather than replacing the human wholesale. I applied for a job there for that reason, but due to an unwillingness to relocate I couldn't follow through.
- bane 11y ago
  A relentlessly vague, grand sounding mission statement (solve all the world's problems), combined with a cool startup-like (lots of free perks) atmosphere and a work environment I've heard described as both "insular" and "cult-like". If you're young, tech savvy and a bit of an idealist it sounds like a very attractive place to go. Glassdoor reviews are very good https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Technologies-EI_IE236375.11,32.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Techn... Salaries appear to average low https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salaries-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salar...
  - recondite 11y ago
    Don't believe the reviews. I was considering a position there, and did some research into the company culture (because everything else about them just seemed impossibly awesome, with the exception of pay). Apparently, they had a fairly low review rating about a year ago which was hurting recruiting efforts, so company leadership "asked" employees to write reviews and a bunch of 5-star reviews popped out in a very short period of time. They all sound like PR copy, all cut from the same mold, and the "cons" of the company aren't really negatives but disguised positives. If you click on the "rating trends" next to the overall star rating you'll see when this happened. Totally creepy and a bit cult-ish if you ask me. Some of the other reviewers actually called them out about this, but since they're an "engaged employer" on Glassdoor, it appears those reviews are getting buried in favor of the ghost-written ones. You can still find them fairly easily though because they'll have 20-50x more helpful tags than the kool-aid reviews. Turned me off completely to them, and makes me think there are some serious issues going on underneath the surface. I also found this blog post written a while back about their business model which I found quite enlightening: http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hurt/ http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hu... It's a little dated, but I think he hits the nail on the head in a few places.
spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
Mkinsy and co are not low margin bushiness - they charge chunky day rates for new grads.
spdionis 11y ago
I can confirm that Palantir is considered a top choice (among google, facebook, etc.) or even better among the best students in romanian top engineering universities. They say that their interviews are even harder than e.g. google's.
deskamess 11y ago
Any examples of how much 'below market rates' their salaries are? I was under the impression it was on par or slightly below. The Googles/Facebooks/MS are usually well above market rate.
- billpaetzke 11y ago
  As of 2012, their salary cap was 127k for all employees--even the CEO: Karp: https://www.quora.com/How-does-Palantir-attract-talent-if-it-caps-its-salary-at-127-000 https://www.quora.com/How-does-Palantir-attract-talent-if-it... http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/killer-app/ http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/killer-app/ As of 2014, their salary cap was 137k & 15k bonus: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/unlocking-secrets-if-not-its-own-value.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/unlocking-secrets... Perhaps those numbers are average or even below average for the Bay Area. Furthermore remember those are global caps, so unless you are in the top pay grade in the company, you'd likely make less, I assume.
  - josephjrobison 11y ago
    What's insane is that I'm pretty sure Palantir still pays one of the top intern salaries at $7k/month ($42 an hour) - so it's surprising their full time salaries don't follow that trend. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/07/the-highest-paying-internships/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/07/the-highes...

by hendzen 11y ago

dkarapetyan 11y ago

Yup, correct on all counts.

serge2k 11y ago

> A core reason for Palantir's success is that they convince large numbers of top engineering students from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc, to do this relatively unglamorous work for below-market pay. how?

lordlarm 11y ago
https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ https://www.palantir.com/life-at-palantir/ should give you a hint. They're doing Google style benefits.
- eru 11y ago
  But Google also gives Google style benefits and better than below market salaries. (I guess, there's no mystery: some people apply at Palantir. Even more apply at Google.)
eva1984 11y ago
Maybe it is the mysteriousness that they succeeded to build along the years. As a company it feels far-fetch, likes to hire young, smart yet egotistical engineers and the bar is relatively high.
cmdkeen 11y ago
In part seemingly by sending them off around the world. I know of people permanently based in Dubai for instance - below market pay but no tax and a very expat lifestyle is appealing to many twenty-somethings. Plus the Accenture/McKinsey model is pretty famous in terms of the jobs people go on to afterwards, lots of people who don't really know what to do but are smart go into them with no expectation of doing more than a few years. I don't know if they've also got that concept going as well though.
kqr 11y ago
From a high-level point of view, the work they do appears very interesting. They really try to leverage the strengths of the computer in combination with the strengths of the human mind to provide a superior analysis. It's basically what I think will be the most fruitful (near) future of AI – intelligent human-computer interaction, rather than replacing the human wholesale. I applied for a job there for that reason, but due to an unwillingness to relocate I couldn't follow through.
bane 11y ago
A relentlessly vague, grand sounding mission statement (solve all the world's problems), combined with a cool startup-like (lots of free perks) atmosphere and a work environment I've heard described as both "insular" and "cult-like". If you're young, tech savvy and a bit of an idealist it sounds like a very attractive place to go. Glassdoor reviews are very good https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Technologies-EI_IE236375.11,32.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Palantir-Techn... Salaries appear to average low https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salaries-E236375.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Palantir-Technologies-Salar...
- recondite 11y ago
  Don't believe the reviews. I was considering a position there, and did some research into the company culture (because everything else about them just seemed impossibly awesome, with the exception of pay). Apparently, they had a fairly low review rating about a year ago which was hurting recruiting efforts, so company leadership "asked" employees to write reviews and a bunch of 5-star reviews popped out in a very short period of time. They all sound like PR copy, all cut from the same mold, and the "cons" of the company aren't really negatives but disguised positives. If you click on the "rating trends" next to the overall star rating you'll see when this happened. Totally creepy and a bit cult-ish if you ask me. Some of the other reviewers actually called them out about this, but since they're an "engaged employer" on Glassdoor, it appears those reviews are getting buried in favor of the ghost-written ones. You can still find them fairly easily though because they'll have 20-50x more helpful tags than the kool-aid reviews. Turned me off completely to them, and makes me think there are some serious issues going on underneath the surface. I also found this blog post written a while back about their business model which I found quite enlightening: http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hurt/ http://kellblog.com/2011/06/27/why-palantir-makes-my-head-hu... It's a little dated, but I think he hits the nail on the head in a few places.

spacecowboy_lon 11y ago

Mkinsy and co are not low margin bushiness - they charge chunky day rates for new grads.

spdionis 11y ago

I can confirm that Palantir is considered a top choice (among google, facebook, etc.) or even better among the best students in romanian top engineering universities. They say that their interviews are even harder than e.g. google's.

deskamess 11y ago

Any examples of how much 'below market rates' their salaries are? I was under the impression it was on par or slightly below. The Googles/Facebooks/MS are usually well above market rate.

billpaetzke 11y ago
As of 2012, their salary cap was 127k for all employees--even the CEO: Karp: https://www.quora.com/How-does-Palantir-attract-talent-if-it-caps-its-salary-at-127-000 https://www.quora.com/How-does-Palantir-attract-talent-if-it... http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/killer-app/ http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/killer-app/ As of 2014, their salary cap was 137k & 15k bonus: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/unlocking-secrets-if-not-its-own-value.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/unlocking-secrets... Perhaps those numbers are average or even below average for the Bay Area. Furthermore remember those are global caps, so unless you are in the top pay grade in the company, you'd likely make less, I assume.
- josephjrobison 11y ago
  What's insane is that I'm pretty sure Palantir still pays one of the top intern salaries at $7k/month ($42 an hour) - so it's surprising their full time salaries don't follow that trend. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/07/the-highest-paying-internships/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/07/the-highes...