4 ms·

Palantir Has a $20B Valuation and a Bigger Problem: It Keeps Losing Money

59 points by erex78 8y ago

mothsonasloth 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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.
  - nvarsj 8y ago
    Not the OP, but I did a phone screen a few years ago when the London office was opening. It was basically algo questions over the phone, with some coding using an online code editor. Standard stuff. I passed, and the next phase was flying to SF for whiteboarding sessions and meeting the CEO. I turned them down because I wasn't really keen on the forward deployed engineer idea - which is basically an on-site consultant/engineer, with lots of travel, sales, and hopping between places. Also wasn't so happy with the "salary cap" (not sure they still do it - but at the time, they said everyone was subject to a company wide salary cap). A couple years later I ran into someone who worked at the London office. They described it to me as a chaotic environment, with poor engineering practices. In other words, a typical startup.
  - secrettechie 8y ago
    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>
    - tangentspace 8y ago
      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.
- harshgupta 8y ago
  I think you mean 'forward-deployed' engineer.
  - mothsonasloth 8y ago
    potato patata
neonate 8y ago
https://outline.com/DUx7Kj https://outline.com/DUx7Kj
true_tuna 8y ago
If you keep posting wsj articles we get a closed internet. Do you want a closed internet?
- Justin_K 8y ago
  Do you expect quality journalists to work for free?
leroy_masochist 8y ago
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?

59 points by erex78 8y ago

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 8y ago
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.
- nvarsj 8y ago
  Not the OP, but I did a phone screen a few years ago when the London office was opening. It was basically algo questions over the phone, with some coding using an online code editor. Standard stuff. I passed, and the next phase was flying to SF for whiteboarding sessions and meeting the CEO. I turned them down because I wasn't really keen on the forward deployed engineer idea - which is basically an on-site consultant/engineer, with lots of travel, sales, and hopping between places. Also wasn't so happy with the "salary cap" (not sure they still do it - but at the time, they said everyone was subject to a company wide salary cap). A couple years later I ran into someone who worked at the London office. They described it to me as a chaotic environment, with poor engineering practices. In other words, a typical startup.
- secrettechie 8y ago
  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>
  - tangentspace 8y ago
    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.
harshgupta 8y ago
I think you mean 'forward-deployed' engineer.
- mothsonasloth 8y ago
  potato patata

neonate 8y ago

https://outline.com/DUx7Kj https://outline.com/DUx7Kj

true_tuna 8y ago

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

Justin_K 8y ago
Do you expect quality journalists to work for free?

leroy_masochist 8y ago

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?