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Had they spent the money on ops or DoD compliant hosting infra, I would agree the long-term gains offset the near-term losses. But as an Investor, it concerns

Had they spent the money on ops or DoD compliant hosting infra, I would agree the long-term gains offset the near-term losses. But as an Investor, it concerns me they spent $900M on Sales and Marketing in the Gov sector over 2 years. That is essentially a lobby-dependent business model with long-term success contingent on the currently elected administration.

ryansmccoy 6y ago
Yea, I don't know what's going on besides what I read. I would much rather see the screenshot for myself then have someone else explain to me what they think the most important aspects of it are.
vkou 6y ago
If you grease up both candidates, your long-term success is not contingent on the current administration. Since it's incredibly unlikely that an anti-surveillance, anti-warhawk, anti-police state candidate will ever become president, and it's incredibly unlikely that congress will be dominated by those sorts of folks, I think Palantir's business model is safe as houses.
- dmix 6y ago
  Plus the party power brokers seem to stick around for a long time. It's really only the executive branch that changes often.
earthshot 6y ago
It gives the appearance of being a business with consulting economics moreso than tech/product economics, and tied hard to government contracts. I'm sure there are a bunch of dipshit investors who will give it a tech multiple because they're idiots. But it doesn't deserve one. I hope it fails.
otoburb 6y ago
I may have missed this in the article but I don't think the S&M expense of $450M per year was broken out by Government vs. Commercial segments. That would be more relevant to the discussion to estimate the expense allocation between direct sales forces for gov & enterprise, pure media/advertising spend, and lobbying.
mlindner 6y ago
> That is essentially a lobby-dependent business model with long-term success contingent on the currently elected administration. Unfortunately these type of setups tend not to care who is in power. As the types in power are never against this type of company. Look at Democrat support for NSLs (Obama notably expanded use of them despite being against them while campaigning).

ryansmccoy 6y ago

Yea, I don't know what's going on besides what I read. I would much rather see the screenshot for myself then have someone else explain to me what they think the most important aspects of it are.

vkou 6y ago

If you grease up both candidates, your long-term success is not contingent on the current administration. Since it's incredibly unlikely that an anti-surveillance, anti-warhawk, anti-police state candidate will ever become president, and it's incredibly unlikely that congress will be dominated by those sorts of folks, I think Palantir's business model is safe as houses.

dmix 6y ago
Plus the party power brokers seem to stick around for a long time. It's really only the executive branch that changes often.

earthshot 6y ago

It gives the appearance of being a business with consulting economics moreso than tech/product economics, and tied hard to government contracts. I'm sure there are a bunch of dipshit investors who will give it a tech multiple because they're idiots. But it doesn't deserve one. I hope it fails.

otoburb 6y ago

I may have missed this in the article but I don't think the S&M expense of $450M per year was broken out by Government vs. Commercial segments. That would be more relevant to the discussion to estimate the expense allocation between direct sales forces for gov & enterprise, pure media/advertising spend, and lobbying.

mlindner 6y ago

> That is essentially a lobby-dependent business model with long-term success contingent on the currently elected administration. Unfortunately these type of setups tend not to care who is in power. As the types in power are never against this type of company. Look at Democrat support for NSLs (Obama notably expanded use of them despite being against them while campaigning).