Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir: Exclusive Interview Inside PLTR Office

We were the freak show and we spent 20

years for this moment.

>> We're doing it. We're doing it. And I'm

sure you're enjoying this as much as I

am.

>> If you were a cupcake, what kind of

cupcake would you be?

>> I don't want to be a cupcake cuz I don't

want to get eaten.

>> Alex Karp, welcome to Sorcery. I'm happy

to be here.

>> Well, we're fresh off of earnings.

Palunteer has hit $500 billion recently.

Just released a new biography. How are

you feeling?

>> Um, I feel really good. Um,

you know, look, we started the company

with a lot of ideas that uh were really

exceedingly controversial until about

two years ago. FDES, everyone thought

that would destroy your company. uh

being fully meritocratic. Everyone

thought you're not supposed to do that.

Um uh low hierarchy, almost no one does

that. So like like Eleano and I were

only separated by one layer, which is

fictional because like we talk and it's

a very very flat hierarchy. Um we were

uh we thought we should give America an

unfair advantage uh in government first

and then in commercial. Um, we built

these products more like artistic things

years before anyone thought their

relevance. PG, the anti-terror product.

Uh, Gaia, the product that most special

operations use in the world. Um,

Foundry uh ontology Apollo Maven.

>> Uh, and we're still a freak show. Uh and

you know if you walk around here like

the crazy thing about Palunteer is you

know I I I get invited to like I meet

lots of companies and we you know big

companies small companies private

companies commercial companies the most

famous people in the world some people

should be famous but luckily for them

aren't. And I would say Palanteer like

feels like if you walk around here it's

like uh kind of a startup vibe. I mean

but but but with scale and the the thing

that's special about Palanteer I mean my

version externally is we gave venture

returns not just venture returns we gave

venture returns as if you're like you

know I don't know you're you like Peter

Teal Seoia Koslow returns

to the average person who is willing to

do their own work and stand up against

uh uh kind of tried but not true ideas

like playbooks. So, we're like the

antiplaybook company and then, you know,

I mean, you know, I'm currently in a

battle with, you know, short sellers

primarily because they could go short

some carcinogenic company, but they have

to short arguably the best company in

this country and in the world by any

metric. And by the way, judge us by our

enemies. Look who hates us. Like, I

mean, like, go online. I mean, I guess

people here have gone on X. Like, just

forget any you don't need to know

anything else. just look at like who

hates Palenteer and look who hates me

and then judge us by that standard. What

should our market cap be based on that

standard? So, um I don't know. I'm very

proud uh of where we are. Um I believe I

know it's the way beginning, you know,

internally we're kind of a very young

company.

>> I mean, I don't mean just in terms of

age, which is also true, but it's just a

young fresh vibe. We've anti-aged.

>> You've reached anti-aging. We've reached

anti-aging. It's either Well, I do think

uh age of company is directly correlated

with the rate of age or anti-aging is

directly correlated with the layers of

hierarchy. Our company is 20 years old

and feels like it's has scale of a

20-year company, but the vibe of a four

or 5year-old company. Meaning, we know

what we're doing. We have a way of doing

things. It's very tribal. We're we stick

to our tribal knowledge. But it's you

know like for example you know we put

the whole companies we bet on the US

military and on the US commercial sector

and we pivoted the whole company to both

basically I mean that we still have a

massive presence outside of America but

we've been and like we can do we can

make these decisions

like in like somebody we la this

marriage meritocracy uh thing which is

basically to give people who are tired

of being discriminated against an

application process a chance to come and

learn something useful. Uh, and the

people always say, "How long did it take

to launch that?" And I was like, "Yeah,

I don't know.

Three minutes."

>> Three minutes.

>> Yeah. It's like decision. I don't know.

Like a lot of like I was we were talking

about this before, but like

>> the it's it's hard to be fair to the

total barereft of common sense and in in

practice not particularly honest analyst

expert class. Not because they're wrong

the first time, but primarily because

they can't admit they were wrong the

first time when they're wrong the 10th

time. But if you want to be slightly

fair to them, this company runs on like

a much more artistic.

It's more much more artistic than

science. So

>> where does that come from?

>> Um, you know, I obviously primarily from

my mom was a professional and

world-class artist. And again, everyone

says they're an artist,

but then there's a very big difference

between a glacial difference between

like my mom is a above one rule of 100

artists like you know it's like in in a

very different sphere and then on my

father's side they were heavily involved

in commercial art

>> and like textiles for like a thousand

years. So like and what what people

always think of like the lay person

thinks of art is you just doodle

something but I know it's crazy but uh

you're from like an artistic family like

that's what people think but actually

art is you you tap into something very

very deep that is not understood about

the period of time you're in

>> and does not become understood until

like 20 30 years later. And that art

captures

something in the zeitgeist that is so

special, but then the depth also

transmutes to like something more

universal.

>> Do you think that's how Palunteer is

being viewed right now?

>> Well, no. I mean, I think people like I

think I think one of the one of the

crazy things about our society is people

who are more on the front line like

soldiers workers

uh vocational workers. um what we call

retail investors, they're actually

looking at the frontline data in an

unfiltered way

>> and then almost everybody else has

outsourced value assessment and

quantitative metrics to experts

>> but the experts in general

generalization are I can't think of any

expert class that's been right about

anything substantive in the last 20

years and then so at this point when

you're like when the experts call the

experts the analysts in this case or

journalists or I don't know you're a

financial analyst for a paper a hedge

fund like you are actually a medium and

it's your job to transfer the reality on

the ground into a reality you can

understand. Yeah. But the reality you

can understand is not reality. And like

but then because there's like it's like

a a super unique uh bubble, they can't

quite allow themselves to say, "Yeah,

but" and so but one of the greatest

trends is like I mean at the end of the

day, what makes one of the things that

makes a great artist great is they have

a vision of what they see in the world

and they stick to that vision. Although

everybody in the world said, "You can't

paint like that. You can't write like

that. You can't you can't picture

photography that way. Uh because it

doesn't I don't know. Then and then by

the way, most great artists like my

mother end up with no money.

>> Yeah.

>> And uh I mean that's the the book has

like a lot of TDS in it. But I mean it

is true. We were not economically

privileged. But you could look at it as

like but why were we not economically

privileged? Because like my parents have

these super high level of intellect.

Yeah. But it's also because they kind of

stuck to their guns of how they saw the

world and that's where the experts are

like, you know, like this isn't safe

because in almost all cases this doesn't

work. Yeah, they're right. But in the

one case where you change the world,

it's the only way it can work.

>> Is this why you're so committed to the

American worker and even in the recent

re earnings call you called out you're

giving venture returns to retail

investors? you've created a really

amazing cult behind Wall Street Bets and

a lot of retail. So, how do you feel

about retail?

>> Well, I think you know I always think

there's the economic and there's the

psychological and really powerful things

are aligned. So, like you know I I in no

way like I hate these victimhood BS

things and and honestly when you're

almost everyone who believes in that is

a mark whether they realize it or not.

But I mean like they may not realize it

but you are the mark and like uh and

that's frustrating because a lot of

these people who believe in that really

deserve better but it's hard to give

better if you believe in an ideology

that can't work. But um

I did come from an environment and where

it was not expected that I would be

co-founder and have a butt for role in

building arguably one of the greatest

companies ever built. And I don't mean

that even like in like the half trillion

dollar market cap or whatever it is or I

just mean in terms of how it's changed

the lives primarily of Americans on the

battlefield as investors and also um you

know um on the on on the factory floor.

But the thing is, if you come from

nothing and you're this amorphous,

racially dyslexic person from a very

specific kind of culture, not even

Jewish culture, it's like superbicger

Germanic left-wing culture, you

assume the world may not work out for

you and is definitely not looking out

for you. Okay. So, what other group of

people in this culture have exactly the

same vibe?

Yeah. Soldiers, people on the factory

floor. Who does the dying and bleeding

for us? Soldiers, people on the factory

floor. Who gets killed because somehow

constitutional legal scholars only read

the Constitution so it's expansive to

protect their rights. So their right to

be happy, their right to be go to Yale,

their right to be wealthy, their right

to be safe. But somehow the constitution

cannot be read to stop the reality of

like in the last two years more people

have died of fenol than every single

person who's died in as a soldier since

World War II. But they they can't and

and part of it is like they have a lot

of intellectual re reasons, but the real

reason is they don't see themselves as

having had the same fate. But if you're

me, you you look at those people and

then quite frankly look look at the US

Army. Look who fought and died

>> for our rights today. By the way, it so

it and it was like it and it was mostly

workingass people from what the elite

calls flyover states. It still is. Um

and then look at the US military. It

integrated first to integrate, first to

bring me. It still fights for

meritocracy. The first major institution

in the world to say, I don't care where

you're from. and they did it way before

American society. So that's that

version. Then there's the economic

stability version. My version of what

and we by the way what a fair thing to

ask people is what were you saying 10

years ago? Right? So one of the most

amazing things about Palunteer like is

and you know this but like you go online

and people who like you know whatever

some people don't like my vast words of

wisdom and they're like he's saying this

now. What did he say 10 years ago? Like

we are saying this, we've been saying

this for 20 years. Close the border. Get

rid of the identity politics. Victimhood

It's especially bad for the

for people who need it. Uh have a strong

military. Make that military the

strongest of the world. Give an unfair

advantage to America. Do not treat all

cultures of equal. Simultaneously do not

get on the whole neocon make the whole

world like America thing because it

doesn't work. Be skeptical of

immigration. uh built technology will be

the determinant variable in who runs the

world. All the stuff you're learning at

Berkeley about people are just going to

inherently absorb American values is

really just downstream from our military

superiority. You don't know that, but

our adversaries absolutely know that.

We've been saying this for 20 years. And

the only difference now is people who

are skeptical of us are forced to

realize we could be right, which is why

they run to short sellers and analysts

who still can't gro where we're at.

There was a part in the book where you

had just won the Dwight Eisenhower award

and this was a little bit of a surprise

to your employees but you got a little

choked up because of the impact of what

that is

>> to troops and so could you just explain

what that experience was like for you?

>> Well, first of all, Eisenhower has his

German name. He's from a German

religious minority family. He uh de he

was a a pivotal peri figure at gunpoint

in desegregation. He helped win the war

or pivotal um and but the the main thing

is you know it's I lived in Germany for

a lot of my adult life uh which was a

phenomenal experience which maybe they

went into in too much graphic detail.

>> What are you talking about?

>> We don't know. It's like uh it was um I

went for the right reasons and I may

have stayed for the wrong reasons, but

it's okay. I uh and I so I have um a lot

of uh a deep understanding and and I'll

get to this and deep appreciation for

the German culture. I think one of the

craziest things is you have this whole

thing online where people like like law

the Nazis like I spend a lot of time

talking to Nazis like real Nazis and

like understanding what made them tick

and what made them I mean part of the

crazy thing about people the Nazis

nowadays is there's not a single Nazi

that would ever have included them in

their movement and would have shipped

them off to the camps quicker maybe than

they shipped me off to the camps. Uh but

um and uh and it's like it's uh but

thing that is crazy unique about America

whether it's you know somebody from

Montana

>> Iowa

going over to fight

>> because they believed in America and

they believed in the greater good and

there really was this was a primarily

moral All it's like honestly it's like

Lincoln. This guy fought to end slavery.

It was not economic. It was moral.

>> Mhm.

>> Like what other culture actually engaged

in civil war

just because it was wrong

>> what was happening in the south. That

was the primary I'm not like the modern

way of reading is like economics. It's

like if

maybe but the primary reason why

Americans fought and died was moral.

Primary reason why Americans fought and

died in World War II was moral and it

would they had no tethering. Like when

you're a soldier from the north dying to

fight slavery. It's not that you have I

don't know black relatives and friends.

It's because you think this is wrong.

when you were over uh fighting uh the

Nazis or Imperial Japan, you were doing

it because you thought America was a

superior way of living and this wasn't

wrong. Now you can and like and then

whatever one thinks about these things,

no other culture does this. It's the

same thing of how did we get meritocracy

until recently in America? Merritocracy

is a like one of the things that we

don't often value enough like even now

in Europe like like in Europe if when we

I was involved in hiring at uh this

institute I worked at and one of the

biggest problems was I was always like

of course we need to hire the best

person that's not the way it works in

Germany or Norway like the best person

doesn't get hired ever

>> and so like you know like at our

institutions like at our elite

institutions we embrace meritocracy. We

embrace the higher good and we fought

and died for that. Like one of and and

then the fact that Palunteer can bring

that kind of person home more safely and

arguably whether people believe this or

not we can you know the primary purpose

of Palunteer is to be so dominant that

those people don't have to fight and die

because everyone knows you're going to

die 10 times more if you attack America.

You want to sleep at night. You want to

make sure our soldiers don't have to

fight and die. make sure the adversary

knows they are gonna get totally effed

up if they if they screw with us. And

that's that's like a really noble

purpose. And uh it's not it's not any

less noble than when we started the

company. In fact, it's more noble.

>> Sorcery is brought to you by Brex, the

financial stack trusted by more than

30,000 companies, including one in three

ventureback startups in the US. Nearly

40% of startups fail because they run

out of cash. Rex is literally built to

help founders avoid that. Unlike

traditional banks that let your money

sit idle, chipping away at it with fees,

Rex is designed to help you spend

smarter and move faster. Their

all-in-one solution combines checking,

treasury, and FDIC protection into one

powerful account. You can send and

receive money globally at lightning

speeds. Get 20 times the standard FDIC

coverage through their partner banks,

and even high yield from day one with

same day and even same hour liquidity.

Access your funds anytime. Companies

like Scale AAI, Door Dash, Service

Titan HIMS Anthropic Flexport Robin

Hood, and Plaid. Trust and use Brex.

Start today at brex.com/sourcy.

That's brx.com/sourcy.

In today's high-speed business world,

staying ahead means using the smartest

tools possible, including the powerful

capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Meet Turing Intelligence. Turing builds

customizable AI systems designed to

solve your missionritical challenges no

matter your industry. From expert

guidance to tailored projects, Touring

helps top companies realize AI that's

more capable, more adaptable, and more

effective. With Touring, discover how AI

can accelerate your business growth. To

learn more, visit touring.com/sourcy,

spelled s o u r c y. That's

touring.com/scory.

Sorcery is proudly sponsored by Carta.

Carta is transforming the private

marketplace, connecting founders,

investors, and limited partners through

software purpose-built for private

capital. Trusted by more than 65,000

companies in over 160 countries, Carta's

platform of software and services lays

the groundwork so you can build, invest,

and scale with confidence. Carta's fund

administration platform supports over

9,000 funds and SPVS representing nearly

185 billion in assets under management

with tools designed to enhance the

strategic impact of fund CFOs. For more

information, visit carta.com/sourcy.

That's certy.

One thing that was apparent through the

narrative of the book was you're

self-made, but you're not self-made in

an economic sense. You're self-made in

maybe a morals and values sense. So, how

did you become Alex Cart?

>> Well, I mean, you know, there's the

there's all these variables. Very smart

parents, highly educated, crappy school,

which I never would have done. Like, you

know, it's like and so you learn like

the world is violent. um uh dyslexia

meaning there's no playbook I could

possibly follow. I think so one of the

reasons why dyslexics are so

outperformant now is that we're in a

non-playbook world and the playbook's

not that valuable but if you're dyslexic

you can't you can't follow the playbook

or only in a third rate way. So you in

you invent new and generative things. Um

I

>> um I look I've never been accused of

false ill modesty. I think in the end

for to do something important whether

it's me or like Elellaniano or look at

all these people here like these are

among the best and most talented people

in the world at a certain level of

accomplishment. you're in an artistic

space where it's very hard to explain

why you have your insights and it goes

way beyond experiences that have of

course also influenced them but like I

just have artistic impulses and they

shape my life and I've allowed myself or

I've been forced to allow myself the

freedom to live that way and in there's

one country in the world where you know

you get rewarded for that because in

America if you deliver you can be you

>> you know like

>> you're your own boss,

>> right? You decide who you want to talk

to, you decide you don't want to talk

to, you have ideas of things you'd like

to, you know, advance on. Um, and the I

think one of the biggest variables in my

life is just simply I live in a culture

where if you deliver in this case

economically and by the way 18 I like

like for most investors we were failing

for at least 15 years.

>> Many would say 18 years. Honestly, some

would say until two years ago, right?

And still this is a culture where the

FDA, ontology, superiority of the West,

extreme meritocracy, the fact that I

would just tell people basically the

financials are going to show up. You

know, that's only possible in this

culture. And I guess maybe because I

lived abroad so long, I was it's easier

for me to accept and rely on that. I

think sometimes people who've lived here

their whole life don't always exactly

understand you. This is a maximal

freedom culture. It's the only culture

like this in the world. And it'll allow

you to self-express. And if you

self-express, that self-expression,

because it's not playbook, creates an

environment that is exceedingly hard to

compete with and will piss off all the

right people.

>> How is a value creation for Palunteer

different than traditional SAS

companies?

>> Uh well, here. Okay. So well first of

all it's important to remember we are

value d like we drive our whole business

based on a set of beliefs that are like

America superiority and that but but

then interestingly that's tethered to

the value creation argument you're

asking which is at the end of the day if

you believe your client is noble like I

believe our US government clients are

not only noble but they're no more noble

than I am and I'm happy with myself but

they're doing missions

that are will change world history for

the better. Okay. So, if you know that

the thing that's going to happen

downstream from that is you're going to

resist building parasitic products,

right? Because like I don't want a

product that will make me despite what

anyone but like anyone who's been a

Palanteer will know this to be true. We

I did we did not the audacity of just

saying we're going to build a product in

PG that's going to make you safer. Oh,

let's go away from the ambient noise. Uh

um that will make you uh safer

and more protected

is audacious in a weird way that we

didn't realize. The most audacious part

of that was saying we're going to build

a product that's actually what the

client needs.

>> Mhm.

>> Cuz what you're supposed to be doing do

in software is build the client that the

client gets addicted to, not the one

they need. And like this is like and

this is absolutely a truism in in in

software development of any kind. And so

the like the again the most radical

thing we ever did was say yeah client or

in this case partner that we look up to

has these needs. We didn't even give

them what they asked for. We gave them

what they ought to ask for which again

is very artistic. It's like like any

rational business would have said, you

know, I don't know, client ABCD wants B.

At the very least, you just give them

what they want. That's kind of what

integrators do. And then what very

successful software companies do is say,

oh, they think they want X. Well, fake

give them X, but we'll give them this

thing that they can't get rid of. And

then nothing else will work, but they'll

just have to pay. And then I can hire

50,000 salespeople and get these

wonderful economics. And what and then

every single decision like again the FD

thing, now everyone copies it. But it

was the most radical like you had

everyone making fun of this for 20 years

because that meant you were going to get

a a one multiple and but there was no

way to extend PG like essentially PG you

can think of PG as like a precursor to

AIP because you have text free text that

a computer could not understand the NLP

technology was primitive. The only way

to extend that product to like the

bounds of technology now was to have

people doing impulse. And then the only

way to build the next product or deepen

that product was to understand what the

customer ought to want tomorrow and

build that into the product today. Mhm.

>> And so like that value creation by the

way it ends up being very very

protective because and and then because

the customer partner actually becomes to

they may not like you like some of our

best clients globally both in government

and in commercial we're like I don't

really like these guys. Yeah. But you

know what? When you bring someone home

safely, they learn to love you.

>> And so, and then that that allows us to

have this privileged position that we

now have. And now when we're launching,

you know, when we again there's example,

the most recent example that people will

be more familiar was with would be

launching AIP.

>> Okay. When we launched AIP or I launched

it in like an artistic I don't know if

you know the story, but any case, I

launched AIP in like the darkness of

night. the darkness of night.

>> Yeah. Okay.

>> Yeah. Unlike uh pre-Easter holiday

because

>> it would have been massively resisted

and and I would say as one of my

favorite people said in any other

company every the whole head head of

whatever part of the product that was

going to be involved in this would have

quit because it was just launched.

>> Mhm.

>> It completely artistic like this is

where the world is going. We have all

the components. We had ontology of

foundry but the components need to be

brought together. Okay.

The the thing is if you're working back

from what will sell, you would have

said, well, wait a minute, everyone's

saying LLM are going to solve all these

problems. But I believed and it turns

out that LLMs are commodity products and

orchestration would be much more

valuable than the product themselves.

You need both. We need that we need the

LMS. But in reality, and that's part of

the reason we have these numbers because

turns out we're right.

>> Yeah. But but like if you were working

back from what experts think and what

customers are asking for, you do not

launch that. You launch something else.

>> Okay.

>> You can ask as many questions as you

want. You have

>> I have one more question. Says

Elellaniano.

>> Okay. You But you you can

she's the boss. How many questions would

you like?

>> 72.

>> Okay. Okay.

>> Um,

>> why not? Yeah.

>> So, on AIP, it seemed like that was a

big pivotal moment for the company and

getting into this next realm of AI,

which is something in transformation

that you've embraced fullheartedly

versus maybe some other people um to the

extent that you go into different

corporations and then you make the

products for them

>> on top of our current products or we

build new ones. Yeah, that's true.

>> Yeah. Would you say that that was a

major component to why sales cycles have

compressed and why it's been easier to

sell?

>> You know, it's it's a really good

question. It's it's it it is that, but

also the zeitgeist has changed. Like

although there have been a lot of

projects in AI that haven't worked.

>> Yeah,

>> most leaders in the corporate world and

government know of projects that have

worked.

>> Great portion of those are in Palunteer.

So in the government there's like

there's a deep understanding the

government side of like Maven and other

things uh hive mind and then on the

commercial context we have all these

very public customers and people begin

to see their unit economics changing and

particularly important they're able to

change them while being in the public

sphere so you can do what you had to do

in private by you used to have to buy

the company take it offline for like 5

years and then scrap the cost and resell

and then you could do this while

remaining public and there's lots of

economic advantages to that. Um uh and

so you can also do it in private

context. But um and so the the the thing

that you see as a common through line

that in AI on the positive side is it

used to be no one believed the software

would work. M

>> now everyone believes it should work and

they wonder well if mine isn't working

>> where can I find something that is and

more and more and more people especially

honestly in the US it's not true in

Europe in Europe they're still like it

doesn't work but hopefully this will

fail because it's all American products

but in this country people are like I

know this should work I turned on TV and

there was a someone I know or someone

I've talked to at a conference said yeah

okay good the the it is a little weird

when they show up, the person showing up

is going to be carp. That's not

everyone's cup of tea. And someone who's

like looks

18 but is actually 25. And and it'll

work. I mean, I think that's what's like

going around the country. And that means

both like from introduction to sale,

it's quicker and as importantly from

sale to actual output, we have a lot

more authority. Like we used to

basically get in these enterprises and I

have to spend half my day explaining to

people look I know the person down the

hall is your tech person but they used

to be a school teacher in music. This is

actual real example.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah. And which you know I like the idea

of a music but it's like and what

they're saying about the tech stack you

know and then and you could do five

years or you could do at the prime I

used to say five years versus 9 months.

Now it's like five years versus three

months. or two months.

>> And there's actually much more of a

please just tell us how to do this. Not

always.

>> Yeah.

>> And I would say interestingly, our newer

partners, customers are much more

wanting to hear, okay, I know this

works. It's gone from I'm not sure this

is works, but my life is on the line in

commercial and government like five

years ago to I know this I've heard and

know this will work.

>> How do I do this optimally? Mhm.

>> And then you know the bottlenecking we

have currently means like you know I

mean I tell I'm telling governments all

over the world look we're not showing up

to do a sales call for Maven.

You know it works. We know it works.

Show up in my office. Explain to how

explain to us how you're going to make

this easy for us because we don't have

huge bandwidth.

>> I mean I'm not talking about the US

government. That's a completely

different thing there. We will bend over

backwards and do whatever it takes. But

like allied countries in Europe was like

yeah you know they're like oh we need

five sales meetings and a PowerPoint

we're like great I can recommend some

other company it won't work but you'll

get all the sales reps all that cycle

all the forms everything you want and

like you know I was just on the I was

the other day talking to a very

important European uh leader I was like

look

you have an intel service you have a

military they should evaluate what works

they're going to tell you this works

nothing else really is you can buy you

want the thing that doesn't work but

sounds good they'll do lots of meetings

with you we can't do them

>> we just can't and in commercial it's not

quite like that in the US but you know

there's a sense that the demand is

greater than what we can supply and you

know and then we want and then we I was

just we were just telling an older

customer look the way you're doing it

will not allow us to create value we're

not a normal software company if you're

not creating value how are we going

going to get paid.

>> Yeah.

>> And by the way, you're going to want to

get rid of us at some point. So the

whole thing makes no sense. Like we're

not selling you sake dinner. We're not

selling you our charm. We're selling you

significant value creation in a in

ridiculously short times of period and

value creation on top end and buying

like basically you know and and then

another thing by the way I tell people

is you know all the time it's like look

I get to have an opinion because of our

financials.

Do you want to have an opinion again?

You got to have financials like this. A

lot of people want to be able to have an

opinion again in public.

>> You have VC returns for retail investors

and now you're having PE outcomes for

large companies. What's next?

>> Just being very very focused on the US

growing the US growing the quality of

the UX. There's a lot more interestingly

when we're talking externally of course

people want to know the financial

metrics you know like these rule of 114

the 70 all these things that are crazy

valuable but internally it's like really

back to the like how do we make sure

this implementation is the best how do

we make sure the product is is advancing

how do we make sure we're building the

products of tomorrow how are we in the

US government closest to the the the

things that will give America a

strategic advantage just not just now

but for decades

Uh, how do we on the commercial side?

How do we make sure that the um Oh, it's

just palenteer. People are roving

around. No hierarchy. This is just this

the Palunteer thing. They're like, "What

are you doing here? Get out. I'm

working. I have no time. CEO, move out

of the way." Yeah. This the other thing

of Palunteer. You know, we have we value

our work. Like he can have any opinion

he wants. He can come in here and like

do it. So, you you you get to you

perform here. You get to be you, not

just me.

>> Um, you know, this concept of worker

available GDP.

>> Yeah.

>> You know, you're going to participate in

the AI revolution. He's going to

participate in the AI revolution. We're

building it here.

>> The the person on the factory floor

right now,

>> okay,

>> wonders, are we going to get rich and

are they going to get poor? And is that

we that that will not work for our

society.

>> Yeah. No. So, what's Palanteer's role in

re-industrialization?

making sure worker workers I mean first

of all there's like how do you

manufacture at scale how do you

manufacture in addition this way how do

you bring how do you if you bring let's

say you bring um Japanese Taiwanese

Korean uh manufacturing to America the

interesting thing people always think

manufacturing is manufacturing you

actually have to manufacture their

building the way you would do it in

those countries because that's how then

you have to scale American workers so

like for example we have American

workers working at factories like

Japanese factories especially and like

they're American workers they're not

Japanese workers but we can get we can

use foundry ontology to bring out the

advantages of American worker and give

them the capacity to roughly work like a

Japanese engineer

>> and so like and and honestly at this

point we're really just showing rather

than telling because you really have to

show people the narrative working and

now in the US military that's going gang

busters because most of the people who

actually do the work are domain

expertise specific individuals

and they're seeing oh wow I can like

like in special operations

>> as an example people using our product

are using our product yeah it's not like

there's not the like highly elite uh

Yale grad I think he actually is a Yale

grad something like that

>> yeah something here we have like even

more elite Like we have the person

creating the real value is someone who

joined the military and they are just

crushing it.

>> We have some fun questions.

>> Okay. Great.

>> Okay. I saved some fun ones.

>> Okay.

>> So, there was a heartwarming part in

this book.

>> Yeah.

>> I wasn't expecting it. Um

there was a point in time in

>> Not my social life.

>> No. Well, your family life.

>> So, can you tell me about Rosita?

>> Yeah. Um so uh when my parents there's a

phase where my parents it was like the

the the thing is when you are outside

the norm and in a family there's a

warmth in the family.

>> Yeah.

>> So it's like like if you're like our

family like total freak show in all

variables. So the outside is kind of

like the freak show. I'm sure when my

parents came over people had to be

warned kind of thing. Uh and like you

know you may not be okay with this

setup. And then but on the inside

because of that it was an exceedingly

intellectual vibrant warm environment.

And then when we we when I was a little

kid and we had moved we had moved from

New York uh an incredible city which is

largely was about to get the most

horrifically in all likelihood

ridiculous mayor. Um uh more than you

want to hear from me. Um my parents

decided to get a dog. Obviously we

wanted it. So if you're like in my

family background, of course, the only

place you're going to get a dog is in

the pound because that, you know, you

wouldn't get a fancy and a dog of

course, you know. So we went there and

we went and then we come to the pound

and the I even like in my mind's eye

remembering it, but it might just be

I've heard the story a thousand times,

but you know, uh and then there's this

dog that is and the person screaming, I

hate this dog. I hate this dog. Uh and

then my mom said, well, why do you hate

the dog? And it's like because the dog

there's a lock that you know a human

could understand but a dog shouldn't be

able to. And Rosita was breaking out of

the lock. And then Rosita that's not why

she they the like the warden in you know

it's basically a warden of death because

they're like they were going to put her

to sleep the next day.

>> And uh the ward's like I can't wait till

tomorrow. We're going to put they became

Rosita to sleep. And my mom's like well

why do you hate the other? She's like

well he's breaking out all the time.

She's breaking out all the time. M said

well okay that's one thing. And even

worse than that, Rosita would go back

and break open the other locks for other

people.

>> Yeah. And then my mom was like, "That's

our dog."

>> And

>> And then Yeah. And so that's And then

Rosita played a a tremendous role in our

life. It was more like she's very very

high IQ. Like it was honestly more like

a human like than a dog.

>> And uh Yeah. And uh yeah,

>> that's Rosita.

>> And later on you exumed Rosita's room.

>> Yeah. There's a lot in the book I

probably wouldn't have told, but like

Yeah. So one of the crazy things about

having resources is you can do things

that mean a lot to you that you know. So

I through all sorts of ways got in touch

with the person who bought the house

that was force sold during the divorce.

Uh and person was very generous and for

lots of reasons agreed to have me exume

their whole yard. And then I took uh

Rosita and now I'm uh yeah I have her a

burial site near my house.

>> That's really sweet. Rosita was the

best.

>> Really?

>> No.

>> Okay. Well, if you were a cupcake, what

kind of cupcake would you be?

>> I don't want to be a cupcake cuz I don't

want to get eaten. I'm resisting

becoming a cupcake. But

>> what's your favorite cupcake?

>> Apparently in No, I actually don't eat

them that, but I actually recently in DC

there's these very fancy I just It all

comes down to the icing.

>> It's just the icing.

>> I don't know why people eat the cupcake.

It's just the icing.

>> Makes no sense. Yeah, it makes no sense.

Why even have it there?

>> Well, no, you have it. There's like a I

don't know the same way you have. Well,

yeah. You have like a vehicle for for

the coffee.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> So, it comes down like there's really I

mean a lot of places have good cupcakes,

but very few people have great cupcakes.

>> Okay. Well, before we head too far back

into the office, thank you so much,

Alex.

>> Thank you. Very nice. Very nice to meet

you.

>> Hey, it's Molly. If you enjoy our

interviews, check out our newsletter,

sorcery.bc, BC where we deliver a once a

week top deals and tech headlines email

and also go deeper on our podcast

interviews. Subscribe to Sorcery today

and don't forget to subscribe to the

podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or

wherever you listen. Link in description

to sign up.