Valuetainment - March 04, 2026


“We RAIDED Other Companies!” - Palantir Co-Founder EXPOSES Silicon Valley Recruiting Wars


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

220.74944

Word Count

1,893

Sentence Count

190

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

In this episode, Alex Blumberg talks about how Palantir went from $200M to $200B in a short period of time, why AI is more important than ever, and how to hire the best programmers in the world.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What was your strength in the partnership as a founder?
00:00:03.380 What was his?
00:00:05.840 I was really good at recruiting the first few hundred people,
00:00:08.900 kind of pushing forward on the kind of like the product strategy and whatnot.
00:00:14.740 Alex was really intuitive about institutions, about how the world works,
00:00:19.920 about how we come across, about how to get into certain places,
00:00:22.020 about how to make deals happen, about how to communicate in the right way
00:00:25.980 that you're coming across to create value for the other person
00:00:28.320 in a way they understand, the way you can get it done.
00:00:30.440 Alex, he's a philosopher, and he understands how people and organizations work
00:00:33.980 and how to navigate the world.
00:00:35.240 Got it. Got it.
00:00:36.100 So was he more the one selling the vision?
00:00:39.640 You were more recruiting the people?
00:00:41.440 Well, I think recruiting is a lot about selling vision as well.
00:00:44.860 When we gave people their offers initially, this is really early on at the beginning,
00:00:49.000 and we give them three options of like higher salary, middle or lower salary,
00:00:52.580 and higher upside, middle or lower upside.
00:00:54.460 And I'd put on the sheet of paper, the lawyers hated this,
00:00:56.640 but I put an asterisk that it might not be exactly right.
00:00:58.400 I'd say, okay, if the company's worth $5 billion and there's so much solution,
00:01:01.940 here's what your shares might be worth.
00:01:03.520 And it'd be like, you know, if the company's worth a billion dollars,
00:01:06.040 here's what it might be worth.
00:01:06.760 And people would say, Joe, you can't show people if it's worth $5 billion.
00:01:09.960 That's totally unrealistic.
00:01:11.740 But you had to say, no, here's why it could be worth $5 billion.
00:01:13.540 And now it's worth what, $335?
00:01:15.340 Yeah, now it's worth $200 billion.
00:01:16.680 Yeah, it was a lot bigger than I thought.
00:01:17.660 So you couldn't say it's worth $5 billion?
00:01:19.780 People thought I was ridiculous.
00:01:20.880 So let me get this straight.
00:01:22.160 So you're sitting in front of me and you're telling me,
00:01:25.320 Pat, you can take $200K salary, $350K salary.
00:01:28.620 I'm just making up numbers.
00:01:29.760 $500K salary.
00:01:31.500 Okay, $500K salary.
00:01:32.860 If it's $5 billion, you're going to get $10 million.
00:01:35.700 Yeah, but up here, you're going to get $50 million.
00:01:36.920 If it's $20 million, it's going to be $50 million.
00:01:38.300 That's literally what you guys are going to do.
00:01:39.240 Something like that.
00:01:39.780 Lower salaries, of course.
00:01:40.700 But yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:01:41.880 Wow.
00:01:42.580 And so based on what I would choose,
00:01:45.680 would you judge me and put me in the difference?
00:01:47.200 Oh, totally.
00:01:47.420 If you choose the high salary and low upside,
00:01:50.220 then I have to go.
00:01:51.020 I'd be very skeptical of you.
00:01:52.400 Would you still hire me or no?
00:01:54.160 Sometimes.
00:01:54.840 But usually, you know what?
00:01:55.840 It works out because we measure everything.
00:01:58.060 Sure.
00:01:58.540 After the fact, all the very best guys chose a low salary.
00:02:01.140 All the very best guys choose a low salary.
00:02:03.300 High upside because they want to get in the game.
00:02:05.660 They want to be part of the mission.
00:02:06.840 Yeah.
00:02:07.220 And by the way, how much,
00:02:09.240 especially since you said you recruit
00:02:10.900 the first few hundred people at Palantir,
00:02:12.860 and you were at PayPal and you watched how they recruited you,
00:02:15.720 how much have you noticed recruiting change
00:02:18.600 from then till today due to AI?
00:02:21.560 So, oh, no, it's not just AI.
00:02:24.880 It's that people recognize talent so much better.
00:02:26.800 So Palantir was getting the best of the best.
00:02:28.540 We get the top people out of the top schools.
00:02:30.420 Facebook and Google kind of caught on to some of this.
00:02:33.780 They started giving big signing bonuses.
00:02:35.680 And so in like 2009 or 2008, 2009,
00:02:38.220 they started giving 100, 150K signing bonuses,
00:02:40.120 which at the time, that sounded like a lot of money
00:02:41.520 for a 20-year-old.
00:02:42.280 It's ridiculous.
00:02:42.720 Now, the top AI companies,
00:02:44.940 it's like multi-million dollar signing bonuses.
00:02:46.580 I saw this one guy got a billion-dollar offer.
00:02:48.700 He turned it down.
00:02:49.280 This was like nine months ago, 10 months ago.
00:02:51.000 Yeah, that's like the very best guy.
00:02:52.540 He's probably taking some knowledge
00:02:53.760 from one place to another.
00:02:54.740 So it's a little sketchy kind of what they're paying for there.
00:02:56.860 But for just the raw talent,
00:02:58.620 you're still getting millions of dollars
00:03:00.020 for coming into companies,
00:03:01.280 just being the most talented kind of math Olympiad.
00:03:03.860 As a young guy coming in.
00:03:05.360 Yeah, but it's like, think about it.
00:03:06.420 It's like, you know,
00:03:07.900 you hire a young guy for a basketball team
00:03:09.620 who's the best basketball player.
00:03:10.720 Similarly, the gold medal programmer in the world
00:03:13.140 who's going to add this unique ability,
00:03:14.820 what's that worth?
00:03:15.620 So it's worth a lot.
00:03:16.440 Wow.
00:03:17.040 So today, it's not uncommon for a young guy
00:03:20.940 to get a $5 million signing bonus.
00:03:22.600 For the very, it's like being a top athlete.
00:03:24.400 How do you protect yourself
00:03:25.340 if the guy walks in six months?
00:03:26.940 Is there a clawback?
00:03:28.000 Yeah, you structure it in some way.
00:03:30.260 It's built in.
00:03:31.100 I mean, if he walks in a year,
00:03:32.060 he might be able to keep it,
00:03:32.920 but hopefully he'd contribute a lot in a year.
00:03:34.720 But he's getting equity,
00:03:36.060 and he's vesting into his upside.
00:03:37.740 So you don't want to leave too soon.
00:03:38.980 If the company's doing well, he's going to stay
00:03:40.260 because he's going to earn that upside.
00:03:41.160 He's got the equity in it as well.
00:03:41.820 He's going to get the equity
00:03:42.520 for the next four years.
00:03:43.340 He's going to want to stay and earn that.
00:03:44.360 So you've got the signing bonus,
00:03:45.640 you've got the salary,
00:03:46.400 and you've got the equity.
00:03:47.300 And sometimes the signing bonus,
00:03:48.400 he might ask to take his equity
00:03:49.460 if he's bullish,
00:03:50.220 which, by the way, the best people often do.
00:03:51.680 They want a bigger piece of the game.
00:03:53.480 So I either give you $5 million,
00:03:55.080 or I give you $5 million worth of share today
00:03:56.740 that could be worth $100 million.
00:03:57.840 Maybe he takes a million of it in cash,
00:03:59.300 and he gets things comfortable,
00:04:00.260 and he has $4 million of it in shares
00:04:01.440 because he's smart,
00:04:02.040 and he wants to make the big money.
00:04:04.180 Yeah, so that's one thing that's changed
00:04:05.940 with recruiting, the cost,
00:04:07.240 how much it costs to get people.
00:04:08.180 It's the cost.
00:04:08.860 What else has changed?
00:04:10.240 I mean, so at Adapar,
00:04:11.260 my second company after Palantir,
00:04:12.620 it's very successful.
00:04:13.520 It's like $10 trillion
00:04:14.080 in this platform for wealth managers.
00:04:16.400 And a guy who used to work for me, Scott Wu,
00:04:18.900 he had won the gold medal in programming
00:04:20.700 three years in a row.
00:04:21.740 So it's like king of the nerds, basically.
00:04:23.240 Everyone knew who he was in these competitions.
00:04:25.260 And he worked for me,
00:04:25.980 and then he went on.
00:04:26.540 Now he's running one of the top AI companies.
00:04:28.780 But the fact that I was able to hire him
00:04:30.480 and people like him
00:04:31.320 just by showing up at these contests
00:04:33.600 and hanging out,
00:04:34.860 now there's hundreds of other firms
00:04:37.680 going after these contests,
00:04:38.860 sponsoring these contests.
00:04:39.880 They all know who these kids are.
00:04:41.480 The game's gotten harder.
00:04:42.500 You have to look harder
00:04:43.500 for these top people now.
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00:05:28.500 And it's harder to recruit them.
00:05:30.600 And you better,
00:05:31.920 I have an advantage
00:05:32.680 because of everything I've built,
00:05:33.720 but you better have a reason
00:05:34.820 why they should be coming to work with you
00:05:36.180 if you're just a random new person.
00:05:37.740 It's really tough.
00:05:38.440 What's a differentiator?
00:05:39.980 I mean, I've built multiple different,
00:05:41.860 multi-billion dollar companies
00:05:42.900 and the next,
00:05:43.500 and this is my main thing I'm doing,
00:05:44.620 come work with me on it.
00:05:45.340 That's a pretty good pitch
00:05:46.120 versus you never heard of me before, right?
00:05:48.380 So it's a lot harder.
00:05:51.080 Got it.
00:05:51.400 So the differentiator is
00:05:52.860 moral authority,
00:05:55.440 previous track record,
00:05:56.600 I've won before,
00:05:57.580 we're building something big again,
00:05:58.920 come join us.
00:05:59.800 I'll tell you,
00:06:00.120 the best thing is this other guy
00:06:02.180 you know is there
00:06:02.820 who's a genius
00:06:03.320 and you want to work with him
00:06:04.040 and learn from him.
00:06:04.620 So it's all about chicken and egg.
00:06:05.600 I got it.
00:06:06.100 You've got to start with the best people
00:06:07.000 and the other best people.
00:06:07.980 That's how Palantir really did it.
00:06:09.100 We started with a bunch of the best guys.
00:06:10.840 The other ones want to be with them
00:06:11.840 and want to learn from them.
00:06:12.640 So you've got to have a nucleus
00:06:13.940 you start with.
00:06:14.820 What else did you do at the beginning?
00:06:16.220 The first few hundred of Palantir,
00:06:17.600 you recruit.
00:06:18.060 I mean, that's a big thing to say.
00:06:19.120 That's the foundation.
00:06:20.680 What other methods?
00:06:22.060 Did you look at certain schools
00:06:24.340 to recruit from?
00:06:25.140 Yeah, so we had teams
00:06:26.200 at about 20 of the top universities.
00:06:27.800 We'd have playbooks for flying there.
00:06:30.040 We would raid other companies.
00:06:31.780 It sounds really bad
00:06:32.520 when you talk about it.
00:06:33.680 The most ridiculous version,
00:06:36.160 this guy Nathan
00:06:37.400 who was helping us build a company early on,
00:06:39.080 he had worked at eBay
00:06:39.680 because eBay bought PayPal.
00:06:40.820 They'd been in PayPal.
00:06:42.040 And we went and got a conference room at eBay.
00:06:44.320 And I was like 20, 21 at the time.
00:06:46.940 And we were interviewing people at eBay
00:06:49.500 to come join our company.
00:06:50.980 And I felt a little bit awkward about it.
00:06:52.240 But I'm like,
00:06:52.480 I guess this is what people do sometimes.
00:06:54.100 Turns out you weren't supposed to do that.
00:06:55.720 But anyway, it was...
00:06:57.200 Did it work?
00:06:57.720 Yeah, well, it was such a badly run company
00:07:00.120 that they didn't even have any idea
00:07:01.540 that it was going on.
00:07:02.740 Which is, you do that at my company,
00:07:03.920 I'll mess you up, man.
00:07:04.700 It's not cool.
00:07:05.360 I'll be like one of your mobster friends.
00:07:06.520 Yeah, well, listen.
00:07:07.720 You almost have to have that mindset
00:07:09.060 if you want to build something big.
00:07:09.840 You have to fight people.
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00:08:05.900 We'll see you also talk to it now.
00:08:06.620 Thank you.
00:08:08.020 We'll be right back.
00:08:09.700 Bye.
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