Palantir vs banking
I’m at a super target school for banking but have an offer at Palantir as a deployment strategist. If my end goal is to eventually do VC am I better off recruiting for banking/VC directly out of college or could I get hired directly as an associate at a top VC after working for some years at Palantir?
Palantir kind of a unique case but my hunch is no because it's not really a startup anymore. Better to do banking if it's truly at a top group (MS/GS/Q)
People are always quick to say banking if you really want to get into vc early-career but I disagree heavily.
All the growth programs feed into vc. There are clearly ~4-5 specialized vc recruiters that are very active on LI who tell you what they're looking for in candidates. I also know many ppl who hustled in early stage networks to build a dealflow funnel that allowed them to build somewhat of a track record to understand tech/see good deals early on. If you're truly gunning for a top VC - and you're not going a traditional founder route - most of the people who take a somewhat traditional finance route to reach there are people who are doing things like top PE/GE shop out of undergrad at the very least.
Banking --> PE --> VC is clearly a route that many take, but one that breeds a certain kind of VC at a certain kind of shop. I find the best VCs are those that take a super unorthodox path early on, building network/hustling at a startup, who learn and understand the very limited finance fundamentals that you need in your spare time, and optimize for the thing that actually makes you a valuable VC - network/technical expertise/actual value-add on the ground, whether it be another engineer if needed at a startup on your weekends, an intro to Palantir/other big buyer, an intro to a cracked hire/etc. I don't think banking teaches you anything useful here besides knowing how to hustle well.
This honestly might be a hot take but my honest observation after spending some time across a bunch of top VCs and startups early on.
Who are the 4-5 specialized vc recruiters?
Palantir a no brainer
What's comp
Palantir is the more interesting opportunity.
Top tech IB will offer a more straightforward path to VC, but it is still a narrow path. Agree with the above poster that your odds are better from top GE.
Palantir will likely be more interesting work and open up doors on the build side of things that IB/GE simply can’t match. Saw a biz insider article a couple weeks back that alleged 6% of startups founded by ex palantir heads reach unicorn status. That is an absolutely absurd stat if true. And even if you don’t found, you put yourself in a great position to join a high flyer startup in a more senior role. This is a sneaky good way to get rich before 30 — anyone who joined ramp or anduril 2 years ago is a millionaire now.
And yeah the jump from elite operator -> elite VC is likely more probable than vice versa.
These are both top tier jobs, it just depends on how risk averse vs. ambitious you are.
Generally I'd say deployment strategist at Palantir is better but with some qualifications.
Factors you can consider are -
At Palantir, there doesn't seem to be much to complain about when considering the above 3. It doesn't really matter if you're at a big or a small company as long as the team you're in is entrepreneurial. If Palantir's culture is healthy right now, I think you'd get to pretty much choose your own adventure, which you can use to your advantage. It's a choice btw being a B2B generalist or a specialist in one specific area - really up to you.
Now some qualifications. Even if you take the banking route, you probably could at least observe how bankers use technology and try to innovate in that category. Otherwise, there are some banks or groups within large banks that do work very closely tech companies. If you can make your way into those places, you will likely be able to learn about how to structure the economics of innovation better than anyone could (Watch this one -
- it's Stripe Co-founder and Meta CFO, who has a banking background talking shop).People with that kind of background are the type of people that VCs with more unorthodox technical backgrounds want to work together with because of complementary skill sets.
The path is yours to choose. Prob good idea to think about the type of things you are good at but not worry too much about personality fit.
Banking by a mile IMO. Palantir is a massive org and talent density not what it was. If you're looking to work at a company to build a network you can then pitch to a venture firm, push for a job at OAI or Anthropic instead.
Returning to this thread
Hear what ur saying i suppose but i Did a linkedin glance and anthropic has 4k employees to Palantir’s 5k.
Not all that much different.
Meanwhile OAI has 7-8k
So palantir is actually in the middle.
Kinda surprised tbh, had no idea openai had that high of a headcount
To be entirely honest I don’t think you can just come out and say Open AI and Anthropic are better than Palantir.
Have been noticing pretty dramatic decrease in talent quality at both places. Unless they’re in security or infrastructure it’s probably not a great place to be right now to learn nor to build a network.
On the other hand Palantir is miles better at managing client experience and their technology infra is more state of art in terms of how they handle information + more global workforce.
on the contrary, I can! wholeheartedly in fact!
Est qui et eveniet optio similique libero. Temporibus praesentium repellendus similique nemo.
Consequatur omnis aut vitae. Sint nulla repellendus harum esse et excepturi eveniet. Quia ipsum quos unde minima.
Aut dicta asperiores assumenda tempora. Perspiciatis vero cum est minus voluptatem. Sunt odio veritatis corrupti ut. Veritatis ea nesciunt et praesentium rerum magni. Vitae omnis aut provident autem.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...