The $360M Palantir story

Hey, it's Guy & Farzan.

Wednesday again. Second week running I've slipped a day. Monday became Tuesday became Wednesday. Open rates hit 47.62%. Go figure. If you don't read this regularly, I delete you. Enjoy.

Reading time: 8.45 mins

In the mail today. 3 founder stories, 2 founder notes

 Founder story 1 

The Story of Alex Karp (Peter Thiel) and their $360B business Palantir

From academic outcast to $360B visionary: How a philosophy PhD who hates Silicon Valley built one of the world's most important software companies.

The journey
- Started with a stone - Tolkien's mythical "seeing stone" that inspired the company name
- Met as law students at Stanford, bonding over contrarian thinking
- Thiel recruited Karp in 2004 after PayPal's success to lead a moonshot mission
- Set up headquarters in Palo Alto but rejected Silicon Valley's culture from day one
- Spent first decade in stealth mode, building in war rooms instead of garages
- Went public in 2020, proving that patient capital and conviction could triumph

The evolution of vision
- 2003: "What if we could build software to catch terrorists without violating civil liberties?"
- 2004: "Let's create intelligence augmentation, not artificial intelligence" 2010: "We'll embed engineers with clients for real-time mission support"
- 2015: "Palantir isn't here to grow fast, it's here to survive long enough to matter"
- 2020: "We've become mission-critical infrastructure for governments and enterprises"
- 2024: "We're one of the most important, misunderstood software companies in the world"

Overcoming Obstacles
- VCs literally doodled through their pitches and called it a guaranteed failure
- Operated at a loss for over a decade, bleeding $580M in 2018 alone
- Rejected by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins for being too contrarian
- Faced criticism as a "glorified consulting firm with a UI"
- Karp's academic background made him an unlikely tech
- CEO Refused lucrative contracts from China and Russia on ethical grounds

Today's impact
- $364 billion market capitalization
- $1.5+ billion in annual revenue (as of 2021) 300+ clients across 40+ industries
- 30% profit margins after achieving cash-flow positive status
- Powers everything from U.S. Special Forces missions to COVID-19 vaccine rollouts Serves governments, banks, health agencies, defense forces, and Fortune 500s

Growth strategies that worked
- Deployment Model: Embedded engineers working directly with clients in operational environments
- Mission-First Approach: Turned down deals that didn't align with company ethics
- Patient Capital: Focused on long-term value over quick scaling and exits
- Crisis Response: Proved indispensable during COVID-19 pandemic with rapid deployment
- Intelligence Augmentation: Enhanced human decision-making rather than replacing it
- Stealth Development: Built for years without public hype, focusing on real-world testing

Key milestones
- 2003: Peter Thiel quietly incorporated Palantir after PayPal success
- 2004: CIA's In-Q-Tel invested $2M, Thiel added $30M of his own money
- 2004-2010: Six years of stealth development with zero revenue
- 2010: First major government contracts with Army, NSA, and FBI
- 2015: Reached $20B valuation despite ongoing losses
- 2018: Hit peak losses of $580 million but Karp refused to pivot
- 2020: COVID-19 pandemic made Palantir mission-critical infrastructure
- 2021: Achieved $1.5B revenue and first-time cash-flow positive status

The philosophy

"The world does not need more consensus-driven builders who chase virality, mimic winning templates, and optimize for TechCrunch headlines. It needs more people unafraid to go so deep into their curiosity that it alienates the room."

"Your quirks aren't a barrier to your success. They're the source of it. The parts of you that feel too weird, too intellectual, too academic, too much. Those are the parts the world needs you to weaponize."Read the full story

Founder story 2

GoodPop: From $3,500 to $60M by going store-to-store

Founder: Daniel Goetz Business: GoodPop - Organic fruit popsicles inspired by Mexican paletas Revenue: Expecting $60M in gross sales in 2025

The story
- Started with $3,500 from his lawn mowing business savings as a UT Austin senior
- Hand-made 80 pops per hour at night, delivered them by day from his Toyota
- Festival disaster: Made 18,000 pops for Austin City Limits, sold only 4 due to cold weather
- Stroke of luck: SEO optimisation led to $80K contract that saved the company
- Spent 4 years driving 212,000 miles across Texas going store-to-store at Whole Foods

Key lessons
- Bootstrap vs VC: Remained completely bootstrapped, never took outside funding
- Relationship Building: Personally visited every store, built relationships with staff
- Persistence: Took 4 years of manual deliveries before Whole Foods took over distribution
- Health Cost: Admits he neglected his mental and physical health for 10 years

Why It works 
Simple gap in market: No organic, low-sugar popsicles existed when he started. Mexican paletas showed him there was a better way to make frozen treats with real fruit.

Bottom line 
Sometimes old-school hustle beats venture capital. Daniel proved that going direct to customers and decision-makers - even if it means 212,000 miles on your car - can build a massive business without giving up equity.

Founder story 3

See how Petko and his co-founders built Chefin, from dinner party chaos to AU$2M revenue.

From corporate researchers to culinary entrepreneurs: See how four founders built a global private chef marketplace and generated AU$2M in revenue while transforming home dining experiences.

The journey
- Started with a chance meeting over an international dinner in Bulgaria in 2012
- Initially launched as "Cuchinee" marketplace in December 2015
- First official booking on December 12, 2015, company registered December 17
- Split from original partners over vision differences in 2016
- Rebranded to CHEFIN after airport inspiration in China
- Built first tech platform in 2017, scrapped it, and rebuilt using no-code tools
- Raised AU$700k from angels after initial AU$480k bootstrap funding
- Launched fully functional platform in 2019
- Expanded to multiple global markets including US, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Europe

The evolution of vision
- 2012: "People love great food and entertainment, but hosting is exhausting"
- 2015: "Let's connect professional chefs with people who love to entertain"
- 2017: "We need a scalable, insured marketplace with premium brand equity"
- 2019: "Create the first digital-physical experience environment in hospitality"
- 2024: "Become the most recognized global fine dining brand"
- 2025: "Empower chefs to run sustainable businesses while removing food waste"

Overcoming obstacles
- Balanced full-time corporate jobs while building the business
- Major disagreement with original co-founders over business model direction
- Had to scrap entire first tech platform and start over
- Struggled with the jump from early adopters to early majority customers
- Navigated complex international expansion across different markets and cultures
- Learned to manage two-sided marketplace challenges with trust and supply/demand balance

Today's impact
- AU$2M annual revenue
- 26,919 total customers served
- 93,270 monthly website visitors
- 12 employees across global operations
- 50% of bookings from returning customers
- Operations across Australia, US, Brazil, Hong Kong, Estonia, France, and Canada

Growth strategies that worked
- B2B and B2B2C Focus: Used corporate clients to build credibility and scale faster than consumer-only approach
- SEO Investment: Built strong search presence through consistent traffic and user engagement
- Cross-Sell Strategy: Corporate bookings generated private clientele exposure
- Reseller Channel: White-label partnerships prioritised cash flow over brand exposure
- Loyalty Programs: Exclusive access and upgrades for repeat customers
- Market-Specific Approach: Adapted channels by region (influencer marketing in Brazil, SEO in Australia)

Key milestones
- December 2015: First booking and company registration
- 2016: Entered Food Hackathon at Fishburners Sydney, found co-founders
- May 2017: First tech platform launched
- 2018-2019: Raised AU$700k funding rounds
- 2019: Launched no-code marketplace platform
- 2020-2024: International expansion across six countries
- 2024: Reached AU$2M annual revenue milestone

The philosophy

"Three things drive me in life: helping people, having the freedom to choose how and what to do when and where, and being able to solve problems, especially complex ones."

"We live in the experience economy. CHEFIN has built the first digital-physical experience environment in the hospitality industry. It's not just a booking platform; it's a platform that knows what you want, what you like, and provides you with the best possible match for a dining experience."

"Nothing is difficult—it's whether you want to do it or not. Follow the money. Do the things that don't scale first, then worry about scaling what works."

 Founder note from Hiut Denim’s David Hiaeatt 

The best business books aren’t about business.

Your knowledge diet should take detours from the path everyone else is on.

Here’s what I learned from Andre Agassi’s book Open:

1. Find a mentor.
Someone who has your back. Who sees what you can’t. Who tells you what you don’t want to hear, but says it with love.

2. To win, you have to lose.
You learn more from losing a Grand Slam than winning one. Resilience. Fire. Lessons you can’t get any other way.

3. Behind every story is another story.
Agassi’s biggest opponent was himself. Once he got clear on who he really was, he started winning.

4. The lonely chapter.
Every book has one. His mastery came from brutal repetition: 2,500 balls a day. 1 million a year.

5. Reinvent your game.
Every stage needs a new teacher. To go to the next level, you must unlearn the old ways.

6. Build your team on trust.
Everything else can be learnt.

7. Forget perfection.
He stopped hiding his baldness. He stopped trying to make every shot a masterpiece. And he started winning.

(You think he was good at tennis… you should see how he writes.)

 A founder note we loved

Done and dusted. See you next week. Who knows, it might be Thursday.

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See ya.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo