E38 – Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar: REAL defense innovation

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Mike and Jake host Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar to talk about software-defined warfare, defense modernization, and all the things we’d change to drive innovation to help the warfighter.

Shyam started as employee #13 at 23 and slowly climbed the ranks of the largest and fastest-growing US defense software company.

No topic is off limits—including how and why Palantir sued the Army…and won.

For a conversation with a software tech executive, we spent most of the time talking about culture, leadership mentalities, history, and structure changes that are as relevant in the Pentagon as they are in any other industry.

Of course, no episode would be complete without some lively banter and spicy takes!

For those interested in #military #nationaldefense #warfare #nationalsecurity #defense #nationaldefense #tech #technology #defensetech #army #navy #airforce #sofware #startup #leadership #innovation #palantir

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• Mike Benitez (LinkedIn)

• Jake Chapman X (@vc)

• Shyam Sankar (LinkedIn)

• Shyam Sankar (X)

• Palantir

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Show Notes

(00:58) intro

(2:07) Shyam early years

(02:59) Palantir early days

(04:56) security clearance moat

(06:43) Palantir's software thesis

(07:51) outspoken CTO

(09:12) urgency without panic

(10:16) WWII ramp to production

(11:06) best at software

(12:24) suing the Army

(18:14) focus on winning

(19:14) hard-headed leadership

(20:16) the real tragedy of the last supper

(21:36) consolidation of opportunities

(23:55) F-35 Joint Program Office

(24:25) flourishing ideas to deal with uncertainty

(25:04) process creates mediocracy

(25:24) the power of options

(27:01) software-defined warfare

(27:16) deductive vs inductive reasoning

(27:48) hardware vs software company structures

(28:53) The Army’s TITAN program

(30:28) when govt left the engineering to industry

(33:33) business idea - help 0 to 1

(34:11) multi-vendor ecosystems

(36:19) government-provided tools for success

(38:10) commercial R&D explosion

(38:21) conviction with commercial tech

(38:53) military labs

(39:34) DJI vs General Atomics

(40:07) wild idea - make the primes more valuable

(41:47) value vs cost

(44:16) the next few years

(45:23) kill chains and value chains

(46:03) car sensors to tank sensors

(46:57) sustainment incentive mismatch

(47:58) attacking the sustainment tail

(49:04) spicy take

(49:15) creating multiple buyers

(49:39) multiple program offices competing

(49:58) make programs compete with each other

(52:12) undeclared state of emergency

(52:39) save the shire

(53:26) more LOTR geekery

(53:51) outro