The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Palantir CTO on The Broken Incentive Structure of How Governments Buy Defence, The Danger of Defence Spending at Historic Lows, How Elections and Wars Change Government Defence Buying & Why Budgets are Anti-Creative with Shyam Sankar

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Shyam Sankar is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies in addition to the Chairman of Ginkgo Bioworks. Shyam holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

In Today's Episode with Shyam Sankar:

1. Journey to the Top of Defence:

  • How did Shyam make his way into the world of startups and get a role with Kevin Hartz at Xoom?
  • How did seeing Shyam's parents lose everything impact his mindset and drive?
  • What does Shyam know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career?

2. How the World's Governments Buy Defence:

  • What is the playbook for selling defence to different governments?
  • Why is the way that governments purchase and procure so broken?
  • If Shyam were head of the DOD, what would he change?
  • Why does the DOD "need to pick winners"?
  • Which governments are the best to work with? Which are the worst?

3. A World In Conflict: What Changes:

  • How does conflict change the buying process and urgency for governments?
  • How do elections change the buying cadence and process for different governments?
  • Looking forward to 2024, how does Shyam predict the state of different global conflicts?

4. Hiring 101: You Have To Hire Artists:

  • What have been Shyam's single biggest lessons on what it takes to hire the best of the best?
  • Why does Shyam believe that hiring great people is like talent management in Hollywood?
  • Why does Shyam believe talent should be "shielded from budgets"?
  • What have been some of Shyam's biggest hiring mistakes? How did he learn from them?

...more
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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The PitchBy Harry Stebbings
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