Garry Tan says turning down Peter Thiel's early offer to join Palantir was a $2-4 billion 'mistake'

Garry Tan was worker No. 10 astatine Palantir. He regrets that it wasn't azygous digits.

On "The A16z Show," the Y Combinator CEO said that he was offered a spot connected the company's founding squad — but he turned it down to enactment astatine Microsoft.

Tan was successful Stanford University's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. His frat brothers included Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen, 2 Palantir cofounders. Both were interning astatine Peter Thiel's hedge fund, Tan said.

He described 1 of Thiel's strategies: "When you commencement a thing, you constitute down connected a portion of insubstantial each the smartest group who you request to spell and hire."

Tan was connected some of their lists, he said. So, Tan said that Lonsdale and Cohen flew him down from Seattle to person meal pinch Thiel.

Thiel said, "I'm truthful judge this is the correct point for you," Tan recounted. He besides offered Tan a $70,000 check, Tan said, which would person matched his Microsoft salary astatine the time.

"I said, 'Thank you very much, Mr. Thiel, but I mightiness get promoted to level 60 this year,'" Tan said. "Which I did."

He called it a "$2-4 cardinal mistake."

Palantir has since go a $420 cardinal company. It popularized an full occupation class — the forward-deployed engineer — that is now replicated by galore Big Tech companies. Palantir's banal opened astatine $10 per stock during its 2020 nonstop listing; connected Thursday, it was trading astatine complete $175 per share.

Tan chalked his correction up to chasing what looks hot. He compared it to an early profession move successful which he worked connected Windows Mobile alternatively than sticking pinch web development. Then, the Facebook roar happened.

"Joe and Stephen were among the smartest group I'd ever met," Tan said. "If not them, who was I going to beryllium a cofounder with?"

The beingness was speaking to him, Tan said, but he didn't listen. "All I cared astir was what was cool, what was hot, what would a really bully investor say," he said.

Tan yet made it to Palantir, of course. He learned: "Everything that's awesome successful my life is benignant of a cult." That cult should commencement pinch "some benignant of truth aliases belief that flies successful the look of an orthodoxy," he said.

It's "very punk, actually," he said.

Do you activity astatine Palantir? Contact the newsman from a non-work email and instrumentality astatine [email protected], aliases connected Signal astatine henrychand.30.