[eugeneiiim]

To clarify, Palantir isn't a data-mining company. Palantir makes tools that streamline the process of analyzing large datasets for professional, often non-technical analysts in government and finance institutions.

Working with founders from acquired companies is not a great way to meet co-founders. First, many will have already "made it" and won't have the same drive that they once had. Second, if they do, they'll prefer to work (and socialize with) with other people who are like them -- other successful founders. Maybe they'll let you be an employee at their new startup.

Palantir is full of people who are itching to start a company, and we'll see dozens of startups by Palantir alums after Palantir exits (it's already happening; see posterous.com). The founders of these companies will have unique experience and connections in government and finance, giving them the option to target enterprise problems instead of entering the over-crowded consumer startup scene.

As far as reputation among Silicon Valley investors, having worked at Palantir will look at least as good as having worked at Facebook or Google over the next few years, especially now that Facebook and Google are already big and successful. Joining Facebook or Google today is relatively lazy; it's not as impressive to join a company that's already hugely successful as it is to join a company and contribute to making it successful. Assuming a choice between Palantir and Facebook, an entrepreneurial person with confidence in his/her ability to make a company successful will join Palantir.

[catch23]

Palantir is a data-mining company. They make tools to analyze datasets, but in reality, you need to understand data in order to present it well. The skills involved here are all specialized to data-mining. Since you work there, I'm sure there's obviously going to be some bias in your arguments :-). At least I'm seeing both companies from an objective viewpoint here.

Working with founders from acquired companies is actually a great way to meet co-founders. Most founders post-acquisition usually start new companies after their vest-in-rest.

Doing an enterprise startup relies heavily on sales. Having worked at an enterprise startup does not necessarily give you the skills needed for your next enterprise startup unless you're the guy doing sales.

As far as reputation goes, the reason facebook & google are stronger with investors have little to do with the mindset of employees at google, and more to do with the types of people google/facebook might hire.

You might be the smartest guy at USC, but investors would still choose the harvard grad over you. We all wish that logic & intelligence would triumph over the good ol' boys network from ivy league schools, but investors rarely go with logic. The only way you would seem more favorable than a team with all ivy league alums is if your project has good traction, or if you have a past track record. Palantir may have smarter people than Facebook, but investors don't care.

Typically employees from large companies like Google/Facebook typically know enough alumni there to help their next company be re-acquired by the company they left.

The original question was which company is better to work for if you want to work for a startup later and I believe some of your arguments are more general reasons why you'd want to work for company X over company Y.