| 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. |