Software company Palantir is keen to become more involved in the booming defense tech industry—with its chief technology officer (CTO), Shyam Sankar, working to support fellow startups in ensuring Western security.
In an August 5 orientation meeting, Sankar welcomed Palantir’s new hires with a speech emphasizing the importance of emerging defense tech startups, such as Apex Space and Castelin, which are founded by alumni of the company, Tesla, and Space X.
While other firms may see these startups as competition, the CTO firmly believes that more companies similar to them are necessary to help America and the West win the next great conflict.
“To have this class of new champions who have all cut their teeth in Tesla and SpaceX and see the world in completely different ways, it’s providing a huge amount of energy internally for us as we build for them,” he said.
From Silicon Valley to D.C.: Expanding defense tech network
Sankar first stepped foot in Silicon Valley in 2004 as the fifth employee at Xoom, an electronic fund transfer and remittance provider. Fresh out of graduate school, he worked under the wings of Kevin Hartz, who described him as an “ultimate boy scout” due to his militant approach to work.
While Sankar’s career at Xoom saw him expanding the company to over 40 countries, he surrendered to his ambition in 2006 and transferred to Washington D.C. to become the 13th employee of Palantir.
Initially, the defense tech company struggled to attract investors who were skeptical of government work. However, its first major success arrived with an investment from In-Q-Tel, a CIA-affiliated venture firm, who helped them obtain security clearances.
Since then, Palantir has achieved significant milestones, including a $480 million contract with Project Maven. Additionally, the company’s influence has extended to other defense tech ventures, with co-founder Joe Lonsdale financing major startups through his firm 8VC and ex-employees creating companies like Anduril, Saronic Technologies, and Wraithwatch.
Shankar’s programs to support defense tech startups
With 18 years of experience at Palantir, Sankar has suggested ambitious initiatives, such as building a military reserve for tech leaders and urging the Department of Defense to ease contractor regulations.
Nevertheless, his real project, First Breakfast, seeks to transform these ideas into reality. First Breakfast drew inspiration from the 1993 “Last Supper,” in which defense companies came together to consolidate their operations and reduce costs in response to the decrease in the defense budget.
Essentially, this project consists of a set of software tools created to simplify the government approval process in support of new defense tech startups. One of these tools is FedStart, which allows startups to access Palantir’s platforms Apollo and Rubix, speeding government accreditation procedures and saving millions.
First Breakfast also offers free access to military data through secure APIs. Rebellion Defense CEO Ben FitzGerald praised the project’s tools for reducing time, complexity, and compliance.
“Those are the sorts of innovations that I’m really excited to see, because it doesn’t require an act of Congress,” FitzGerald said. “It doesn’t require a new Deputy Secretary of Defense to come in and try to innovate. We can work with the existing systems.”
No doubt, First Breakfast is a strategic move for Palantir to excel in the industry, but Shankar emphasizes that it was primarily created for the defense tech’s shared mission.
Despite this success, he also acknowledged that providing software alone is not enough to guarantee the continuous flooding of investments due to uncertainties about exits. Shankar hopes that major defense companies will soon snatch up these startups, thereby improving the ecosystem’s value.
