Author: Brendan Quinlan Page 5 of 7

by Sid Gopinath

We have a pretty cool video in the works for all of you blog viewers. On the afternoon of Monday, July 21, after an incredible life coaching session with Patty Leeper, all of the DSV students packed into cars and drove over to LinkedIn headquarters.

LinkedIn had graciously allowed us to use a space in one of their buildings to film a series of interviews with DSV students, faculty members, and alumni. When we arrived, we realized how lucky we truly were. The company had opened up the entire cafeteria and lounge area to us, as well as a dedicated space to film everything. So, for the students who weren’t filming or being filmed, there were plenty of ping pong and foosball games to be played, in addition to plenty of food to be eaten and work to be done.

The students working on the video were guided away from the noise of the lounge area and to our dedicated filming space. Amy Unell had also brought in her friend, documentary filmmaker Rebekah Fergusson, to help with the shoot. Within moments of setting our bags down, we realized we were in the hands of a true professional. Rebekah guided us through the shoot in the calmest and most efficient manner. She had brought along lights and professional microphones, which helped us really nail the interviews. Whether it was suggestions for questions or patient guidance through the filming process, Rebekah was always there to help us. Without her, this video would look very different and not nearly as professional and crisp!

After rearranging the furniture, Rebekah and Matt Chambers set up their cameras for the interviews. Over the next four hours, Shannon Beckham interviewed twenty-two people involved with the program. Occasionally, I would toss in a follow-up question or two. We had several people who rotated in and out typing out “soundbites” from each interview. These soundbites would be used later in the editing process to choose the best segments of each interview.

We had been allotted three hours to complete the filming. But, because we are all enamored with this program, everyone had a lot to say about it. Some comments overlapped (everyone seems to think Matt Christensen is “intimidating and tall” when they first met him), while others were fantastically unique (Ben Peters shared with us his hope that George Bush Sr. and Matt Christensen meet one day to compare their unique sock collections).

Overall, thanks to the enthusiasm and flexibility of everybody involved, we captured a great series of interviews. Once again, a special thanks to Rebekah Ferguson for taking time out of her busy day to help with this student video. Over the next few weeks, we will be editing and polishing it. And it will be awesome.

by Regan Fiascone

If there’s one way a company can win us over, it’s with free food. LinkedIn got off on the right foot when they opened up their headquarters to us on Monday night to film a video documentary about DSV. We were able to hangout in their lounge area and eat dinner at their cafeteria while taking turns getting interviewed and filmed. The lounge was filled with snacks, game tables, and seating areas, and we easily made ourselves comfortable. It felt like we were getting a true “day in the life” type of view of the company. The environment was casual and friendly, and lots of people stuck around after work to mingle and enjoy dinner together.

On Wednesday afternoon, we made our return for an official visit and were again greeted with free food. Their cafeteria is set up similarly to a college dining hall with many options for employees. Once we’d explored and gathered our lunch of choice, we headed to a separate building in the LinkedIn complex for our presentation. We heard from two Duke alums and one past DSV participant, Courtney Sanford, who all worked for the nonprofit segment of the company, LinkedIn for Good. They told us about their career journeys so far and how they ended up where they are now.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the visit was when Courtney walked us through the so-called “LinkedIn Etiquette.” All of us are relatively new users, so we were in desperate need of some guidance as far as do’s and don’t’s. This wasn’t like deciding whether to friend someone on Facebook; LinkedIn is a professional platform and learning how to navigate it appropriately can be a challenge. Besides tips about who to connect with and how, we were shown some of the search features to find people in specific companies or narrow by other fields, such as Duke alumni.

One fact that really stuck out was that 70% of all jobs are found through networking. After spending this month in the valley, I truly believe that. Almost every company we’ve visited has emphasized the value of making and maintaining connections so that you can stand out when applying for a job. LinkedIn is an amazing tool for doing just that. Immediately following the visit, we all rushed home to update our profiles, make new connections, and for some, create accounts for the first time.

Want to know more? Connect with the DSVer’s on LinkedIn!

by Sierra Smith and Brian Bolze

It’s one thing to tour a company’s headquarters, but it’s quite another to talk openly with someone who has many years of first hand experience in the industry.  This past Thursday morning, we took a break from class and had the opportunity to listen to two Duke alumni share experiences from their careers and give us some valuable advice about how to make the most of ours.  One of those speakers was Shea Di Donna.  Shea graduated from Dickinson College with a duel degree in English and psychology, and worked as an analyst at Barclays before entering the world of venture capital.  In 2004, Shea started a company called The Art of Organization which offers organization services to both other businesses and personal clients.  She went on to work at True Ventures, where she started True University, an annual two-day conference in which entrepreneurs from various backgrounds come together and learn from each other’s experiences.  Most recently, Shea founded Zana, “a free platform for peer-led knowledge exchange on every aspect of furthering an idea, creating a startup, building a team, and scaling for growth.”

Through telling personal stories, Shea taught us seven lessons for us to keep in mind as we pursue our education, careers, and personal lives:

Lesson 1: Pursue your passion

Some of us are rising sophomores deciding what to major in, some are juniors looking at internship opportunities for next year, and some are seniors deciding where to apply for a job after graduation, or whether or not to go to graduate school.  What we all have in common is a big decision to make about our futures.  As we weigh our interests, input from friends and family, and social pressure, Shea encouraged us to stay true to what we’re passionate about and trust that we’ll end up where we need to be.  Shea pursued her interests of English and psychology, which, through an unexpected path, actually led her to work in venture capital, demonstrating to us that our passions don’t limit us but can actually lead us to new opportunities.

Lesson 2: Seek out opportunities

After getting a job in venture capital, Shea realized that it was not what she had expected it to be like.  She hadn’t had any previous experience in that field and had only formed impressions through what she’d heard by word of mouth, and, although she didn’t regret her decision at all, she would have liked to have a better idea of what she was getting in to.  She encouraged all of us to take as many opportunities as we can to learn about the fields we’re interested in and to accumulate experiences that we can draw on in the future.  This was one of my favorite lessons, and I’ve already started to see the benefits of it during our program.  As a computer science major, I’d unintentionally narrowed my career options to developing software at a large computer software firm such as Apple or Microsoft or HP.  However, after many site visits to places like Tesla and Survey Monkey, I’ve realized that there are so many possible opportunities for me in the future, and I look forward to finding unexpected places where I could intern in the following summers.

Lesson 3: Take worthwhile risks

One day Shea got an unexpected call from the CEO at Barclays, a man she’d never heard of from a company she was also unfamiliar with.  The CEO had read about an intensive honors research project Shea had completed not long ago as an undergraduate at Dickinson and admired her passion, dedication, and hard work.  He was calling her on this particular day to offer her a job.  Shea was very surprised, and even more so as she learned that the firm was in an industry that she had no training for.  She was reluctant at first to take the offer, but decided after some consideration that she should take the job, and the risk, and try something new.  It can be hard to take risks when you put something as major as your career or job in jeopardy, but as Shea demonstrated to us, sometimes they really pay off. Shea learned a lot at Barclays, and went on to work in venture capital for 12 years.

Lesson 4: Self Care & Personal Branding

Shea noted that, at the beginning of our careers, we might have a tendency to dedicate all of our time to our work, not knowing when enough is enough.  However, this often comes at the sacrifice of self-care.  Although it may sound cliché, it cannot be truer that you can’t take care of anything or anyone if you can’t take care of yourself.

In addition, Shea pointed out a key change that’s occurred in the job model: previously, people would enter a company at a low level position and slowly work their way towards the top of that company, and industry, over time.  People would used to stay put in their field, and dedicate time to gaining a better title.  Today, however, this “escalator model” is broken; people switch career paths much more often, sometimes completely switching fields, and thus resetting their position in the hierarchy of that industry.  This is something we’ve observed already from our guest speakers, many of whom have career paths that include experience in a variety of different industries.  With this change in mind, it is important as every to build up the brand that is you.  Educate yourself to the best of your ability, and network at every opportunity – both things we’ve all been dedicated to as we spend our time here in Silicon Valley, and that we’ll continue to do even after we leave.

Lesson 5: Create something of lasting value

One of my career aspirations has been to make a lasting impact on whatever industry I end up in, so this lesson hit home for me.  In one of our assignments for class, we read that one difference between a good leader and a great leader is that a great leader will make a large effort to ensure that his company or group continues to do well even after he or she is gone, and Shea echoed the value in creating something that lasts.  One lasting impact that Shea is especially proud of is her development of True University, a two-day conference in which entrepreneurs from various backgrounds come together and learn from each other’s experiences.  True University, which Shea developed while she worked at True Ventures, has now become an annual tradition.

Lesson 6: Leave things better than you found them

Lesson 7: Pay it forward

The last two lessons are tied together through the theme of giving back, something that can sometimes be easily forgotten.  We’ve all be fortunate to have many things in our lives, including a great college education and professor and mentors who are dedicated to our success, and these things have given us the ability to do something meaningful that can impact many others.

Shea left us with the recommendation that, if we’re going to spend a lot of time working on something, we should always start by asking ourselves, “Is this something the world needs?”  She also added two books to our summer reading list: The Startup of You and Hooked.

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Following a truly inspiring talk by Shea Di Donna, we were introduced, on Thursday, to Nicholas Zaldastani, Managing Director of Zaldastani Ventures. Mr. Zaldastani grew up right outside Boston, MA and also attended Duke studying Civil Engineering and Economics, just like our professor, Matt Christensen. He later got a French Diploma from the University of Paris, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked over six years with Oracle and later went on to co-found Open Horizon in 1994. After that he started Zaldastani Ventures, where he uses his venture capital and entrepreneurial experiences to help early to mid stage start-ups build successful enterprises.

Mr. Zaldastani’s presentation consisted of a series of simple but profound phrases and concepts that really tied together the spirit of entrepreneurship. One of the strongest concepts he illustrated to us was the difference between passion and drive. He began by asking us which of the two were more essential to success, if we had to choose one. There was a fairly even split among the class, with a slight skew towards drive. However, he then described to us how passion is, in fact, the strongest component of a successful business or career. One of the interesting pieces to this was how passion pulls people in and inspires others to work hard, whereas drive is more like a bulldozer having to push yourself and others to achieve, which is far more exhausting. He then used this as a basis for why finding your passion is so indispensably important in choosing your career.

Another interesting notion Nicholas described to us was the difference between a starter and a finisher. He explained how almost all of the extremely successful startups in the past few years were all founded by two people, one being the starter and the other being the finisher. For example Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Co-Founders of Google, were not exactly best friends from the beginning. They bickered constantly and debated about everything, but shared a similar vision about the future and on innovation. Most importantly however, these differences kept them both in check, and allowed them to be extremely effective as a pair because they offset each other’s weaknesses.

Mr. Zaldastani’s advice was refreshing, creative, and ultimately inspiring. His experiences as an entrepreneur and the way he told his story was fascinating, and throughout the presentation none of us could look away. With all of the strategies and theories he illustrated to us, I feel all of us are much more prepared for the exciting and ever-changing entrepreneurial world going ahead.

by Jack Heller

Tesla has a Willy Wonka-esque appeal to our generation.  Elon Musk is one of the most interesting entrepreneurs in the modern world, and the success of Tesla has been unique.  As our professor said, Tesla is an extremely rare example of a company that enters a market and almost immediately rises to a sustaining, rather than a disruptive position in the market it is associated with.  The Tesla name screams luxury and perfection.  It seems futuristic, and mysterious.  How does Tesla do it?  Our group was lucky enough to find out.

Toby Kraus, a Duke alum, greeted us outside the massive warehouse/factory tucked away in Fremont, CA.  We started by walking in to the lobby area, which seemed normal. As we entered the work space, the layout of the desks was similar to some of the other places we have seen thus far.  There seems to be a trend of having multiple desks all within a large open space, rather than individual offices or cubicles, allowing for conglomeration and teamwork to assemble.  We then arrived at the open warehouse where the materials were stored, and the prototypes were on display.  Toby noted how the first Tesla prototype cost well over $1 million to make.  I guess when one is designing a car trying to accomplish what Tesla set out to do, it makes sense that some pretty immense overhead costs would go into the first attempt.  As Toby said, you have to start somewhere.

The most fascinating part of the visit was when we got into the production portion of the factory, where we got to see the different steps in which the Tesla cars are made.  It is truly impressive that they make their entire product in house.  There are massive mechanical claw machines, presses, welders, and factory workers constantly rushing around with materials.  While there were no Oompa Loompas, it certainly seemed productive. To an outsider, it also had a sense of chaos, purely because it was so new to us. We were trying to take in as much as we could, in awe of the robotically programmed claws lifting parts of the car and putting them together, of the hot press that turned a sheet of aluminum into a perfectly crafted part of the car in seconds, and the constantly active network of workers driving around parts to other processes.  Toby mentioned that when he was hired, he actually worked in the production process for a couple of days; the company really wants its employees to truly understand the ins and outs of the entire company.

We finished the tour outside by inspecting a real Model S Tesla.  We all got to sit inside, check it out, and dream about the idea of owning one.  We got really lucky with the surprise appearance of one of the engineers on the team that designed the car, Huibert Mees.  A Duke alum, he also shed some light on the differences between working on the design team for a big motor company like Ford, and a smaller one like Tesla.  He said the beauty of the Tesla process was that they looked for things theycould do, rather than what they couldn’t.  He and Toby both emphasized how Elon Musk will not take no for an answer.  Unless there is a law of physics preventing them from adding something to their vehicle, Musk will find a way to make it happen.  He is truly a dreamer, and a sensational business leader who has taken both Tesla and SpaceX to front page news.  It was also helpful to hear some career advice from these two.  Toby started in finance for two years on Wall Street before turning down another offer.  He decided he had been pursuing what other people had laid out as a typical route to success.  Instead, he wanted to switch to a job that he was truly interested in and passionate about.  Huibert said he dreamed from day one of designing cars, and he has never wavered from pursuing that dream.  Both emphasized that we should find something we are passionate about, and not to do something purely for the money.  Overall, the Tesla site visit was one of the most fascinating ones yet, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have the opportunity to see Elon Musk’s Chocolate Factory.

by Matthew Chambers

After a busy morning of class and working diligently on our respective research papers, the group reconvened in the lobby of a sleek, glass building across from the Palo Alto train station. Upon entering through the large double doors, we were all immediately struck by the high vaulted ceilings, which rose above an assortment of tables and chairs, scattered throughout the space. After the last few students trickled in behind us, two figures stepped out from around a corner and walked toward the group. Hanna, who graduated from Duke this past spring and Dwight, a current rising junior at UNC, introduced themselves and split our class into two smaller groups, leading us into two different elevators at one end of the lobby. As the doors closed, my group comically waved goodbye to the other class members and up we went to the fourth floor.

The thick metal doors slid open and we stepped out into a truly extraordinary space. It looked like someone had taken a standard office layout and converted it into a modern art gallery. Countless surfaces sported large flat screens, displaying a variety of schedules and schematics, floor-to-ceiling panes of glass divided the expansive area into different conference rooms, and the brightly painted walls jumped out at us as we walked by. Dwight led our group past what looked like an in-house Whole Foods: shelves upon shelves of iced drinks and snacks lined the walls. Only after several prompts, we sheepishly helped ourselves to something small and continued to follow Dwight through the maze of rooms and hallways, all the while listening to a commentary on the world of strategic customer analytics.

Many of us knew of Survey Monkey only through encountering their random assortment of short questionnaires, often utilized by fellow classmates at Duke. However, Dwight was quick to explain that Survey Monkey was much more than that. Their new initiative, referred to as the Audience team, was dedicated to gathering customer feedback and lead qualification through extensive research and assembling it into a report, which would then be used by clients as a way to gauge potential customer interest in their new products. By using the analytics that the audience team had collected, companies would have the ability to pick one promising idea out of the many they’d brainstormed, versus picking several and spending much more money on having all of them developed for fear that they’d picked the wrong idea.

After we’d exhausted our questions and listened to Dwight’s explanation of how he’d landed his internship, we were brought down to the second floor for a brief glimpse of the Survey Monkey recreation room. If the ultra-high tech office space wasn’t enough to get me hooked, the full size drum kit, as well as foosball, Ping-Pong, and billiard tables definitely did the job. I couldn’t help but laugh as Dwight’s boss walked by, on his way to a “business meeting.” I don’t know if it was the Ping-Pong paddle in his hand or the fact that he was followed by three others holding paddles, but I was highly dubious that a PowerPoint was the subject of their discussion.

We were then whisked back to the elevators, where Dwight pressed the “R” button and up we went, to the best floor of them all. When the doors opened, we were hit by the direct glare of the afternoon sun, bathing the entire level in a yellow glow. As we all filed out, we realized that we had stepped out onto the roof of the building, which had been equipped with patio chairs, umbrellas and a full-size stone bar. There, we found the other group sitting with Hanna, who was busy fielding questions regarding her own career path, in addition to her general experience working for Survey Monkey.

For the last 15 minutes of the visit, we listened to Dwight and Hanna speak of the importance of networking while in the valley. As Hanna put it, “It’s extremely difficult to land a job in Silicon Valley if you don’t know anyone at the business; network as much as you can. Knowing at least one person will go a long way.” I definitely took those words to heart when we walked out of the office and back to the train station a few minutes later. Our time in California, although short, has already helped us make many invaluable connections with a variety of different people. Only a week and a half left until we go our separate ways but we’ll make the most of it. You stay classy, Survey Monkey.

by Shannon Beckham

Videos by Shannon Beckham, Colleen Chung, and Sid Gopinath.

During our recent visit to IDEO, Duke alumna and business developer, Misa Misono, proudly introduced us to one of the company’s latest creations: Spark. The memory-sharing app combines Vine’s video concept with Instagram-like filters and a sleek user interface to produce 45-second personal videos.

I immediately downloaded the Spark Camera, excited to test out the app’s features after just learning about IDEO’s innovative design process. With the tap of a finger, I recorded scenes on the go, swiped through the eleven featured filters, and uploaded a song from my phone’s music library. The editing process was simple, accurate, and even color-coded.

Spark has inspired us to creatively document our experiences while in the Silicon Valley. The videos below show the routines and highlights of the lives of DSV students. Studying in class, running on trails in Mountain View, visiting disruptive companies, and grilling burgers with friends — Spark has captured it all.

This is “A Day of DSV.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auyZ9Im9xzk

by Bryan Wang

We got out of the Uber car right under the Bay Bridge at Pier 28, and looked to our surroundings for the IDEO San Francisco office. Where is it? Surely a company as big as IDEO would have a building just as prominent.

“Oh hey look! It’s right here!” Someone shouted.

“Where?”

“Right here!”

Everyone turned around, and saw four tiny letters scattered on the wall of a warehouse-looking building: “I-D-E-O.” Next to the little sign was a metal gate with a red train track leading towards the San Francisco Bay. We skeptically followed the tracks and walked along the alley towards the water, and noticed a single door at the end. This must be the entrance of IDEO.

IDEO’s San Francisco office exterior

I walked in with the others, confused as to why I was entering IDEO’s warehouse. But I was wrong. It was indeed the San Francisco office of IDEO, which was converted from a docking warehouse. The inside of the “warehouse” was stylishly furnished, retaining the original wooden floorings of the warehouse while adding a blend of modern touches. It was pretty hipster, if you will. Oh, and there were watermelon sour patches at the reception desk!

The inside of IDEO’s office

The smart furnishings of the office easily impressed everyone. For those of you who don’t know what IDEO is, it is a product design and market-consulting firm that has offices all around the world. Other companies contract IDEO when they need someone to design a product and bring it to market. For example, IDEO designed the first ever mouse for Apple.

Our group was greeted by Misa, a Duke Fuqua alum who works at IDEO. She pointed to the wall across from the reception desk, which had 3 big words written at the very top: Learning, Fluency, Mastery. These are the keys to success at IDEO. You first start by identifying what skills you want to learn, then practice to get good at it, and finally become a master of it so that you can teach others. I think this is what drives the employees every single day. Working at IDEO is a constant learning process; and to work here, you must have a strong will to learn from your peers. We continued walking, past displays of previous products and walls covered in sticky notes, and reached the patio area where the employees come to chat and relax. The patio opened towards the ocean, and San Francisco Bay was in full view. Misa explained that the employees don’t have their own desks; rather, they rotate frequently based on the projects they’re on. For each project, teams are assembled so that people from different backgrounds (engineers, business managers like Misa, etc) are on the same team to provide different perspectives. The teams work with the company that came to IDEO for help, and design the products based primarily on what customers want and need. This human-centered approach lies at the core of IDEO’s values, and drives its processes everyday.

After the tour of the tightly-knit office, our long day of site visits came to an end (we had visited Students of the World and Rally.org earlier). IDEO was easily my favorite site visit. As a mechanical engineer, IDEO is exactly the kind of company that allows me to apply my skills very effectively. It is a cool place, with a cool philosophy, run by cool people. See you next time, IDEO!

by Caleb Ellis

With our first week of classes officially in the book, it’s safe to say that the quality, depth, and intensity of the dialogue Professor Christensen both expects and fosters has exceeded any and all of our preconceived notions. Within the span of just five classes we’ve covered topics ranging from investment banking and IPO’s to steel and plastic production to radiology and healthcare, honing in on a bevy of companies that interact and coexist within them.

More importantly, we’ve been introduced to theoretical frameworks that prompt us beyond simply reading a case, but challenge us to use conjecture and reasoning to draw conclusions on our own terms. It’s an empowering way to learn, one that demands a personal investment everyone has been willing to give.

Each class represents an evolution in and of itself. Professor Christensen dives right in, cold calling one of us to introduce the article, company, or dilemma at hand. From there, the conversation grows organically, so much so that you can observe the shift in processing of every student. In discussing the role that resources, processes, and priorities play in running a successful enterprise, our conversation grew from classifying these elements in a company to how they incubate innovation between one another. Instead of simply assigning a specific production method or manager as “innovative,” we began to dissect how autonomy can afford individuals the room they need to facilitate innovation, as well as when it does not. While this represents just one example, tackling these cases with such a diverse group of students brings the multifaceted nature of decision-making to the forefront. It requires everyone to identify how they arrived at their conclusion, and perhaps more importantly, how those who disagree arrived at theirs.

Thanks to some finagling (chocolate chip cookies still work wonders), our program coordinators Kimberley and Amy were able to secure us a new classroom off the main quad, right next to Stanford’s ornate mosaic-laden Romanesque church. Though it can’t quite replace the Duke Chapel, it’s a beautiful new backdrop for our commute from Mountain View, and the new classroom offers ample space and visibility, a serious upgrade from our original quarters.

While the rigor of the program has certainly begun to set in, recognizing the dynamism that has emerged from our brief time in Silicon Valley has been thrilling. Our early site visits offer a glimpse of what it will be like to incorporate the skills and passions we are cultivating the program into something tangible, and watching your classmates become enthralled with a company they’d previously never heard about establishes a palpable sense meaning to the program. Despite the work it requires, there is a unanimous desire to make our classes with Professor Christensen count for something more than letter grade. That desire, so colloquially thrown around as the spirit of Silicon Valley, has already begun to sharpen our convictions, ambitions, and confidence, pushing us toward an end product I can hardly wait to see realized.

by Dhrumil Patel

The moment finally arrived.

We moved out of Lyfe Kitchen (definitely a place I would recommend) after celebrating Jenny Scherl’s birthday and walked across the street to 100 Hamilton Avenue.

Our group stood anxiously outside Palantir’s headquarter, also known as the Shire, for our first official site visit. Both terms actually came from the Lord of the Rings (if you didn’t already guess so). Founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel and Alex Karp (current CEO), Palantir builds software that combines technology and data. Their software is used by numerous companies and governments to assist with cyber fraud, law enforcement, disease response, capital markets, healthcare, and other custom solutions.

Upon entering, we were greeted by a receptionist and security. One after another, we displayed our IDs and received a guest lanyard. After we all checked in, we were introduced to our tour guide, Jake Sanches, a business operations and development specialist. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in Philosophy and Neurology. Jake described his role at the company, his prior experience at a more traditional firm, and the history of Palantir (apparently Lord of the Rings wasn’t the only theme present — one floor was dedicated to Game of Thrones).

Thereafter, we explained the DSV program to Jake and what our hopes for the visit were. A lot of us were curious about opportunities for non-engineers and programmers at tech companies. Surprisingly, many of the workers at Palantir were not technical and a multitude of jobs were available for those without technical backgrounds but deep interests in tech, design, and product.

For the first leg of the tour, we were guided to the design hub. The design hub was located adjacent to the main building. The focus of the team in design was to create and continue iterations of design for the different programs Palantir has built. The hub was designed to offer a kitchen full of snacks and drinks, windows everywhere, and creative spaces. Another employee at Palantir gave us a tour of a few of their current projects. The titles, ranging from Raven to Valhalla, helped specific customers use their data to perform tasks such as manage legal documents, geo-tag health care respondents, and analyze where shoppers go. Because most of the work Palantir does is for financial institutions and governments, the work tends to be classified (makes working on projects much cooler anyways).

After viewing the projects, we returned to the Shire (formerly a Google and Facebook office) and ventured to the fourth floor conference room. After sitting down comfortable, Jake explained the culture at Palantir (a bit nerdy — but they aren’t afraid to show it), life at work (tons and tons of perks and people sometimes do stay the night to work), and internship opportunities.  Next, Jake offered us a look into the former Palantir software in action using scenario involving a virus outbreak and the CDC. Using the technology, he was able to accurately uncover the source of the disease (two farms in rural California) after analyzing the data given by the CDC. He also previewed the newer, web-integrated Palantir software.

Finally, another employee at Palantir, Alex, came by for Q&A and to discuss the recruiting process at Palantir (challenging but ultimately rewarding). Afterwards, we each received Palantir water bottles and thanked both Alex and Jake for allowing us to visit the Shire and learn more about the wonders at Palantir.

Overall, the tour was amazing and offered all of us an insight into one of the fastest growing (and secretive) companies in the Valley.

Save the Shire!