Joe Lonsdale

I didn't build anything in social media, but I worked for Peter Thiel after PayPal. He had a global macro hedge fund, but he also was the first investor in Facebook at the time. I don't get any credit for that either, but I got to know really well the Facebook founders and the office and the culture. Then right after that, he backed me to start Palantir with my roommate from Stanford.

I'd always been pretty interested in it. If you look at So computer science is like maybe a young man who likes things young men like. There's games and there's cool defense stuff. And when you grew up in computer science in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s, you'd constantly hear stories about stuff the NSA was doing and the U.S.

I'd always been pretty interested in it. If you look at So computer science is like maybe a young man who likes things young men like. There's games and there's cool defense stuff. And when you grew up in computer science in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s, you'd constantly hear stories about stuff the NSA was doing and the U.S.

I'd always been pretty interested in it. If you look at So computer science is like maybe a young man who likes things young men like. There's games and there's cool defense stuff. And when you grew up in computer science in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s, you'd constantly hear stories about stuff the NSA was doing and the U.S.

government was doing that was way ahead of everything else back in the 60s and 70s. So it was almost this mythical... where there's just some of the coolest, most talented guys were there.

government was doing that was way ahead of everything else back in the 60s and 70s. So it was almost this mythical... where there's just some of the coolest, most talented guys were there.

government was doing that was way ahead of everything else back in the 60s and 70s. So it was almost this mythical... where there's just some of the coolest, most talented guys were there.

There's literally stuff that was done by the NSA in the 70s that the very top academics at Stanford and MIT and et cetera only figured out 15 years later what the heck they were doing and why they were doing it that way. It was just this, this is what the cool guys are doing and the smartest people are doing. They're working on these problems.

There's literally stuff that was done by the NSA in the 70s that the very top academics at Stanford and MIT and et cetera only figured out 15 years later what the heck they were doing and why they were doing it that way. It was just this, this is what the cool guys are doing and the smartest people are doing. They're working on these problems.

There's literally stuff that was done by the NSA in the 70s that the very top academics at Stanford and MIT and et cetera only figured out 15 years later what the heck they were doing and why they were doing it that way. It was just this, this is what the cool guys are doing and the smartest people are doing. They're working on these problems.

As a kid, you watch James Bond and you look at this stuff, you want to get the bad guys. You want to stop the bad guys. I was always fascinated by that world. At PayPal, The thing that came up, by the way, was central to this, was the Chinese and Russian mafia were stealing all our money. You know about this?

As a kid, you watch James Bond and you look at this stuff, you want to get the bad guys. You want to stop the bad guys. I was always fascinated by that world. At PayPal, The thing that came up, by the way, was central to this, was the Chinese and Russian mafia were stealing all our money. You know about this?

As a kid, you watch James Bond and you look at this stuff, you want to get the bad guys. You want to stop the bad guys. I was always fascinated by that world. At PayPal, The thing that came up, by the way, was central to this, was the Chinese and Russian mafia were stealing all our money. You know about this?

So PayPal was losing several million dollars a month, back then that was a lot of money, and it was very unprofitable because you'd go use your card down the street at 7-Eleven and the cashier there is not getting paid very well. So they're secretly taking the numbers and they sell 100 numbers online to the Russians

So PayPal was losing several million dollars a month, back then that was a lot of money, and it was very unprofitable because you'd go use your card down the street at 7-Eleven and the cashier there is not getting paid very well. So they're secretly taking the numbers and they sell 100 numbers online to the Russians

So PayPal was losing several million dollars a month, back then that was a lot of money, and it was very unprofitable because you'd go use your card down the street at 7-Eleven and the cashier there is not getting paid very well. So they're secretly taking the numbers and they sell 100 numbers online to the Russians

for like 500 bucks, and then the Russians would take those numbers, run them through accounts, pretend you did transactions. And you get this thing later that says, PayPal, $200. And you're like, I didn't do PayPal $200. So you say no to your credit card company. It's called a chargeback. PayPal has to eat it. And so this was happening at massive scale.

for like 500 bucks, and then the Russians would take those numbers, run them through accounts, pretend you did transactions. And you get this thing later that says, PayPal, $200. And you're like, I didn't do PayPal $200. So you say no to your credit card company. It's called a chargeback. PayPal has to eat it. And so this was happening at massive scale.

for like 500 bucks, and then the Russians would take those numbers, run them through accounts, pretend you did transactions. And you get this thing later that says, PayPal, $200. And you're like, I didn't do PayPal $200. So you say no to your credit card company. It's called a chargeback. PayPal has to eat it. And so this was happening at massive scale.

And PayPal and its competitors were going under thanks to this. And so we had to figure out at PayPal How do you go after it? We actually ended up taking a bunch of our customer service people, building these tools for them, building investigative tools, and then helping them figure out how to stop and catch some of the bad guys and then turn them into Secret Service and FBI.