Michael Steinberger

But I became myself in my adolescence in Germany.

His father's family had come from Germany, and he wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and why Germany, which had been the

pinnacle of European civilization, descended into such barbarism and turned on its Jewish population so savagely.

And he ends up writing his dissertation on the rhetoric of fascism.

Meanwhile, Peter Thiel is back in the United States.

He works for a time for a New York law firm, then ends up working at an investment bank.

Unsatisfied with that, he heads back out to Silicon Valley, where the dot-com boom is underway, and co-founds an online payments company, PayPal, in 1998.

Three years later, the world changes.

When 9-11 happens.

Thiel wonders if the attack could have been prevented had government agencies been able to more readily share information with one another.

The FBI had information.

The CIA had information.

If that information had been pooled, it's possible the attack could have been prevented.

The 9-11 Commission, when it issued its final report in 2004, said that there had been a failure to connect the dots, in part because information was siloed.

And this is the idea that gives rise to Palantir.

Thiel believed he could create a company that would help intelligence analysts connect the dots, find the needles in the haystack, and prevent future attacks.

And it's around this time that Karp resurfaces in the Bay Area.

He's back from Germany, and he and Thiel reunite.

Thiel asks Karp to help him raise some money for Palantir.

This company's trying to get off the ground.