Leadership Lessons from Palantir: Talent Focus

Full Interview: Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder and CEO of Anduril, joins Sourcery to discuss the company’s scale, strategy, and position in the defense market. He outlines Anduril’s growth to roughly 7,000 employees, $1B+ in revenue with continued YoY doubling, and a reported $30.5B valuation (too low?), while addressing IPO speculation & these wild “fake SPVs.”

The conversation covers geopolitical instability, production constraints in the U.S. defense industrial base, and how the nearly $1 trillion defense budget is actually allocated to personnel, infrastructure, and sustainment, rather than new procurement. Schimpf draws on leadership lessons from Palantir, highlighting creativity, high agency (“Artisty & Meritocracy’), and long-term alignment with military needs.

Schimpf also explains Anduril’s expansion from early autonomous systems into a portfolio spanning autonomous aircraft, cruise missiles, electronic warfare, and networked sensing and command platforms, enabled by a shared software and hardware foundation built around Lattice. Emphasizing the company’s focus on a distributed, autonomous battlefield and the ability to rapidly field new capabilities.

FWIW: Spending time on Anduril’s campus ahead of the final interview of the day offered such a strong view into the scale and complexity of the organization Brian is leading. Walking through the facility and meeting with the founding team made the scope of Anduril’s operations very real, but also highlighted just how complementary their skill sets are and how that translates into execution at scale. And with that, I have concluded that given the company’s growth, momentum, & market position.. Anduril may still be undervalued.

Brian Schimpf: https://x.com/SchimpfBrian

Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc

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YouTube : https://youtu.be/P5dsb28UVec

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