Palmer – founded Oculus, Anduril
Elon’s “what did you get done this week” as a clear filter for who agrees / disagrees with you
“It’s time to build”
What helped him start Oculus
1. Started dissembling and assembling smartphones – funded a lot of his early R&D
2. PC gamer – after 8 monitor setup, he asked “what’s next from here?”
3. Mod retro – modding game systems like N64, adding screens, batteries, etc
Oculus was a community of people learning hardware + software – very collaborative, helping and sharing work
Bunch of teenagers
Early employees were moderators / participants on Mod Retro
Oculus was not just a headset – it was the engaged community and SDK that made it easy to build VR software
At 19yo, realized Oculus was not just cheaper but also better than VR headsets available in the market
Predistortion was a novel mainstream idea at that point
Met John Carmack – he was studying VR because he was posting on a different forum, and Palmer helped him
“John is one of top 10 most productive people in tech”
Absolutely brilliant; doesn’t care if he upsets you; tells you exactly what he thinks and will always do things the way he thinks is right; deeply understands hardware + software (not just assembly but also deep into each piece of hardware and how it operates)
Not only made Quake and Doom but started a rocket company well before Elon
Also would hot-rod cars and was world-class at this
AR vs VR is a spectrum
Eg, VR world but when you bring your own hands in
Eg, AR but you edit out elements of background
It’s all the same – “allow person to see or experience anything they can imagine”
Aarthi: Why start Anduril?
Anduril is more successful than Oculus on any measurable metric – but everyone knows Oculus because it was consumer tech
Couldn’t retire – ego wouldn’t let him – it was partly spite (“they’re gonna regret it, and they’re gonna look like idiots”) – regarding Facebook firing him
All the criticisms – “there wasn’t a place for him”, “the company has grown past him” – a lot of passive aggressive takes, really dismissive of him
Settled on national security (Anduril) because it was the most important problem he could work on
Existing tech cos couldn’t work with US government because they were beholden to China, foreign governments and suppliers
Before Oculus, worked at army-funded VR research lab (military VR projects)
Saw how far behind DoD was on technology, made industry friends
Became concerned when he was in Silicon Valley and culturally everyone there thought working on defense was bad
Growing up, his favorite media characters were weapons manufacturers – big fan of Yu Gi Oh, Iron Man
“Did I have a choice in any of this?”
Wanted to punch above his weight, certain it would be / become important
Clear that Russia will invade Ukraine, China will invade Taiwan
We’re going to build tools to defend western democracy – and one day, everyone else will understand it
Most tech workers are pro military – but often not willing to say it
But very vocal minority who are anti-military – and executives use them to advance agendas
Google’s project Maven – working with military in small capacity – lots of protest, 1000s of Googlers signed petition against it – but that’s only 1% of Google’s workforce!
Most defense cos (the primes) work on cost-plus basis – doesn’t incentivize the best work
Before Anduril, only 2 unicorns who worked with military – Palantir and SpaceX – while there were 4 mattress unicorns, 100 gaming unicorns
Tech founders are turned off by this, hard to get scale, can’t recruit best people
Smart investors don’t invest in them either
When started Anduril, had more people on PR and government relations than engineering – you need it for defense
Core of early Anduril were ex-Oculus, ex-Palantir
ON RUSSIA – UKRAINE
Conflict headed in a bad direction – Anduril’s been involved since 2nd week of conflict
Met Zelensky shortly after he was elected – at that time US didn’t want to sell military tech to Ukraine because it was afraid of provoking Russia
Ukraine has re-built extraordinarily quickly – Kiev does not feel like a war zone
Russia has full control over media in their own nation – probably their most powerful weapon
Lots of Russian soldiers believed in invading they were actually helping liberate pro-Russian Ukrainians – thought it’d be over in a few days
See parallels with China – Taiwan
Russia able to convince their citizens of a crazy lie, what about China?
Not independent free thinking people
Putin very likely to use a tactical nuke
-US believes nukes are strategic weapons – huge bombs to take out large cities – dis-assembled all our tactical nukes
-Tactical nukes are smaller, more limited, used to win a battle, not a war
-Russia has tactical nukes, part of their military doctrine, way to even the odds with NATO
-thinks Putin will use it to blow up an airfield, or take out a heavily built up military area
Europe headed to winter – really need Russian gas
Anti-nuclear people – “what a disaster”
People unwilling to sacrifice like they did during WW2
Putin sees our resolve isn’t that strong
“There’s no easy button”
If Putin is killed, the one who replaces him probably isn’t better
CHINA – TAIWAN
Some of Taiwan’s weapons purchases are buying wrong things – trying to build large submarines that can’t fight in Strait; buying non-stealth jets that are easy to shoot down
Some Taiwanese politicians want to appear strong, but won’t actually deter Chinese aggression
Taiwanese billionaire committed to buying $100s of millions in small weaponized drones, other asymmetric weapons – “that’s worth noting”
Theory for how the conflict plays out
-China won’t do massive large scale invasion and raise the flag a week later
–Will launch trade blockade to block all harbors
-Have a narrative to justify to local Chinese – enforce customs, immigration, tax law
–Expel every merchant ship that comes to Taiwan
-This makes it less likely that Taiwan’s allies will start shooting war
-How many are willing to see US fire the first shot in a “trade dispute”?
-Will be devastating to US economy
US carrier group used to be unbeatable – but in war games, they’re increasingly vulnerable – China won’t fire 5 hypersonic missiles they’ll fire 300
In China the best companies are required by law to work with military
Only thing that could stop China would be economic collapse
People don’t build in China because it’s cheap – that’s old school thinking
Chinese are very competent, very smart, unmatched supply chain, government that gets stuff done even at expense of human rights
Apple only shifting out of China to extent that Chinese government allows it – eg 10% to Germany or 5% to Japan, “China would lose its minds”
During Oculus, critics weren’t upset at what he actually did – more upset at what media reported that he did
Biggest mistake was Facebook PR convinced him to not fight the criticism
Online editor of his college newspaper – understands how media works
He encourages entrepreneurs to confront haters, be aggressive – make yourself too prickly a target to lie about
If they lie about you, you’re going to punch back
“King of direct communication” – Trump
VR wasn’t popular when he started Oculus – was a joke technology when he first tried to raise money
After Oculus, looked at several other areas other than Anduril
1. petroleum food products to solve obesity epidemic
2. private prison reform – only charge governments after prisoners served sentence and remained out of prison for 5 years
See a lot of founders that think they’re better than they are – important to accurately assess your strengths
Job of executive is to make themselves obsolete
If you really love tech, do not start a tech company – start it if you want to work on nonstop bullshit – HR, fundraising, interpersonal employee issues, working with gov’t regulators