Ask HN: Palantir or Facebook?

If you want to get into startups with enterprise customers, then maybe palantir is the right choice, but otherwise you'd learn a lot more about customer acquisition at facebook since there are probably a few hundred startups that all use facebook for customer acquisition.

I also don't see how palantir makes the US government more efficient -- they're mostly a big data mining company. They make fancy predictions which help locate terrorists, allocate finances, and other cool things, but the only thing that will make politics efficient are effective politicians. Data mining won't mash out all the filibusters that happen at the house.

I would say if you want to learn about data mining and machine learning techniques, palantir is the right choice.

If you want to do a startup later, facebook is the right choice. Facebook tends to buy out many small startups, so there will be many at that company who have the same mindset as you do. This is important should you decide to look for cofounders who have the same startup passions. I can't really think of any startups acquired by palantir.

I'll also mention that it's easier to placate investors if you tell them your startup team consists of ex-facebook or ex-google employees. A startup with ex-palantir employees just doesn't have the same homerun ring to it, and when investors are making that gut judgement call after looking at 2 slides from your 5 minute pitch, they're going to go with the team with ex-facebook employees.

In 5 years, would you prefer to say:

I worked at Facebook for 5 years. or I worked at Palantir for 5 years.

Plantir doesn't have the same brand recognition as Facebook. I personally think Facebook will look better on a resume.

Working with founders from acquired companies is not a great way to meet co-founders. First, many will have already "made it" and won't have the same drive that they once had. Second, if they do, they'll prefer to work (and socialize with) with other people who are like them -- other successful founders. Maybe they'll let you be an employee at their new startup.

Palantir is full of people who are itching to start a company, and we'll see dozens of startups by Palantir alums after Palantir exits (it's already happening; see posterous.com). The founders of these companies will have unique experience and connections in government and finance, giving them the option to target enterprise problems instead of entering the over-crowded consumer startup scene.

As far as reputation among Silicon Valley investors, having worked at Palantir will look at least as good as having worked at Facebook or Google over the next few years, especially now that Facebook and Google are already big and successful. Joining Facebook or Google today is relatively lazy; it's not as impressive to join a company that's already hugely successful as it is to join a company and contribute to making it successful. Assuming a choice between Palantir and Facebook, an entrepreneurial person with confidence in his/her ability to make a company successful will join Palantir.