Here in London.
It's not London, it's my cabin in New Hampshire.
We have [...] between [...] and here
and we work very productively here.
We have a guest, you, who has come from France
to discuss the things we have launched.
But first, you have to tell everyone who you are.
Hello, everyone. My name is Wiem.
I am an engineer here at Palantir.
But how long have you been working here?
I have been working here for four years.
Okay. And why did you start working at Palantir?
Because I wanted to work in a company
which has values that are similar to mine.
What are the values here?
- It's... - Which ones?
Which ones, yes. What values?
It's actually being able to use technology
to positively influence people’s lives.
And for me, it has always been Palantir's mission,
to use technology to increase
our ability to work better,
to make better decisions,
to protect our freedoms, too.
And that’s something I thought was quite unique for...
And if... In my opinion, if you start working hard,
you had to work for 10,
maybe 20 years before you were given any responsibilities.
When you started working here, how long was it before
you had the opportunity to do real, important work?
Since I started.
Since I started, it has always been the case.
There is a lot of room
to be creative, to influence things.
And everyone trusts us to really work,
to promote the things we think are important.
This is not necessarily the case outside of Palantir.
And now we have launched a new program
- and you're the coordinator. - Yes.
You are the leader for France.
- Leader - I don't know if I am the leader.
Yes, but in my opinion, you are the leader.
And me, in that sense, I work for you.
You have to explain what we want to do in France to me
and why.
We recently launched a program called Foundry For Builders,
which is a program which is intended to help startups to...
But why is it essential to help startups?
And why are these things important for Foundry and startups?
We can...
Yes. No, it's a very good question.
We think Foundry can help these startups to accelerate
their product development
by providing a data infrastructure that allows them
to focus on the things that are important,
that set them apart,
and to use the platform to cope with
all the complexities of data engineering.
And so that's why we want to make it available.
It is a technology we've been developing for years
with players who are all more or less at the forefront of their industry,
and so we want to take the same technology
and to make it available to future players
and hopefully, become the platform...
But Foundry, what is it?
Is it an engine for data integration?
s it an engine for protecting data?
What can you do with Foundry?
With, Foundry... Foundry is...
What are you? Are you actually a specialist, a technician?
I studied as an engineer,
so I don't know if I'm technical enough,
but I really like what I do
and I always try to keep abreast
of what is happening in the field,
but I am not the one who develops the platform, I help...
Yes, but you can use it, you can understand how it works.
- And how does it work? - Foundry, it's...
If you explained it to someone like you
who wants to start a company in France, what would you say?
It is an operational platform for data.
It’s a bit like an OS, an Operating System,
but for data.
For example, Microsoft can be for a computer,
Windows can be for a computer,
we are a bit like that, but for data.
The idea is that if I was an entrepreneur instead of me,
if I had to build a final product,
instead of spending a lot of time with my engineers, using my resources,
which are very critical, because I really need to survive
and move forward very quickly....
Instead of using these resources to develop tools
for managing data
that won't necessarily make any difference to my business ,
well, I can use Foundry
and build my product using this platform.
So the entire data integration,
the entire transformation of this data,
the entire availability of this data
can be managed in Foundry.
And I can build things that are more meaningful...
That means that if you want to start a company,
you can try to do that,
but you need a lot of money and a lot of time.
Or, you can talk to us
and by talking to us, you will be able to start
- your business in a few days. - That's it.
It's very good. That's exactly it.
We saw that the added value was really the speed
with which you can develop things using Foundry.
And the same thing could take years to develop
if it had to be done from scratch
using different types of open source
or off the shelf tools.
And I’m really interested,
because I know, like many people,
people in France are among
the smartest, most interesting people in the world,
but actually need an engine to help run their business better.
Otherwise, it is quite difficult to compete.
- How do you say that? - Competition?
Competition with...
It is difficult to compete with, perhaps, American companies
who have a lot of money.
And also perhaps for many more people
that have already founded a company,
but with that, we can level the playing field.
Yes, I agree. And Dr. Karp, why do you, think that
it's a good idea to work in France,
that it is a country that interests us, here at Palantir?
It's true that we have had a lot of work in France
for a very long time.
And, just so you know, I studied philosophy
and for me,
I think people who have studied philosophy
and who have a traditional European mindset
France is France.
It is not necessary to explain why France is France,
but it's France.
And if you want to look at history,
at morality
and other things,
it's impossible to think about history
without thinking about France.
And I think we can support France.
And France also supported Palantir.
Yes, I agree.
Great. And so, Dr. Karp,
you also know that we're launching a partnership with Station F,
which is a large startup incubator in France,
and one of the largest in Europe.
Why do you think it's... Why do we want to do that?
You know, some things are simpler in the United States than in France.
You can launch a business in the United States
even if you didn't go to college,
even if you didn't study at Harvard
and even if your parents didn't go to college.
In my opinion, it is more difficult to do this in France
and if we support startups in France,
we also support people who were born in the wrong place,
who have not studied, like you, at prestigious schools,
and we also get the opportunity
to do very great very important things.
And it is very important for the future of France
that this type of person, and everyone in France,
also has the same level of opportunity,
at the technical level as in the U.S.
And I can't do much to support that,
but with Foundry For Builders in France,
I think we can help.
Great, but...
We are very happy and we can't wait to see the results.
- Thank you. - Thank you.