Alex Karp's Unconventional Leadership
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Sam Parr shares a story about Alex Karp, the unconventional CEO of Palantir, based on a New York Times article.
"Alex Karp is the CEO of Palantir, which is almost a $100 billion company. They're controversial because they typically have a libertarian to republican lean culture in Silicon Valley. He's a freak because he grew up in Germany and says ridiculous stuff.
He has a Jewish mom and a black dad and jokes 'I can get away with anything.' He'll say things on quarterly earnings calls like 'the only time I'm not thinking about Palantir is when I'm cross country skiing or having sex.'
He was raised in Germany, went to school as a philosophy major. He and Peter Thiel used to argue all the time - Peter's right of center, Alex is left of center. He said they would argue like ravenous animals and because of that they fell in love with each other. Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale came to Karp with this idea for Palantir, and he was the perfect person to lead the company.
I have friends who report to him at Palantir and they love him. They call him 'Papa Karp' or 'Daddy Karp' - they revere him like this wise sage guy. He's just living in his own world."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.