Health
8 Best Men’s Overcoat Styles For 2023 (And How To Wear Them)
The poor overcoat – one of the most important garments in the male wardrobe, yet the one that somehow gets overlooked time and time again. This isn’t to say you don’t have one, of course. Rather than, when you need one, it’s bought less with a sense of excitement as of tedium. One needs an overcoat, rather than wants one. It’s that protective layer required between destinations, where you shrug off the winter weather and unveil the clothing you really like.
And yet the overcoat needs to work in ways few other items of clothing do: it needs to stand up to the elements and be able to take repeated soakings; it needs to stand up to repeated wear, since this is one garment that, unlike most others, gets put on daily; and, for that reason, it needs to look more or less right with most of your clothes, smart and casual.
If you’re buying that cerise, fur-trimmed bum-freezer fashion number, good luck to you. For everyone else – as with shoes, which also have to take a lot of abuse – it pays to invest. A few extra quid is well worth it if you’re buying classics such as those listed below.
Buying Considerations
Buying an overcoat is one of the Big Purchases. An investment. Get it wrong and you might as well have spent the money on some winter sun. Get it right, however, and not only will it last years, but during that time, you’ll feel like Al Pacino every time you walk into a bar.
Here’s what to think about as you’re browsing the rails.
When You’ll Wear It
LESTRANGE
The big one, really. If this is part of your professional wardrobe to wear over a suit on the commute, think tailored. Look at crombies, trench coats and maybe oversized belted options.
If it’s for standing around the playground while your kids go crazy, consider a duffel or parka. It’ll be easy to scrub the mud off and plus-size pockets will store snacks, toys, maybe even a hip flask if it’s been one of those weeks.
Material
LESTRANGE
What’s the coat’s function, aside from making you look good? A waterproofed gabardine trench will keep you dry in a squall, but you’ll need to layer some knitwear underneath when the temperature drops.
A padded parka will insulate all day long but you won’t want to be trapped in one on a packed commuter train. Wool is a good middle ground. It’ll soak more rainfall than you’d expect and keep you warm on early-morning dog walks, too.
Colour
Mackintosh
Lots to consider here, not least your skin tone and what the rest of your wardrobe looks like. The staples are grey and navy, both more versatile than black and safer than camel or coffee tones. Not that you have to play it safe these days.
Primary colours are easier to pull off with outerwear (see bright yellow windbreakers). If that’s a bit much, khaki green offers something different without taking a huge gamble, just as it does with your legwear. Or you can add interest with pattern: checks, herringbone and mottled effects disrupt stuffy officewear and predictable streetwear alike.
Length
LESTRANGE
This one is mainly a question of proportion. Tall guys are (usually) best aiming for longer coat styles, the hem landing somewhere on the mid-thigh. This adds a horizontal break to your look.
Shorter men should do the opposite and opt for cropped styles unless you’re wearing a suit, in which case you need something that covers your jacket.
The Covert/Crombie Coat
ASKET
Thank Scottish weaver John Crombie, and a request from the Russian royal family for a coat suitable for wear in the country, for the covert coat. It’s named from the French “couvert” (a shady place or thicket) with its contrast velvet collar, ticket pocket, poacher’s inside pocket, distinctive bands of reinforcing stitching at cuff and hem and created in a smooth, thorn-proof, fawn or charcoal fabric.
This single-breasted, sometimes button-covered covert coat became the template for the Crombie coat – essentially the same design but in a heavier-weight wool. Both coats, for all of their upscale histories, can seem a tad spivvy, a touch Arthur Daly, in much the same way as the Chesterfield (another coat close on the same evolutionary branch of outerwear) can seem overly formal.
But the clean, sharp lines make this style ideal for wear over a suit – which is why it became a favourite of Churchill, Kennedy, Sinatra. Does it also work over a sweatshirt and jeans? Just about. Note: Churchill, Kennedy and Sinatra rarely wore sweatshirts and jeans.
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The Peacoat
Private White V.C.
Maybe it’s its military origins, but the peacoat always has a touch of machismo about it. Yet it’s about as hardy a coat as you could wish to have. A development of the short, double-breasted reefer jackets designed for sailors of the 19th century Royal Navy in a bid to smarten them up for official presentations, the definitive peacoat is that created for the US Navy in the run-up to the Second World War.
Made of a dense Melton wool, with a collar that, stood up, positively cocooned the head, a broad double-breasted fastening – first with eight and later with six buttons – that kept the Atlantic cold from vital organs, and two deep, corduroy-lined hand-warmer pockets, this peacoat has been copied endlessly. It’s a bonefide icon. What’s better still, get a sufficiently longer cut version and it works as well over tailoring as it does casualwear.
Get the calf-length version with gold buttons and that’s a bridge coat – also of a naval heritage, but hard to pull off down the pub.
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The Duffel Coat
Velasca
It’s hard to look at the duffel coat without thinking of Paddington Bear. Dispel that from your mind and think more of, say, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, leader of the Eighth Army, wartime renegade and a man who loved the style.
The duffel was a garment that didn’t belong to any one service but which came to be associated with the Navy. It supplied duffel coats to sailors and merchant seamen to wear on deck duty, whatever the weather.
A simple, unlined, mid-thigh-length woollen coat, with big patch pockets and a hood, its toggle fastening was said to be easy to fasten while wearing gloves and/or when you could no longer feel your fingers. Indeed, nobody owned their duffel coat: it was a general-purpose item picked up by whoever needed it at the time – rating or officer alike – and left for the next man afterwards.
That’s probably not an arrangement that will work for you. But here’s a coat that works well over casualwear. Unexpectedly perhaps, it also looks good over suiting, particularly in a dark shade, and on a man ready to carry it off.
Ape Recommends
The Car Coat
Brook Taverner
A car coat? Like, a coat designed for wearing in a car? Yes, precisely that. Once upon a time cars were very poorly insulated. Go even further back – to the early 1900s, when the car coat emerged – and they didn’t even have roofs. The car coat provided the solution to otherwise being both very cold and spoiling your “good” clothes underneath, and it’s an elegantly simple one at that.
The car coat is basically a single-breasted dense woollen layer, buttoned up to the neck, with a collar that can be turned up against the wind. It typically has two diagonal front welt pockets and is cut relatively short, to the upper thigh, with a slight A-line flair and without a rear vent, precisely to make it comfortable while seated.
It’s about a stripped back a coat design as one might imagine – practical, functional and easy to wear, which is why it was, in essence, the progenitor of the mac, which is in effect a car coat in a lighter waterproof fabric. The car coat is probably the least complicated of all coat designs, making it easy to wear in any way you choose.
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The Parka
Private White V.C.
Is the parka an overcoat or just a coat? The latter is arguably less versatile when it comes to dressing up. It’s another military garment, of course, so the design itself is impeccable. First issued in 1945 as part of a ‘cold-weather system’ – an unlined hooded outer came with a warm liner – it was finessed in 1948 and again, for the Korean War, in 1951, and then again in 1965.
The most recent iteration is the fishtail version beloved of mods and Liam Gallagher, in a faster-drying cotton/nylon blend fabric, with a detachable fur-trimmed hood. It comes loose fitting but has belts and strings that ensure you and whatever you are wearing below remain protected against the elements.
Therefore, it – and the many variants now on offer: shorter ones, brighter ones, ones for climbing Everest, others more for a country walk – certainly works as a coat. The question is whether the style, undoubtedly good dressed down, still works when you need to look a little more polished. With the right pieces (think smart-casual and business-casual, rather than full-on three-piece), it certainly does.
Ape Recommends
The Double-Breasted Overcoat
Wax London
Like its cropped cousin the pea coat, the double-breasted overcoat has a naval background. On the deck of a ship in the early 20th century, the double-breasted design bestowed an additional layer of protection against the wind and the spray. Officers, gentlemen and gangsters alike took the style onto dry land, where the style’s dramatic proportions spoke to power and elegance.
Characterised by twin rows of buttons at the front and a wide lapel and collar to be popped when the wind blows cold, this is a formal-looking coat. It’s at home over a suit. That’s not to say you can’t subvert it with casual dress but it’s not as versatile as others on this list.
For a modern take, check out Daniel Craig’s Bond sporting a formidable black style with sunglasses in Spectre.
Ape Recommends
The Trench Coat
Hawes and Curtis Trench Coat
Here’s another example of Big Coat Energy that originated on the battlefield. The trench coat famously served in World War I where officers would wear it, funnily enough, in the trenches. Cold, wet, muddy and peppered with bullets and disease, trenches were deeply unpleasant places to be. A good coat – and it really is a good coat – offered some respite.
Then Humphrey Bogart came along. He and others made it the de facto style for heavy-drinking detectives, while Michael Caine gave it some espionage chic in The Ipcress File.
Today the style remains largely unchanged with some of its original functional features – the storm flap on the shoulder, the cuff tighteners – now bringing some stylistic flair as well as weather protection. You can get padded versions if you need extra warmth or colourful and patterned styles if you want to break away from the classic tan.
Ape Recommends
The Mac
Wax London
Strip away all the bells and whistles of a trench coat and what you’re left with is basically a mac. A smart, weatherproof, three-quarter style that’s as versatile as it is practical. (It’s not like you need to advertise your rank, so those epaulettes on the shoulder are purely decorative anyway.)
The Mac also predates the trench. Back in 1824, Scottish chemist Charles Mackintosh worked out how to make cotton water repellent with a rubberised coating. The OG raincoat was born.
It looks much the same today: a clean silhouette with disguised buttons and a poppable collar and throat latch to keep the. chill out. Make sure it’s treated cotton if you want the rain to run off and look out for extra practical details like detachable linings to make it a coat for all seasons.
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The post 8 Best Men’s Overcoat Styles For 2023 (And How To Wear Them) appeared first on Ape to Gentleman.
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By: Josh Sims
Title: 8 Best Men’s Overcoat Styles For 2023 (And How To Wear Them)
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Published Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2023 10:00:40 +0000
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Health
Meet the Palantir Mafia, who have collectively raised more than $6 billion for their own startups
Shreya Murthy, Gary Lin , Alex Katz
Shreya Murthy, Gary Lin, Alex Katz
- Some former Palantir employees have left the software company to build their own startups.
- BI identified 30 founders building in the AI, legaltech, consumer, and healthcare spaces.
- The Palantir Mafia includes Partiful, Ironclad, Joe Lonsdale, Anduril, Garry Tan, and more.
Move over, PayPal: there's a new tech mafia in town.
Meet the Palantir Mafia: from Y Combinator's Garry Tan, to Joe Lonsdale, to the founders of ElevenLabs, IronClad, and Partiful, the big data software company has produced a slew of former employees who now run startups and investment funds of their own.
More than a decade ago, PayPal set the standard for producing a formidable group of alumni who now run their own companies, including Elon Musk, David Sacks, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and Peter Thiel — who later co-founder Palantir.
Now, Facebook and Oracle each have their own mafias and more recent tech companies like Square, OpenAI, and Instacart have mafias, too.
Palantir's original clients were federal agencies, and one of its core product offerings, "Gotham," assists in locating targets on battlefields. While some former Palantir employees are leveraging their experience to found defense tech startups, others are building companies in healthcare, consumer, AI, and enterprise.
Palantir mafia companies have been backed by top VC firms including a16z, Sequoia, Redpoint, and Accel, as well as the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator.
In total, the startups identified by BI have collectively raised more than $6 billion in VC funding, according to PitchBook data as well as founders themselves. More than half of that funding — $3.8 billion — went to one place: Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by three Palantir alums.
Take a look at BI's list of 30 Palantir Mafia members who are now startup founders. We put Y Combinator's Garry Tan at the top of the list and then listed everyone else in descending order based on how much VC funding their startup has raised.
Y Combinator
Role at Palantir: Lead engineer, designer
Garry Tan needs no introduction: a longtime fixture of the tech community, he founded the early-stage VC firm Initialized Capital in 2012 and was its managing partner through the end of 2022 (he's still a board member and advisor). His investments, which include Coinbase, Instacart, Patreon, Flexport, Rippling, and more have created more than $200 billion in market value in nine years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Today, Tan is the president and CEO of storied startup accelerator Y Combinator.
Tan worked at Palantir for two years: in 2005, he joined the company as employee number 10 and co-founded the first version of Palantir's financial analysis product. He also designed the company's current logo.
Anduril
Total funding: $3.8 billion, according to the company
Notable investors: Founders Fund, Sands Capital, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Elad Gil, Human Capital
Total employees: 4,000+, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Trae Stephens, Forward Deployed Engineer (5.5 years); Matt Grimm, Forward Deployed Engineer (6 years 8 months); Brian Schimpf, Director of Engineering (9 years 7 months) (all according to their LinkedIn profiles)
Former Palantir employees Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, and Brian Schimpf cofounded Anduril in 2017 alongside Palmer Luckey and Joe Chen to bring advanced autonomous systems to the military. Like Palantir, Anduril has attracted some of Silicon Valley's most prolific defense investors. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund (where Stephens is now a partner), an early investor in Palantir, seeded Anduril. Anduril last raised $1.5 billion at a $14 billion valuation in August 2024.
"Anduril's founding was motivated by a belief that the U.S. technology community should play a central role in both the development of weapons and supporting capabilities for US and allied militaries," Stephens wrote in a Medium post in 2022, underscoring the company's mission.
Brian Ach/Getty Images
Total funding: $495 million, according to PitchBook
Notable investors: 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Peter Thiel, Thrive Capital
Total employees: 1,118, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Founder
Joe Lonsdale cofounded Palantir, a data and defense tech company, in 2004 with current CEO Alex Karp, Silicon Valley magnate Peter Thiel, current president Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings.
"Our success relied on boldness and talent and a unique approach to mapping customers' data and processes and encoding it in our solutions," Lonsdale wrote about Palantir in a blog post from October 2024.
Lonsdale left Palantir in 2009 and founded Addepar, a software platform for investment portfolios.
Addepar has raised nearly half a billion dollars from the likes of Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Peter Thiel, and Lonsdale's venture capital firm, 8VC.
Ironclad
Total funding: $333 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Sequoia, Accel, YC Continuity, Franklin Templeton
Total employees: 516, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Software engineer
Cai Wangwilt is the co-founder and chief architect of Ironclad, the hot contract management software company that automates the contracting process for legal teams. Wangwilt founded the company in 2014 after spending three years as a software engineer at Palantir, where, among other projects, he built the successor to the company's original desktop client.
Given his background in developing tech at Palantir, Wangwilt recommends that aspiring founders reconsider what's possible in terms of delivering products to customers.
"AI is allowing us all to move exponentially faster with more precision," he said. "If there's something you're targeting, say, five years from now, ask yourself: 'is this something we might be able to do today?' You'll be surprised with your answer."
ElevenLabs
Total funding: $281 million, according to the company
Notable investors: a16z, ICONIQ Capital
Total employees: 150, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Deployment strategist
Mati Staniszewski spent nearly four years at Palantir, working as a deployment strategist from 2018 to 2022. Now, he's the co-founder of buzzy AI startup ElevenLabs, which is building audio models that generate realistic speech and sound effects in multiple languages. He said that when he worked at Palantir, he was given a high level of autonomy and ownership from day one, which made him effective at quickly solving problems.
"That shaped how we built ElevenLabs — lean, empowered teams that move quickly to make things happen," he said.
The startup, which has raised $281 million in total funding from investors like a16z and ICONIQ Capital, closed an $180 million Series C in January.
Peregrine Technologies
Total funding: $252.7 million, according to PitchBook
Notable investors: Founders Fund, XYZ Venture Capital, Village Global, Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures, according to Pitchbook
Total employees: 190, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Head of U.S. Special Operations Business Unit
Nick Noone spent five years at Palantir, where he led the U.S. Special Operations (SOCOM) Business Unit and was the Business Operations and Strategy team's first hire in 2012. He now leads Peregrine, which makes a decision-support platform for government organizations, like public safety and law enforcement agencies, as well as commercial companies. Peregrine is growing fast—the company has tripled its annual revenues over the past three years, according to a press release.
The startup, which has raised money from prominent defense tech investors, including Founders Fund and XYZ Venture Capital, raised $190 million in Series C funding in March led by Sequoia Capital. The financing valued the company at $2.5 billion and will enable it to recruit more software engineers, the press release said.
Sourcegraph
Total funding: $235 million with a $2.6 billion valuation, according to the company
Notable investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Craft, Redpoint, Felicis, Goldcrest
Total employees: 200, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Slack was a forward-deployed engineer, and Liu was a software engineer
Quinn Slack and Beyang Liu have spent the last 12 years building Sourcegraph, an AI code search and intelligence tool for software developers. The company, which is valued at more than $2.6 billion, most recently raised a $125 million Series D in 2021 from investors including a16z and Insight Partners. Slack Sourcegraph's CEO, while Liu is CTO.
The pair also overlapped at Palantir: Slack spent 10 months in 2011 and 2012 as a forward-deployed engineer advising banks in the home lending space, while Liu spent two years as a software engineer building software to analyze mortgage datasets and other financial data.
"As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir, I worked directly with top executives at major banks, getting feedback by day and building solutions overnight, Slack said. "That incredibly tight feedback loop taught me how to build products the right way: close to the problem and the customer."
Chapter
Total funding: $111 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Addition, XYZ Venture Capital, Maverick Ventures, Peter Thiel, Narya, Susa Ventures
Total employees: 125, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Deployment Strategist on the US Government team
Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz started as an intern at Palantir and returned full-time as a Deployment Strategist on the US Government team, where he spent nearly six years. The fast-paced environment helped shape his approach to problem-solving: "When I was at Palantir, it was a chaotic environment," Blumenfeld-Gantz told BI. "There was little structure and everything was open to be defined by the teams closest to the problems. It's not quite the same as being in a green field environment, but I learned how to just figure stuff out and get stuff done — because I had to."
After leaving the company in early 2020, Blumenfeld-Gantz cofounded Chapter, a medicare advisory provider that helps seniors choose the right health coverage. Chapter closed a $50 million Series C led by XYZ Venture Capital in May 2024.
Sequoia
Total funding: $110 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Sequoia, Charles Schwab, Kravis, Y Combinator, SV Angel
Total employees: Unknown
Role at Palantir: Forward-deployed engineer
After spending a year as a forward-deployed engineer at Palantir, Tarek Mansour completed stints as an AI researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and as a macro trader at Citadel before turning to startups. In 2021, he co-founded Kalshi, a fintech platform that lets users trade on the outcome of any event, like whether or not a bill will pass through Congress.
Two Chairs
Total funding: $103 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Amplo, Goldcrest Capital, Fifth Down Capital, Maveron
Total employees: 750 million, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Deployment lead and enterprise lead
Alex Katz is currently the founder and CEO of mental healthcare startup Two Chairs, which matches clients to therapists. Since launching in 2016, the startup has raised $103 million, most recently in a $72 million debt and equity Series C in April 2024 led by Amplo and Fifth Down Capital.
Prior to building a healthtech startup, Katz spent two years at Palantir, where he was first a deployment lead, and then an enterprise lead — and he said that the entrepreneurial talent at the company during that time was "off the charts."
"It's no surprise to me that Palantir has turned out to be such an incredible generator of founder talent," he said. "It was an environment that gave enormous opportunity to people often quite early in their career — certainly much earlier than any more traditional environment I'd worked in."
Decagon
Total funding: $100 million, according to the company
Notable investors: A16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Elad Gil, A*, Bond Capital, Acme Capital
Total employees: 60
Role at Palantir: Deployment Strategist
Ashwin Sreenivas worked as a Deployment Strategist at Palantir for a year before pivoting to startups. In 2019, he cofounded Helia, a computer vision platform acquired by data labeling company Scale AI for an undisclosed amount in 2020.
Sreenivas' latest startup, Decagon, makes AI support agents that autonomously handle customer inquiries across chat, email, and voice calls. The startup has raised $100 million to date, and Bain Capital Ventures led its $65 million Series B in October 2024, which quadrupled Decagon's valuation, according to the company's blog. Elad Gil, A*, Accel, Bond Capital, and Acme Capital also participated in the fundraise.
Hex
Total funding: $100 million, according to the company
Notable investors: A16z, Sequoia, Redpoint, Amplify, Snowflake
Total employees: 120, according to the company
Role at Palantir: McCardel was a forward deployed engineer; Colgrove was a software engineer, software engineering team lead, and software engineering group lead; and Takahashi was an intern and forward deployed engineer.
As a forward deployed engineer at Palantir, Barry McCardel spent more than four and a half years at the company, from 2014 to 2018, before eventually becoming a startup founder in 2019. His company, Hex, provides collaborative data analytics for enterprises, and it last raised $28 million in Series B funding in 2023 from a16z, Amplify, and Snowflake.
McCardel, who is Hex's CEO, co-founded the startup alongside two other Palantir alums: CTO Caitlin Colgrove built one of Palantir's first modern web applications at Palantir, and chief architect Glen Takahashi was an intern before becoming a full-time forward deployed engineer from 2014-2018.
For McCardel, building a successful startup requires a deep understanding of users and the ability to rapidly iterate on a great product for them.
"I can't imagine a better training ground for this than being a forward-deployed role at Palantir — even if we didn't realize it at the time," he said.
Cape
Total funding: $61.4 million, according to the company
Notable investors: A*, ex/ante, Point72 Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, XYZ Venture Capital
Total employees: 55, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Head of National Security
John Doyle spent nearly nine years leading national security at Palantir, where he experienced the company's "flat and high-ownership culture" and saw "tons of room for creative people with big ideas to build," he told BI.
His work with national security customers shaped his vision for Cape, the private and secure mobile carrier he founded in 2022.
"That work crystallized for me that many of those same threats also apply to everyday citizens, which is what made me want to build a mobile solution for the average consumer that doesn't come at the expense of being productized or compromised," he said of his time at Palantir.
Cape last raised $61 million in funding rounds led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz in August 2024, according to a press release.
Anduin
Total funding: $49 million, according to the company
Notable investors: 8VC, GC1 Ventures, Asymmetric Capital
Total employees: 130, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Forward Deployed Engineer
Eliot Hodges worked as a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir for over two years. At the company, he focused on "fraud workflows" for "big box retailers" and monitoring and compliance within the federal government, according to his LinkedIn.
Hodges' time at Palantir was pivotal to launching his career: two of his last three jobs since leaving the defense tech company were all a result of Palantir connections, he said. "Palantir taught me how a small group of mission-driven people can solve some of the world's hardest challenges for government and commercial organizations alike," Hodges said.
Anduin, founded in 2014, makes tools for private market investors. Its platform simplifies the subscription process for limited partners, reducing administrative work. The startup has raised money from prominent investors, including 8VC, the venture firm started by Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale. Hodges joined Anduin as its CEO in 2020.
Hodges has carried over a key lesson from Palantir while building Anduin—and advises aspiring founders to do the same: "Build deeply technical teams and find promisingly unsexy problems to solve."
Little Otter
Total funding: $35 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Charles River Ventures, Pivotal Ventures, BoxGroup, Torch Capital, 8VC, Palantir Alumni Group
Total employees: 175
Role at Palantir: Forward Deployed Product Lead
Rebecca Egger spent over two years as a Forward Deployed Product Lead at Palantir before transitioning to a role as a product and program lead at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In 2020, she cofounded Little Otter, an online counseling and therapy service focused on serving families and children, alongside her mother, Dr. Helen Egger.
In February, Little Otter secured $9.5 million in strategic funding in February from investors, including Charles River Ventures and Pivotal Ventures. The funding will help the startup scale its operations using AI and expand its services to families covered by Medicaid and commercial insurance plans, according to a company blog post.
Shreya Murthy, Joy Tao
Total funding: $27 million, according to PitchBook
Notable investors: a16z, according to PitchBook
Total employees: 27, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Tao was a product engineer, and Murthy was an enterprise lead and business operations and strategy lead
Joy Tao and Shreya Murthy are currently running Partiful, an app for inviting friends and connections to IRL events. The pair founded the startup in 2020. Since then, it has become a go-to organizing tool for group gatherings, and at the end of 2022, Partiful raised a Series A funding round from a16z.
Tao and Murthy both worked at Palantir from 2014 to 2018. Tao was a product engineer, while Murthy held multiple positions: enterprise lead, deployment lead, and business operations and strategy team lead.
Alex Ince-Cushman
Total funding: $20 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Prelude Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners
Total employees: 20, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Head of Product Operations
Alex Ince-Cushman worked as Palantir's Head of Product Operations for nearly four years after over six years at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. After Palantir, Ince-Cushman spent almost two years as chief technology officer at Just Energy, a retail energy provider in the US and Canada.
He founded Branch Energy in late 2020. This vertically integrated power provider helps customers lower their energy bills and carbon footprints by providing access to clean energy. In August 2024, the startup raised just under $11 million in a round led by climate tech venture firm Prelude Ventures.
Explo
Total funding: $15 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Craft, Felicis, and Y Combinator
Total employees: 25, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Forward deployed engineer, enterprise tech lead
In 2019, Gary Lin co-founded Explo, which allows companies to quickly build customer-facing dashboards and reporting. The company was a member of YC's Winter 2020 batch and has since raised $14 million in VC funding, most recently through its $12 million Series A in August 2022, which was led by Craft Ventures.
Prior to starting Explo, Lin spent more than two years at Palantir, first as a forward-deployed engineer working with the Department of Defense and later commercial clients and then as an enterprise tech lead for the Department of Defense.
"Being an engineer on the frontlines via forward deployed engineering gave me a glimpse into what it was like to embed closely with customers, make difficult, multi-dimensional tradeoffs, and close pilots," he said.
Angela McNeal, Mayada Gonimah
Total funding: $6 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Greycroft, Index Ventures
Total employees: 14, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Angela McNeal: Head of AI/ML Product, Foundry Modeling; Mayada Gonimah: Head of AI/ML Engineering, Foundry
At Palantir, McNeal and Gonimah led the Foundry Modeling team, where they worked on AI and machine learning projects. Drawing on that experience, they left the company in 2023 and cofounded ThreadAI, a composable infrastructure platform that allows companies to make, implement, and manage AI-powered workflows.
For aspiring founders looking to break out of their current company and start something new, Gonimah emphasizes the importance of building a resilient team: "There are a lot of tourists, so make sure you have a deep bench to build a durable company that isn't at risk of being eliminated by the next shiny thing," she told BI.
Thread AI raised a seed round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Greycroft and a handful of angel investors, in 2024.
Mural Pay
Total funding: $5.6 million, according to PitchBook
Notable investors: Alleycorp, according to PitchBook
Total employees: 13, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Forward deployed engineer, technical lead
Blurb: Mural Pay facilitates cross-border payments between the U.S., Europe, Latam, and Africa. While he's now based in New York, Toffa spent just under three years working at Palantir in London, first as a forward-deployed engineer and then as a technical lead.
Steve Heitkamp
Total funding: $5 million, according to the company
Notable investors: Broad Creek Capital and Daybreak Capital Partners, according to PitchBook
Total employees: 20, according to the company
Role at Palantir: Lead in US Government Practice
Founded in 2020, Hence makes AI software that helps companies identify and tackle geopolitical, legal, and AI risks. The London-based startup's backend is powered by Palantir Foundry, the defense tech company's data integration and analytics platform.
Hence's cofounder, Steve Heitkamp, told Business Insider that he spent over seven years at Palantir leading its US government practice. Here's one of the lessons he learned at Palantir: "Don't be sorry for what you are not," he wrote to BI. Instead, embrace what makes you unique and use your superpowers to be the best version of you. This is how you create transformative value."
Wondercraft
Total funding: $3.5 million, according to PitchBook
Notable investors: Will Ventures, according to PitchBook
Total employees: 8, according to PitchBook
Role at Palantir: Nikolaou was a deployment strategist, project lead, forward-deployed engineer, and technical lead, while Rizk was a forward-deployed software engineer.
Blurb: Palantir in London in 2018, and by 2023, the pair teamed up to build Wondercraft, an AI audio editor that creates ads, podcasts, and other spoken content in multiple languages through typing. The startup, which was a member of Y Combinator's summer 2022 cohort, raised a $3 million seed funding round in January from Will Ventures, YC, and fellow Palantir Mafia and AI audio startup Eleven Labs.
——————————————-
By: [email protected] (Samantha Stokes,Julia Hornstein)
Title: Meet the Palantir Mafia, who have collectively raised more than $6 billion for their own startups
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/palantir-mafia-former-employees-startups-anduril-2025-3
Published Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:00:02 +0000
I’m Jason, and I write for ValleyNewspaper.com!
I love to travel and enjoy doing things outdoors, like hiking or working remotely from quaint little coffee shops.
The best thing about the blog for me is the ability to discuss anything, from personal life to current events.
I enjoy spending time with my Wife, 2 boys, and my Pug, Patty. I love traveling and speaking at social media events.
If you want to know anything else, ask!
Health
Spruce up your space for spring by decluttering
The author (not pictured) found that decluttering helped ease symptoms of anxiety and OCD.
Getty Images
- This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
- You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.
Happy Saturday! Feeling too busy to work out? One 37-year-old mom lost 100 pounds by using this three-step strategy. Sounds simple enough!
On the agenda:
- Young people with colon cancer share the early signs that doctors misdiagnosed.
- A new luxury development in Manhattan is offering amenities — for a steep price tag.
- We tested out the new hottest water bottle to see if it's worth the hype.
- Patricia Arquette has a message for anyone looking for "Severance" spoilers.
But first: Ready, set, spring clean.
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.
This week's dispatch
Getty Images
It's time to sweep into spring
Do you feel it? I'm talking about the warmer weather, the sun shining just a little bit longer, and the winter blues going away. We're enjoying the first signs of spring, and it feels reaaaally good.
With spring also comes a chance to renew your personal space. Not to give you too much homework, but it's time to spring clean.
Thankfully, BI's Life team has been all over the decluttering trend — and has spoken to many professionals and families who make this seemingly uphill task quite easy.
If you want to get started this weekend, declutter expert Sonia Weiser has three tips:
- Start with your drawers and closets. You want to tackle anything that's actually used for storage first: bookshelves, medicine cabinets, and even your desk.
- "Divide it by what you want to keep, what you want to donate or give to someone you know, and what you want to trash," Weiser says.
- If you find it hard to let go, ask an impartial friend to help you decide what to keep and what to toss.
For more tips, read Weiser's advice on decluttering with ease.
Colon cancer misdiagnosis
Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
Colon cancer is on the rise, especially among young people. Early symptoms can be mild and resemble other digestive issues like IBS or celiac disease — sometimes leading to misdiagnosis in the early stages.
For doctors, diagnosing young patients is a tricky tightrope to walk. Colonoscopies cost around $2,000 on average, so doctors typically won't urge young people to get them unless they have serious symptoms or a family history of cancer.
$750,000 for a parking spot, anyone?
Renderings of the two-tower development in West Village.
DBOX
New York City real estate is a beast, and $1 million doesn't always get you very far. One new luxury development is proof.
In the West Village, 80 Clarkson's most expensive unit is priced at $63 million. Buyers can pay additional big bucks for all the perks, like a $1 million private wine cellar — and don't forget to budget for a parking spot.
What's the buzz about Bink?
Bink water bottles at Target.
Amanda Krause/Business Insider
Bink is the latest brand to enter the water bottle craze, taking over the spot previously held by Owala and Stanley cups. The silicone-covered glass bottles are all over Instagram and pilates studios.
But beyond the aesthetics, are they worth the hype? BI's Amanda Krause tested one out and found them to be better than her Stanley — but not by much.
Don't expect it to fit your car's cupholder.
No 'Severance' spoilers here
IFC Films, AppleTV+, Warner Bros. Pictures Sunset Boulevard_Corbis/Getty, BI
Fans of the hit HBO show know Patricia Arquette as the guarded Harmony Cobel. But her acting career spans an array of TV and film projects, and she's a voice for equality in Hollywood.
In the latest installment of BI's Role Play series, Arquette wants you to know that she doesn't care if you're on the edge of your seat watching the new season. She thinks you should stay right there.
Plus, the advice she got from Martin Scorsese.
What we're watching this weekend
Paul Abell/Netflix; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
- "The Electric State": Chris Pratt and "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown team up for Netflix's new sci-fi adventure movie.
- "Moana 2": The sequel to the beloved 2016 animated movie is now available on Disney+ after breaking Thanksgiving box office records.
- "The Wheel of Time": Prime Video's popular fantasy series is back for season three.
iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
What to shop
- Bras you won't hate: What if we told you that you don't have to sacrifice comfort in exchange for supporting a large chest? We've rounded up the best bralettes for large busts that do both, including plus-size-inclusive options.
- Neutral basics with a twist: All the "it" girls have been sporting this brand around NYC, so we put it to the test. After trying out some of the most popular designs, we broke down all the ways they got it right in our Marcella review.
- Sleep Awareness Week: We're near the end of Sleep Week, but it's not too late to score some incredible deals from our favorite brands. Mattresses, pillows, sheets, and pajamas are on sale — peep our roundup of the best Sleep Week deals.
More of this week's top reads:
- I moved my young family to Europe. Our expenses are about the same, but our quality of life is so much better.
- A woman realized she could work out to live longer, not just look better. 3 simple things helped her make exercise a fun, daily habit.
- I spent a night at an all-inclusive resort on an island off the coast of Africa. My private villa cost $900 a night and was worth every penny.
- I traveled first class on Amtrak for the first time. The most luxurious perk wasn't even on the train.
- We're two of America's top real-estate agents. Here's where wealthy people are moving.
- 3 high-protein, high-fiber recipes that boost gut health and aren't ultra-processed — by a doctor who specializes in nutrition.
- A James Bond expert shares the one thing Amazon should focus on to get 007 right — and the one thing it should avoid.
- I make my own sourdough bread to save money on groceries. Here are 5 things I wish I'd known before I started.
- From AI strollers to 'smart socks,' millennials are obsessed with high-tech baby gear.
- A retired Wall Street manager started exercising at 70, lost 35 pounds, and fixed his back pain. Here are his 3 tips for getting fit.
- My only parenting regret is using funny filters on most of my daughter's baby photos.
- How Meghan Trainor spends her 5 to 9 — from couples therapy to nerding out about protein.
The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York City (on paternity leave). Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.
——————————————-
By: [email protected] (Joi-Marie McKenzie)
Title: Spruce up your space for spring by decluttering
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/bi-today-spruce-up-your-space-by-decluttering-2025-3
Published Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 10:37:01 +0000
I’m Jason, and I write for ValleyNewspaper.com!
I love to travel and enjoy doing things outdoors, like hiking or working remotely from quaint little coffee shops.
The best thing about the blog for me is the ability to discuss anything, from personal life to current events.
I enjoy spending time with my Wife, 2 boys, and my Pug, Patty. I love traveling and speaking at social media events.
If you want to know anything else, ask!
Health
New York tech workers are flocking to a coffee shop across from OpenAI’s new office. I checked it out to see why.
The author holds a matcha latte and bagged treat outside La Cabra in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
- The next Blue Bottle has hit New York's tech scene.
- La Cabra's popularity has soared since ChatGPT-maker OpenAI put down roots across the street.
- The Danish coffee chain is famed for its $9 pour-over brews and cardamom buns.
The line to La Cabra stretches onto the sidewalk, a tidy queue of office workers and shoppers sauntering through the warm, muggy embrace of a New York City spring.
Inside, at least twenty patrons hover near the bar like caffeinated moths around a flame, clutching iced matcha lattes and croissants. A barista weaves through the standing-room-only crowd, hoisting a tray of pain suisse aloft.
Welcome to New York's hottest club: the café across from OpenAI's office.
La Cabra, the latest export from Denmark's high-end coffee empire, has inspired a cult following among Manhattan's coffee cognoscenti. Led by founder Esben Piper and head baker Jared Sexton, a Dominique Ansel alum, the sleek, minimalist chain entices crowds with its $9 pour-over brews and cardamom buns worthy of sonnets. Since the ChatGPT-maker moved into SoHo in the fall of last year, the line to get in seems to grow longer each day.
The Puck Building is becoming the red-hot center of Manhattan's tech scene.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
Nestled caddy corner from the Puck Building, La Cabra finds itself in illustrious company. The red-brick structure is owned by Kushner Companies, a real estate developer founded by Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, and Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital. The outdoor gear retailer REI covers 36,000 square feet over three levels. Above it, employees of Thrive and a smattering of its portfolio companies badge into their offices.
Thrive Capital, with nearly $25 billion in assets under management, has a small staff of about 75 people. Plaid also leases the entire sixth floor, while OpenAI occupies 90,000 square feet of office space at its first New York City outpost.
Together, their proximity to La Cabra has turned the Danish coffee roaster into an unofficial think tank for anyone in the mood for a latte with a side of world domination.
La Cabra offers limited seating around the counter, where baristas prepare pour-over brews and matcha lattes.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
Amanda Herson, a tech investor at Founder Collective, says she's been buying coffee and cardamom buns for her office since La Cabra opened on Lafayette Street. She goes in the early morning "when there isn't much of a wait." Tech consultant Jason Liu agrees that mornings tend to have lighter traffic. On frequent trips to New York from San Francisco, he holds office hours at the Puck Building and dashes over to La Cabra for a chocolate croissant and iced espresso with milk.
First Round Capital is a five-minute walk from La Cabra, and partner Hayley Barna goes for the pastries and trendspotting. "Honestly, it's tricky to make it a meeting spot because seating isn't reliable," Barna said.
I went to La Cabra twice and found the line was much shorter on a Thursday morning.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
When I stopped in on a Thursday morning, I took in the scene from a stool at the counter, sipping a cardamom latte from a handleless stoneware cup. With its natural color palette and cabinets inset with panels of rattan, La Cabra feels like a Japanese ryokan meets Ikea. Baristas floated behind the counter wearing the de rigueur Danish uniform of beige shirts with three-quarter sleeves designed by Copenhagen clothier Another Aspect.
The pastry case at La Cabra.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
First, I dug into a $7 ham-and-cheese croissant baked to a medium brown and speckled with sesame seeds and parsley. It had a crisp, caramelized exterior so that when I bit in, a gust of flakes fell like helicopter seeds, which I picked up and popped into my mouth. The beauty of the laminated spiral gave way to a satisfying buttery crunch with a scant portion of ham. I found it skimping on cheese but recognized that more filling would make the interior soggy.
The ham-and-cheese croissant at La Cabra.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
I couldn't resist trying the $6 Swedish cardamom bun I'd read about online. This knotted pastry was delightfully unexpected: chewy and dense like a cinnamon roll, yet airy enough to puff back into shape with each bite. The recipe goes heavy on the cardamom, infusing the pastry with a piney warmth and gentle sweetness.
The cardamom buns are known to sell out, though Piper, La Cabra's founder, says the chain makes deliveries from its East Village bakery three times a day to restock the pastry case. To expand its operations, the company has secured a fourth location in Manhattan, Piper told Business Insider exclusively.
The cardamom bun at La Cabra.
Melia Russell/Business Insider
As I licked my fingers clean of sugar, I scanned the cafe in search of employee badges or logo apparel, hoping for a glimpse of a startup executive in their natural habitat. In New York, unlike San Francisco, it seems that such overt displays of corporate allegiance are not as prevalent. Here, the tech elite and builders blend into the street milieu, swapping hoodies adorned with company logos for more voguish attire.
Feeling the caffeine buzz kick in, I left knowing that I'd return soon — if not for a meeting, then to try the pain suisse.
——————————————-
By: [email protected] (Melia Russell)
Title: New York tech workers are flocking to a coffee shop across from OpenAI’s new office. I checked it out to see why.
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/la-cabra-coffee-shop-review-openai-new-york-office-2025-3
Published Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:00:01 +0000
I’m Jason, and I write for ValleyNewspaper.com!
I love to travel and enjoy doing things outdoors, like hiking or working remotely from quaint little coffee shops.
The best thing about the blog for me is the ability to discuss anything, from personal life to current events.
I enjoy spending time with my Wife, 2 boys, and my Pug, Patty. I love traveling and speaking at social media events.
If you want to know anything else, ask!
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