Six unicorns. $6 billion in venture capital. 40 laws passed across 27 states. $7 trillion managed on the wealth platform he founded. One outspoken billionaire who doesn't care when 40 protesters show up at his office.
Oh, and he has six kids under seven.
When Hampton members sat down for an exclusive Q&A with Joe Lonsdale, they weren't getting corporate platitudes. They were getting unfiltered wisdom from a founder who's been in the trenches since age 21 when he started Palantir.
In this candid Hampton Q&A, Joe reveals:
- How he inspired Elon Musk's DOGE mission: "A lot of the work I've done in the policy world over the last ten years has focused on accountability —realigning incentives, cutting nonsense. This has become more popular now. My friend Elon—he’s now doing my dream [job] in DC.”
- His AI investment strategy: “My main interest is competing with 40-, 50-, 60-year-old service companies in the U.S. economy by building full-stack AI-driven companies. We're not just providing software—we're literally doing healthcare billing, back-office work, legal work. I think this is going to be one of the biggest industries.”
- His ruthless approach to hiring: "Look at your calendar... if you're working 70 hours a week, how many of those hours are spent actually interacting socially with people relevant to your hiring goals? If hiring is your most important priority but only three hours on your calendar are dedicated to it, that's a problem."
- The intelligence operations against his companies: "We brought this guy from the CIA to help with security... and he actually found two different sets of bugs in our CEO's room. At 24, I thought that was the coolest thing ever—someone actually cares about what we're doing!"
- Why he's building the University of Austin: "We wanted to create a place for professors who are contrarian and refuse to go along with the mainstream. I really want to create a culture where it's actually okay to shock people, to offend people— because I think it's really healthy to have strong dialogue."
Our candid conversation with Joe is a fascinating read for anyone wanting to build a unicorn (or 6) of their own.
Personally, I find being the CEO of a startup to be downright exhilarating. But, as I'm sure you well know, it can also be a bit lonely and stressful at times, too.
Because, let's be honest, if you're the kind of person with the guts to actually launch and run a startup, then you can bet everyone will always be asking you a thousand questions, expecting you to have all the right answers -- all the time.
And that's okay! Navigating this kind of pressure is the job.
But what about all the difficult questions that you have as you reach each new level of growth and success? For tax questions, you have an accountant. For legal, your attorney. And for tech. your dev team.
This is where Hampton comes in.
Hampton's a private and highly vetted network for high-growth founders and CEOs.
