# Defense founders should meet warfighters and know their limits

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/defense-founders-should-meet-warfighters-and-know-their/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Alex Karp](https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-karp/) · Alex Karp is cofounder and CEO of Palantir. · Co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and has run it as CEO, selling data and AI software to governments.
- Host: [Erik Torenberg](https://realalpha.app/people/erik-torenberg/) · General partner, Andreessen Horowitz · Helped build Product Hunt; founded On Deck, Village Global and Turpentine.
- Show: a16z Podcast
- Episode: [Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/), Mar 12, 2026
- Moment: 22:33 to 25:40 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/defense-founders-should-meet-warfighters-and-know-their/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1353

## Quote

> “because they're **intelligent in one area** they assume they're intelligent in all areas”
> — [Alex Karp](https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-karp/) at [24:15](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1455) · a16z Podcast

## Takeaways

1. Visit a base or Iowa before making defense decisions.
2. Hear warfighters' perspectives firsthand.
3. Treat expertise as domain-specific; don't assume skill transfers.

## About this segment

Alex Karp says founders should visit a base or Iowa and hear warfighters directly. He also warns that skill in one field doesn't confer expertise in another.

From “Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit”, Mar 12, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[22:46](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1366) of these people are having their first conversations with the Department of War, or maybe they don't have any family in the military. Maybe they've never met a warfighter. What is your advice to some of these CEOs who are maybe new to these conversations that you've been having for 20 years now? Well, the best thing you could do is go to Iowa or go to a base and have a, like, I don't think, look, put it this way, maybe the first time, it's probably not PG, but, you know, I'm happily not married, not divorced, so don't follow how I live, but you don't have to, maybe if you're going to meet somebody, you really want to oppress it.

[23:23](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1403) Maybe you have an advantage if it's your third girlfriend or boyfriend, not your first. Like, go have a conversation with somebody. Like, if you're going to meet a general or somebody like that, and you've never talked to somebody who's actually done something on the battlefield, or someone who has family who's done something on the battlefield, and you don't have any, and because of that, you don't have an ability to emphasize with their perspective, that's probably a huge mistake.

[23:52](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1432) Yeah. And it's probably going to backfire. Last, secondly, though, you have to be honest about where your aptitude is. Like, you know, Silicon Valley tech builders, broadly defined hardware, software, AI, I would say we build in the military context, essentially software scaffolding much more like, in a weird way, more like hardware, software, but it's in software managing LLMs. It is the single biggest mistake people make in this area is because they're intelligent in one area they assume they're intelligent in all areas and a big failure mechanism in the valley is every valley person is forced to present as if they're the smartest in all areas at all time that's like if you don't know who the mark is you're the mark yeah like if you think you're the smartest so i i'm dyslexic and i think one of the reasons i've

[24:50](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1490) done so well is i do think i'm one of the better people at certain things at least i believe it and I know I'm not at everything. It's a very small, it's like, but a failure mode for the Valley is I'm the smartest on every issue. I, for example, I need to be the person negotiating this contract. What if you have no aptitude for that? Just because you can do X does not mean you've imputed high aptitude at Y.

[25:16](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=1516) In fact, it's very unlikely it's true. It's almost certain that you're just not smart enough to realize how bad you are. That's probably one of the most important lessons for company builders in the room. I actually, I want to end the conversation