Trae Stephens is Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, and a General Partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, where he invests across sectors with a particular interest in startups operating in the government space.
Previously, Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in the intelligence and defense sector as well as international expansion, helping large organizations solve their hardest data analysis problems.
He was also an integral part of the product team, leading the design and strategy for new product offerings.
While at Palantir, Trae also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University.
Before joining Palantir, Trae worked as a computational linguist building enterprise solutions to Arabic/Persian name matching and data enrichment within the U.S. Intelligence Community.
He began his career working in the office of then Congressman Rob Portman and in the Political Affairs Office at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. immediately following the installation of Hamid Karzai’s transitional government.
Trae graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:44 Trae Stephens’ Background and Early Career
01:46 Faith in Silicon Valley and Gen Z’s Spiritual Shift
06:57 Act 17, Just War Theory, and Defense Tech
20:50 Government, Silicon Valley, and Public Misconceptions
23:47 Early Life, Education, and Intelligence Work
38:09 Palantir and the Jump to Venture Capital
49:17 PayPal Mafia, Palmer Luckey, and Oculus Origins
54:59 Building Defense Products
01:04:36 American Manufacturing and Tech Scalability
01:10:47 Education Reform and Parenting in the Digital Age
01:32:13 AI, Dating Apps, and the Future of Relationships
01:40:43 Social Media, Road Trips, and Family Life
01:45:48 The Role of Young Men and Societal Shifts
01:51:04 Autonomous Warfare and U.S.–China Relations
02:15:17 Side Projects, Global Unity, and End Times
02:20:06 Final Thoughts and Guest Recommendations
