Joe Lonsdale

Investment Team
Austin, TX
[overview]

Joe Lonsdale is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the managing partner at 8VC, a US-based venture capital firm that manages several billion dollars in committed capital. He was an early institutional investor in notable technology startups including Oculus (acq.FB), Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH), Oscar (NYSE: OSCR), Illumio, Anduril, Wish (NASDAQ: WISH), JoyTunes, Blend (NASDAQ: BLND), Flexport, Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY), Cityblock, Orca Bio, Qualia, Synthego, RelateIQ (acq.CRM), and many others. Joe was the youngest member included in Forbes 100 Midas List in 2016 and 2017.

Before focusing on institutional investing, Joe co-founded Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) a global software company known for its work in defense and other industries, as well as for providing the platform to run the COVID-19 common operating picture for key decision makers in over 35 countries. After Palantir, he founded and remains as Chairman of both Addepar, which has over $4 trillion USD on its wealth management technology platform, and OpenGov, which provides software for over 2,000 municipalities and state agencies. More recently, he is also a co-founder of Affinity, Epirus, Resilience Bio, and other mission-driven technology companies, which he continues to create with his team out of the 8VC Build program. Joe began his career as an early executive at Clarium Capital, which he helped grow into a large global macro hedge fund. He also worked with PayPal while he attended Stanford.

[Q&A]
Posts
News
Jan 13, 2025

Announcing Our Investment in Overland AI

The rapid evolution of warfare has exposed critical gaps in US capabilities. Conducting ground offensives over complex terrain, and protecting the troops who carry them out, will both be dramatically different missions in 2030. Over the first quarter of the century, from the GWOT’s infantry campaigns to today’s increasingly autonomous combat, ground operations have meant constant and intensifying danger to the warfighter. From 2006-2021, 44% of US forces killed in action were caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Avoiding IEDs often forces tactical vehicles off-road, multiplying the risk of accidents. From 2010-2019, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps reported 896 tactical vehicle accidents, many involving fatalities. Today, ground forces are even further exposed with the rise of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles and distributed sensors, and asymmetric conflict is shifting ground operations to the most difficult terrain.

Posts
News
Jan 13, 2025

Announcing Our Investment in Overland AI

The rapid evolution of warfare has exposed critical gaps in US capabilities. Conducting ground offensives over complex terrain, and protecting the troops who carry them out, will both be dramatically different missions in 2030. Over the first quarter of the century, from the GWOT’s infantry campaigns to today’s increasingly autonomous combat, ground operations have meant constant and intensifying danger to the warfighter. From 2006-2021, 44% of US forces killed in action were caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Avoiding IEDs often forces tactical vehicles off-road, multiplying the risk of accidents. From 2010-2019, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps reported 896 tactical vehicle accidents, many involving fatalities. Today, ground forces are even further exposed with the rise of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles and distributed sensors, and asymmetric conflict is shifting ground operations to the most difficult terrain.

Posts
Oct 31, 2024

The AI Services Wave: Lessons from Palantir in The New Age of AI

Last month, the first company I co-founded, Palantir, joined the S&P 500. For most of 20 years, the naive mainstream view of Palantir was that it was a “glorified consultancy” – a services firm and not a real tech innovator building SaaS “products” or “platforms”. To dismiss Palantir early on was short-sighted, given they’d hired some of Silicon Valley’s top tech talent, but it was based on a factual observation: unlike most software businesses, many of our engineers spent significant time working alongside our customers. We called this team “Forward Deployed Engineers”, and they obsessed over the intricacies of our customers’ daily work, business models, and pain points. 

Posts
Oct 31, 2024

The AI Services Wave: Lessons from Palantir in The New Age of AI

Last month, the first company I co-founded, Palantir, joined the S&P 500. For most of 20 years, the naive mainstream view of Palantir was that it was a “glorified consultancy” – a services firm and not a real tech innovator building SaaS “products” or “platforms”. To dismiss Palantir early on was short-sighted, given they’d hired some of Silicon Valley’s top tech talent, but it was based on a factual observation: unlike most software businesses, many of our engineers spent significant time working alongside our customers. We called this team “Forward Deployed Engineers”, and they obsessed over the intricacies of our customers’ daily work, business models, and pain points. 

Posts
Sep 18, 2024

Introducing Global Benchmarking from Standard Metrics

8VC was founded to address major market gaps, and we’ve found several surprisingly close to home. We cofounded Affinity after seeing firsthand how legacy CRM falls short of real relationship intelligence, and today their platform is used by 3300 + investment firms. We noticed a similar gap in portfolio management and performance tracking, where manual work and nonexistent data were the norm. Driven by our own frustrations, we co-founded, seeded, and led the series A for Standard Metrics, which has grown to over 100 top investment firms and 7000+ companies while revolutionizing the efficiency and quality of data collection, portfolio analytics, and reporting. Now, building on the data foundation they created, they have launched Global Benchmarking, adding deep utility and macro awareness to match their micro abilities.

Posts
Sep 18, 2024

Introducing Global Benchmarking from Standard Metrics

8VC was founded to address major market gaps, and we’ve found several surprisingly close to home. We cofounded Affinity after seeing firsthand how legacy CRM falls short of real relationship intelligence, and today their platform is used by 3300 + investment firms. We noticed a similar gap in portfolio management and performance tracking, where manual work and nonexistent data were the norm. Driven by our own frustrations, we co-founded, seeded, and led the series A for Standard Metrics, which has grown to over 100 top investment firms and 7000+ companies while revolutionizing the efficiency and quality of data collection, portfolio analytics, and reporting. Now, building on the data foundation they created, they have launched Global Benchmarking, adding deep utility and macro awareness to match their micro abilities.

Posts
News
Feb 27, 2024

OpenGov: A Changing Guard; A Continuing Mission

Today, OpenGov announced its acquisition by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion USD. 

Posts
News
Feb 27, 2024

OpenGov: A Changing Guard; A Continuing Mission

Today, OpenGov announced its acquisition by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion USD. 

Posts
Mar 27, 2023

Helping Banks Into The 21st Century With Dynamic Digital Infrastructure

Blend Builder is a brilliant banking product, ready for a bigger challenge than mortgages alone

Posts
Mar 27, 2023

Helping Banks Into The 21st Century With Dynamic Digital Infrastructure

Blend Builder is a brilliant banking product, ready for a bigger challenge than mortgages alone

Posts
News
Mar 1, 2023

Announcing 8VC Fund V

We are proud to announce 8VC Fund V, with $880 million in new capital to continue our work supporting and partnering with entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey, and building companies ourselves. 

Posts
News
Mar 1, 2023

Announcing 8VC Fund V

We are proud to announce 8VC Fund V, with $880 million in new capital to continue our work supporting and partnering with entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey, and building companies ourselves. 

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