Sourcery How 8VC Builds Billion-Dollar Companies | Palantir, Addepar, Saronic
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Aug 22, 2025 
Drew Oetting, a Founding Partner at 8VC, dives into innovative capital strategies that disrupt traditional venture funding. He shares how 8VC’s ‘Build’ Program co-founds nearly 30% of its companies, focusing on creating billion-dollar successes like Palantir and Addepar. Oetting discusses the balance of culture and incentives in startup environments, the importance of AI in biotech, and emerging naval technologies. The conversation also touches on U.S. reindustrialization, public-private collaboration, and the intersection of patriotism and economic growth.
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Palantir DNA Fuels Reindustrialization
- Drew positions Palantir's DNA and SpaceX as talent pools that accelerate reindustrialization efforts.
- He praises OpenGov's near-$2B exit as proof that govtech and state/local software can be massive outcomes.
Saronic: Autonomy Meets Shipbuilding
- Saronic builds autonomous surface vessels and is tackling U.S. shipbuilding capacity alongside autonomy.
- The company bought and is retrofitting an old shipyard as part of plans to scale domestic shipbuilding.
Why Pharma Manufacturing Is Hard To Reshore
- Biopharma manufacturing is capital- and labor-intensive with high fixed costs that disincentivized U.S. capacity.
- Pandemic lessons and policy shifts create momentum to rebuild domestic pharma manufacturing, but environmental and cost trade-offs remain.