{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Palantir Alum Explains How AI is Used and Bought by the Federal Government","description":"Nick LaRovere spent years at Palantir before co-founding Pryzm with friends, including a Lockheed Martin alum. And in this episode of Founded & Funded, Nick shares his inside account of how AI is actually being adopted inside the federal government, and what it takes to sell technology into that market. Pryzm is an AI-powered intelligence engine for government business development: it aggregates data across CRMs, email, Slack, and public procurement sources to help companies win contracts. Nick's argument is that by the time an opportunity appears on SAM.gov, the deal is already decided. In this episode, Madrona Partner Chris Picardo and Nick cover: why there's still no purpose-built CRM for government buyers, what Pentagon AI adoption actually looked like from the inside (workers hadn't touched an LLM as recently as two years ago), and what forward-deployed engineering at Palantir taught Nick about building close to the customer. If you're selling into government, building for defense, or trying to understand how AI procurement works inside federal agencies, this is a useful map of how the terrain actually works. Full Transcript: https:\/\/www.madrona.com\/palantir-alum-explains-how-ai-is-used-and-bought-by-the-federal-government (00:00) \u2013 Introduction (01:42 \u2013 Why the Defense Budget Growing to $1.5 Trillion Matters for Startups (04:11) \u2013 Colors of Money: How Federal Budgets Actually Work (06:47) \u2013 The Move Toward Colorless, Flexible Defense Spending (10:51) \u2013 What Pryzm Does: AI-Powered Intelligence for Government BD (12:21) \u2013 Why Deals Are Decided Before They Ever Post on SAM.gov (17:25) \u2013 The Government AI Gap: Pentagon Workers Without LLM Access Until Two Years Ago (21:00) \u2013 The Digital Thread Problem: Fragmented CRMs and Millions Wasted on Brittle Tools (26:11) \u2013 What Nick Learned Watching Elon Sleep on the  @tesla  Factory Floor (27:00) \u2013 Palantir's Forward Deployed Engineer and Why It Produces So Many Founders (30:33) \u2013 Why Hard Problems Make Better Businesses: TAM, Willingness to Pay, and Moat (32:05) \u2013 Hiring Is Harder Than Founders Expect \u2014 and More Important ","author_name":"Founded & Funded","author_url":"https:\/\/www.madrona.com\/","html":"