Palmer Luckey - Inventing the Future of Defense - [Invest Like the Best, CLASSICS]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. Palmer Luckey is a relentless builder and original thinker. He founded Oculus, bringing virtual reality to the mainstream, and is now reshaping the future of defense and technology with Anduril. I hope you enjoy this conversation. Palmer is the founder of Anduril, which makes next-generation military technology for the US and its allies. Since bringing the company to life in 2017, Palmer and Anduril have disrupted the established order in the Defense industry. Prior to Anduril, Palmer founded Oculus VR, a virtual reality business that he sold to Facebook for $2 billion. Palmer is only in his early 30s, but he has already experienced more than most people will in a 40-year career. We talk about innovation, invention, differentiated thinking, and so much more. Please enjoy this great discussion with Palmer Luckey. Listen to Patrick's Business Breakdowns with Anduril CEO. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. WorkOS is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. With a single API, developers can implement essential enterprise capabilities that typically require months of engineering work. By handling the complex infrastructure of enterprise features, WorkOS allows developers to focus on their core product while meeting the security and compliance requirements of Fortune 500 companies. Visit WorkOS to Transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @joincolossus Show Notes (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:01:15) Meet Palmer Luckey (00:02:03) The importance of synthetic long-chain hydrocarbon fuel (00:08:12) Ranking America's potential for innovation (00:11:18) Why there aren't more ⁠Thiel Fellowships⁠ (00:13:31) The principles that motivate and drive him (00:16:56) What it has been like working in the world of defense after the attack on Israel (00:19:09) Surprising lessons learned when building a large company (00:22:37) How to approach a new field initially (00:27:20) Meeting other out-of-the-box thinkers (00:31:46) Inventors working backward from existing systems versus forward from their ideals (00:33:26) The most pressing issue in national security (00:39:36) What matters most for America from a defense perspective (00:42:33) How to determine which problems to prioritize (00:48:59) Lessons learned from working with AI (00:55:56) How Apple is shaping the future of VR (01:00:11) Which videogame a prospective employee should excel at (01:02:41) Why ⁠Oculus⁠ was so successful in marketing (01:09:48) The kindest thing

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are end of one conversations with end of one people.
0:08.3	Palmer Lucky is a relentless builder and original thinker. He founded Oculus, bringing virtual reality to the mainstream, and is now reshaping the future of defense and technology with Anderol. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
0:18.6	Here's a puzzle. What do open AI, cursor, perplexity, Versal, Plad, and hundreds of other winning
0:23.8	companies all have in common? The answer is that they're powered by today's sponsor, WorkOS.
0:29.0	If you're building software for enterprises, you probably felt the pain of integrating SSO,
0:33.8	skim, Rback, audit logs, and other features required by big customers.
0:38.3	WorkOS turns those deal blockers into drop-in APIs with a modern developer platform
0:42.5	built specifically for B2B SaaS.
0:44.9	Whether you're a seed stage startup trying to land your first enterprise customer or a unicorn
0:49.2	expanding globally, WorkOS is the fastest path to becoming enterprise ready and unlock growth.
0:54.5	It's essentially striped for enterprise features.
0:57.0	Visit WorkOS.com to get started or just hit up their Slack support.
1:01.1	Yes, they have real engineers in there who will answer your questions fast.
1:04.8	WorkOS allows you to build like the best with delightful APIs, comprehensive docs, and smooth developer experience.
1:10.5	Go to workOS.com to make your app enterprise ready today. Music with delightful APIs, comprehensive docs, and smooth developer experience.
1:14.0	Go to workOS.com to make your app enterprise ready today.
1:20.7	Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like the Best.
1:25.9	This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money.
1:28.1	If you enjoy these conversations and want to go deeper, check out Colossus Review, our quarterly
1:32.3	publication with in-depth profiles of the people shaping business and investing.
1:36.3	You can find Colossus Review along with all of our podcasts at join colossus.com.
1:42.3	Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of Positive Sum. All opinions expressed by Patrick
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