# Joe Lonsdale Inner Circle The **tight, trusted core** around [[Joe Lonsdale]] — his [[Palantir]] co-founders, the [[8VC]] bench, and the [[Erebor]] / institution-building partners. This is the small inner ring; the fuller directly-connected map lives in [[Joe Lonsdale First Degree Connections]]. > Roster, not biographies. Each name links to its own page where the deep profile lives. ## Palantir co-founders (2003) | Person | Tie | |---|---| | [[Peter Thiel]] | Co-founder; patron; [[the Thiel network]] anchor | | [[Alex Karp]] | Co-founder; Palantir CEO | | [[Stephen Cohen]] · [[Nathan Gettings]] | Co-founders | ## Capital & company partners | Person | Tie | |---|---| | [[Palmer Luckey]] | Co-founded [[Erebor]] with Lonsdale; [[8VC]] is an [[Anduril]] backer | | [[Ken Howery]] | PayPal-Mafia-adjacent network peer | ## Institution-building partners | Person | Tie | |---|---| | [[Bari Weiss]] | Co-founded [[University of Austin]] with Lonsdale | | Pano Kanelos | UATX founding president | | Niall Ferguson | UATX co-founder | ## How to use this page vs. its neighbors - **This page** = the trusted core (co-founders, fund/bank partners, UATX co-founders). - [[Joe Lonsdale First Degree Connections]] = everyone directly connected, including looser ties. - [[the Thiel network]] = the patronage machine he belongs to. ## See Also - [[Joe Lonsdale]] — canonical biography - [[8VC]] · [[Erebor]] · [[Cicero Institute]] · [[University of Austin]] - [[Joe Lonsdale First Degree Connections]] - [[Joe Lonsdale Dossier]]