# Nathan Gettings The most invisible of [[Palantir]]'s five co-founders. Served as Palantir's CTO in its early years, then went on to found defense-adjacent and fintech companies. Deliberately avoids public attention — no media interviews, minimal digital footprint. ## Palantir Role - Co-founded Palantir in 2003 with [[Peter Thiel]], [[Alex Karp]], [[Joe Lonsdale]], and [[Stephen Cohen]]. - Served as CTO, building the early data analytics architecture that would become Gotham and Foundry. - Departed active Palantir operations to pursue other ventures, but retains co-founder status and equity. ## Post-Palantir Ventures ### RoboteX (Founder/CEO) Founded [[RoboteX]], which builds multi-purpose tactical robots for police agencies, SWAT teams, and law enforcement. The AVATAR robot system allows tactical teams to remotely inspect dangerous situations before sending in personnel. In 2013, RoboteX raised $5M with backing from Thiel and Palantir CEO [[Alex Karp]] — showing the founders still invest together even outside Palantir. Defense-adjacent: surveillance and tactical robotics for domestic law enforcement. ### Affirm (Co-Founder) Co-founded [[Affirm]] in 2012 with **[[Max Levchin]]** (PayPal co-founder), Jeff Kaditz, and Alex Rampell. This is a direct PayPal-to-Palantir-to-fintech pipeline — Levchin from PayPal, Gettings from Palantir, building a consumer finance company together. Gettings focused on risk systems and structural decision-making. Affirm went public in 2021 (NASDAQ: AFRM). ## Angel Investments Limited public portfolio: known investments include PearPop (social/creator economy) and Tala (financial inclusion/emerging markets fintech). ## Network Position Gettings occupies a unique node: he's the human bridge between PayPal (via Levchin/Affirm), Palantir (co-founder), and law enforcement robotics (RoboteX). While not politically active like Thiel or Lonsdale, his ventures show the same pattern of applying Palantir-style thinking to new domains — and Thiel keeps investing alongside him. ## See Also - [[Peter Thiel]] - [[Palantir]] - [[Stephen Cohen]] - [[RoboteX]] - [[Palantir Mafia]]