Background and career
Joseph Lonsdale (born 1982 or 1983) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-founded Palantir, Addepar, and OpenGov, and co-founded and works as the managing partner at the technology investment firm 8VC. Lonsdale began his career as an intern at PayPal, then worked as an early executive at Clarium Capital, a hedge fund run by Lonsdale's mentor, Peter Thiel. In 2004, he, Thiel, and three others co-founded Palantir. Lonsdale left Palantir in 2009. In 2009, he co-founded Addepar, a wealth management technology company. In 2011, Lonsdale co-founded the venture capital firm Formation 8, and in 2015, he founded the technology investment firm 8VC. Lonsdale has been outspoken about politics, and is an active Republican donor and fundraiser. He founded the conservative Cicero Institute think tank and co-founded the private University of Austin.
Lonsdale grew up in Fremont, California, with two brothers. His father was Irish Catholic, and he was raised Jewish by his mother. He has described his family as "very, very competitive". Lonsdale graduated from Stanford University in 2004 with a degree in computer science. From 2002 to 2003, he served as editor-in-chief of The Stanford Review, a student-run newspaper with a predominantly libertarian and conservative editorial perspective. The Stanford Review was co-founded in 1987 by Peter Thiel, who would eventually become a mentor to Lonsdale.
Lonsdale interned at the financial technology firm PayPal while at Stanford. Although he was never a founder or executive at the company, he is sometimes described as a part of the "PayPal Mafia" due to his close connections with members of that group, which includes Thiel, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman, and David O. Sacks. Although Lonsdale did not know Peter Thiel well during his time at PayPal, his internship led to a position as an early executive at Thiel's hedge fund, Clarium Capital.
In 2004, Lonsdale began working on a prototype for the data mining and defense technology company Palantir Technologies, which he cofounded along with Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings. The company aimed to apply the types of big data and data analytics techniques used for fraud detection at PayPal to national security, military, and law enforcement problems. Palantir received early investment from the CIA via its In-Q-Tel venture fund, and many of its first customers were intelligence agencies. Since then, Palantir has sold access to its large shared databases and to its analysis and prediction software to government agencies, militaries, police departments, financial firms, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, and others. Lonsdale made much of his fortune at Palantir, which was valued at $1 billion by 2010. Lonsdale left Palantir in 2009, though he continued to hold an advisory role and a stake in the company. Lonsdale co-founded Addepar, a wealth management and data analytics platform, in 2009 with Jason Mirra. The software is targeted towards financial advisers and the ultra-wealthy, and is intended to provide a clear view into complex financial portfolios, predict future risks, and help with reporting and transfers. Early investors in the company included Thiel and PayPal veteran David O. Sacks. In 2013, Lonsdale became chairman and left his role as CEO. Lonsdale and Zachary Bookman co-founded OpenGov, a company which offers cloud-based software for government budgeting, in 2012. He was chairman of the board until 2024, when the company was acquired by Cox Enterprises. He also co-founded and serves on the boards of Affinity, Anduin, Epirus, Esper, Hearth, LIT, Resilience Bio, and Swiftscale Bio.
In 2011, Lonsdale, Brian Koo, and Jim Kim co-founded the San Francisco-based venture capital firm Formation 8, which focused on investing in technology companies based in Asia. Its first fund raised almost $450 million, and the firm was described by Fortune as "the hottest new VC firm since Andreessen Horowitz". The company went on to raise a second, $500 million fund in December 2014. Formation 8's portfolio included Color Genomics, Oculus VR, Oscar Health, Plated, RelateIQ, Wish, and Yello Mobile. Formation 8 shut down in November 2015, citing differences in investment strategies among its founders. Subsequent reports linked the closure to personal conflicts between Joe Lonsdale and Brian Koo, including tensions related to a public sexual assault allegation and lawsuit involving Lonsdale, as well as a failed investment by Koo. Koo was reportedly upset that Lonsdale had not informed him of the allegation before the lawsuit became public, and was concerned about the potential impact on his family's reputation; Koo's family is affiliated with the LG and LS chaebols in South Korea. These concerns were reportedly shared by Koo's father, John Koo, who chaired Formation 8's strategic advisory board and had pledged $50 million in early investment to the firm. Lonsdale, in turn, had raised concerns about Koo's investments in Asia, including an unsuccessful effort to establish a Korean branch of Wish, which was later viewed by Wish's CEO as a competing venture.
In 2015, shortly after the breakup of Formation 8, Lonsdale co-founded 8VC (originally called "8 Partners") with 15 of the 25 employees from Formation 8. 8VC has invested in Anduril, Hyperloop One, Synthego, and UBiome. Originally based in San Francisco, Lonsdale relocated the firm's headquarters to Austin, Texas in 2020, shortly after moving there with his family. The fund employs Jack Moshkovich, the son of Vadim Moshkovich, and Denis Aven, the son of Petr Aven. Lonsdale posted about these employees on X, saying, "I'm lucky to live in the greatest country in the world, and it will remain as such if we can keep working with the top talent of all backgrounds, including, yes, Chinese and Russians and Israelis et al, without demonizing people for imagined things they didn't do. We haven't taken any money from their fathers or their fathers' friends, and don't need it." Lonsdale has also been an angel investor. He was included in Forbes' "30 Under 30" list in 2012, "Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40" in 2016, and "Midas List" in 2021 (later dropping off the list in 2022).
