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From forced landings to stuffed animal heads, headhunter Peterson Conway is defense tech’s wildest power broker | TechCrunch

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Peterson Conway VIII has become one of the defense tech industry’s biggest behind-the-scenes power brokers.

Conway has recruited for some of the buzziest defense and hard tech firms in Silicon Valley over the last decade , like Palantir and Mach Industries .

Conway is wildly successful at luring very talented people away from stable jobs and into startup life.

Peter Conway was in the right place at the right time and began recruiting for Palantir in 2003 .

Conway was known for getting recruits’ attention by sending handwritten letters with wax seals.

Conway 's real superpower isn’t his stunts, but rather his ability to talk about “candidates in a more human way,” says Fuse founder.

Conway has fashioned himself as something of a cowboy in the Valley for years , and now the rest of tech might have finally caught up.

He applauds the current interest in American Dynamism , the term coined by Andreessen Horowitz for government-adjacent companies.

Conway is a genius, an influential player in defense tech, and, at times, a liability.