Peter Thiel

"EVERY MOMENT IN BUSINESS HAPPENS ONLY ONCE. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won't create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren't learning from them. It's easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange. Zero to One is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything I've learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and SpaceX. The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas. Ask not, what would Mark do? Ask: WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? "--

Notes on Startups, Or how to Build the Future

Zero to One

Blake Masters

WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin wonâe(tm)t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you arenâe(tm)t learning from them. Itâe(tm)s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. âe~Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.âe(tm) ELON MUSK, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla âe~This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.âe(tm) MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO of Facebook âe~When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic.âe(tm) NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, author of The Black Swan

Notes on Start Ups, Or How to Build the Future

Gavin

What we hate about business books is their clichés, their fawning, their Panglossian grin, their being completely invalid because they don't consider survivorship bias, and their prose. This one avoids all these things and is radical in an unconventional way.*

It's hard to know what to think of Thiel. He's easy to demonise - much easier than his loudmouth peer Musk. For instance, he's anti-college, anti-affirmative-action, anti-Clinton - and even openly anti-competition! (And a vampire!)

But I've been impressed with his clarity and sense of proportion in interviews, and nowhere here did I find the Girardian anti-humanist conservatism that Gawker, Vulture, Vox, (...) made me expect. 

For instance, this spiel moves me every time I hear it - the billions of hours we steal from children every year:

  We teach every young person the same subjects in the same ways, irrespective of individual talents and preferences. Students who don’t learn best by sitting at a desk are made to feel somehow inferior, while children who excel on conventional measures like tests and assignments end up defining their identities in terms of this weirdly contrived academic parallel reality.

And it gets worse as students ascend to higher levels of the tournament. Elite students climb confidently until they reach a level of competition sufficiently intense to beat their dreams out of them. Higher education is the place where people who had big plans in high school get stuck in fierce rivalries with equally smart peers over conventional careers like management consulting and investment banking. For the privilege of bring turned into conformists, students (or their families) pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in skyrocketing tuition that continues to outpace inflation. Why are we doing this to ourselves?



and similarly plaintive and humane bits:

  Why work with a group of people who don’t even like each other? Many seem to think it’s a sacrifice necessary for making money. But taking a merely professional view of the workplace, in which free agents check in and out on a transactional basis, is worse than cold: it’s not even rational. Since time is your most valuable asset, it’s odd to spend it working with people who don’t envision any long-term future together. If you can’t count durable relationships among the fruits of your time at work, you haven’t invested your time well—even in purely financial terms. 



He is simply not simple. There are four positive references to Marx, four to Zuckerberg; two to Shakespeare, two to Bezos. He is a revisionist, then, intolerable to one side and oddly scathing about the other. (The chapter which translates Google's public rhetoric is not complimentary, for instance.) His niche seems to be the repugnant but true. So, like Taleb without the bluster and boasting. Which feels bizarre, like I'm in a different timeline where Taleb is actually aiming to not alienate a mass audience.

He says true things about things I know about: the history of economic thought (Walras did indeed lift the formalism of general equilibrium from physics) and the deadened air of contemporary Political Philosophy. His contribution to Trump's campaign was risible and maybe a defection against the world - but notice that even this lapse speaks to his ability to find unexpected truths - FiveThirtyEight gave an 80% chance of a Clinton win at that point. So maybe his analysis and helpful checklist for startups are true too.

It's a shame few critics of capitalism will read this - for he is one, in his way:

  Americans mythologize competition and credit it with saving us from socialist bread lines. Actually, capitalism and competition are opposites. Capitalism is premised on the accumulation of capital, but under perfect competition, all profits get competed away. The lesson for entrepreneurs is clear: If you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business.


(Of actually-existing capitalism I mean.)


How on earth can you argue that monopolies give more social utility than high competition? First, distinguish three kinds: 1) criminal saboteurs and antitrustees (Apple); 2) government-licenced pets (US car dealers, the East India Companies); and 3) "creative monopolies" who gain their massive market share by doing something much, much better than everyone else. Obviously only the latter is good for society. 

I was recently rushing to the airport, and pulled the quickest route (via underground via train via foot) from Google Maps. On the way, I noticed a sign in the Tube and realised that actually a different line was a much shorter route. So I walked 10 mins to that line, to find, of course, that it was suspended all weekend and, consequently, that Google is better at my life than I am. This is what he means.


He goes further and says that the spare resources and vision of a creative monopoly is the source of innovation and so

  
Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.



The model is structurally the same as the old one about the Agrarian revolution: farms meant that for the first time, not everyone had to work full-time on food production, which let them specialise in other roles (war, gods, justice, lore) and eventually - slowly - invent new things.

Even so, I thought of an alternative road to dynamism, given perfect competition and so no profits: competition leads to low prices, which leads to savings, which are pooled into investment funds, which give entrepreneurs the same kind of space (and potentially the long view) that profits do.

Other people would not use the word "monopoly", trying to manage the connotations, trying to persuade us by smoothing things over. This is not Thiel's strategy.

One chapter argues that "Success is not just luck", mostly on the back of the existence of serially successful entrepreneurs (it is plausible that once could be luck, and plausible that one success brings massive funding, deserved or not. It isn't plausible that someone could dumbly blunder into 3 billion-dollar executions, even given the easy ride for the second and third). It pains me slightly to admit the latter, because it tints my otherwise complete loathing of Steve Jobs.

---

Misc notes

* He notes that the term "developed nations" is a sign of our lack of ambition, of a premature, smug, quasi-willed halt.

* The dot-com boom was even crazier than you thought:

  A South Korean firm wired us $5 million without first negotiating a deal or signing any documents. When I tried to return the money, they wouldn't tell me where to send it.



* It is not yet clear whether killing Gawker was good or bad. Either way, like his Trump donation, you must acknowledge the sheer gall and direction.

* One should do a Straussian (between-the-lines) reading of anyone smart, conservative and public, because there will be a lot that's unsayable. I don't care to.

  The few who knew what could be learned, 
Foolish enough to put their whole heart on show, 
reveal their feelings to the crowd below? 
These we have always crucified and burned.



* Actually hold on. The man's a transhumanist, an anti-school radical, a funder of one of our only large-scale experiments in urban planning or libertarianism, a rationalist. Why do we call him a conservative? 

---


Short, original, modest, and he credits his ghostwriter on the cover. Minus one point because it makes 200 large claims in 200 pages and has no citations for anything.




* Thinking about it, it's not so much that he avoids cliche, as that the erudite context defangs them.
"Zero to One" sounds like the usual kind of motivational crap, except that it's actually a good illustration of his maxim of creative monopoly ("0 -> 1 is much, much better than 1 -> n"). And the subtitle "How to build the future" is not figurative and not petty: he cites Bostrom's trajectories about the ultimate fate of the universe - and is only focussed on technology because that's what will get us past the Rise and Fall trap, the stagnation trap and the extinction trap.

Peter A. Thiel

The billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur behind such companies as PayPal and Facebook outlines an innovative theory and formula for building the companies of the future by creating and monopolizing new markets instead of competing in old ones. 200,000 first printing.

Keven Wang

Just re-read this book. Thiel is well read and his perspective is priceless

Madhuri jain

This was my first read on startups. Hence i could not compare it with other books but its a nice read for those who have ideas which they think they can convert to make some money. Nowadays startups have emerged like mushrooms. Everyone with a little idea think that they will become an entrepreneur but one should consider several parameters before stepping into a startup journey and this book brilliantly answers the questions one should ask themselves in order to become the next successful entrepreneur...Overall an informative read.

Obada Mu

Every king was a living god, and every god a murdered king. Perhaps every modern king is just a scapegoat who has managed to delay his own execution.

Nick Gracilla

Peter's experiences -- founder of PayPal and Palantir, investor in hundreds of startups, head of the PayPal Mafia who went on to create great companies and great value -- give him a unique perspective on the startup world. Read this as an smart counter position to "agile, incremental improvement"; the title, 0 to 1, refers to creating something genuinely new, something that provides 10x the value. His take on the recent economic history of booms and dot com busts was equally insightful; he puts together a good argument for how timing is critical. His key position -- is success luck, or skill? -- warrants re-readings.

Arturo Hernández

Here Peter Thiel talks about his findings on the startup world, the highs and lows. It’s an interesting start and a good build up, however the plot of the book gets lost when there are three chapters left to go. The ending chapters attempt to conclude a point that never was fully developed and leave the reader with hunger for more consistency. The first part is good though.

Sierra Nguyen

Going from 0 to 1 means creating something new, whereas going from 1 to n is making more copies of something that already exists. If you want to create a successful start-up, then aim to go from Zero to One, to create a unique business, and to avoid as much competition as possible.

This book also offers some insights (or notes) on how to start and run a start-up in the current world where new start-ups appear constantly but only a few last. There are definitely great points that can make you think more deeply about the goal of creating a business if that's what you are going for.

Neil Murray

Reread (in one sitting!) 

It remains my favorite ever “business” book.

Ahmed Salem

This is a mind changing book.

There is no list of what you have to do to start your Start-Up.

There is just a punch of mandatory questions that must be answered clearly before taking your first steps forward in your project.

I loved the part that was answering the questions, like why we are more economically pessimistic rather than earlier generation, and why are not any more into trying to create something new, or starting a new company.

Todd Luallen

Probably one of my favorite entrepreneurial books thus far. I love reading books by founders, and this book is written by a “Founder of Founders.” Peter Thiel is essentially the “Don” of the *PayPal Mafia, *which is a group of former PayPal employees that have since gone on to start 7 companies that are now each worth over a billion dollars. So reading this book was like getting the wisdom from a guy that had advised some of the best and most successful founders in the last 15 years. A fascinating read that does not disappoint. 
It's probably not the best book for starting a small business, but I only say that because all the examples and points are geared toward people starting businesses that have huge potential. This is definitely not a *$100 Start-Up* competitor, but there are bits of wisdom that can be applied to any business out there. Having said that, there are some fantastic questions in this book that every founder of a new business needs to consider. I will definitely be coming back to read these questions again and again. In addition, Peter questions the status quo and challenges the beliefs of many in ways that might surprise you.

alali moe

brendan sudol

A small book jam-packed with insights and ideas

Ethan Ding

was better than i expected, but felt a little arrogant or overconfident

Ugis

I expected more, but I guess this is what you get when the book is formed out of lecture notes. Still many good ideas. [4h38m]

jack morris

This book is a summary a course about startups that the author, Peter Thiel, used to teach to college students. It’s more resemblant of a collection of wise aphorisms that have been expanded into chapters (rather than an actual structured course). In any case, Thiel is a sharp, incisive outside in Silicon Valley and I’m happy to take his advice.

This book answers some unspoken questions for “founders” of startups: how do you define your market? pick your founders? What’s a monopoly, and does google count? Thiel normalizes some Silicon Valley parlance (founder, startup, VC) but rejects some, too (he doesn’t like the word “disrupt”).

I used to wonder why some individual who founded a successful Internet business in 1995 gets to make major investment decisions that determine whether startups make it or break it in the Valley. I’m not talking about Thiel, or any other specific investor— just the idea that success 25 years ago somehow translates to insight into today‘s market. Thiel founded PayPal, and Palantir, but has spent most of the last 20ish years as a VC. However, he changed my view on this point. With such well-defined principles, it’s no surprise that he was able to build PayPal into a commercial success, or that he remains a shrewd and effective VC in 2020. If I ever decide to found a company, I’ll definitely reread this book.

Chris Raastad

I read this ages ago early in my startup life. I can't remember the key takeaway, but I know do know it's a collection of lessons and thoughts from a legend in the startup world inspiring my entrepreneurial thinking. Economies of scale, powers of exponential, don't sell if you're a market leader in a growing market, and the mechanics of mafia are particularly interesting.

Vedat Güven

PayPal'ın kurucularından, Facebook'un yatırımcılarından ve Homo Deus kitabında "2050 yılında sağlıklı olursanız ve zengin iseniz, ölümü unutun diyen kişi. Mevcut bir şeyi daha iyi, daha verimli yapmak, 1'den n'ye götürür. Ama yeni bir şey yapmak 0'dan 1'e götürür. Kitapta çeşitli çarpıcı görüşler var. Bunlardan birisi de "ilerleme sağlamak için tekelleşmeye izin vermeliyiz bir yere kadar". Değişimin olmadığı dünyada tekelcilik kötüdür. Günümüz dünyasında tekelcilik gelişimin, ilerlemenin gereğidir. 2013'te Twiter $24milyara halka arz edildiğinde Times'ın değeri $2milyar idi. Times yılda $133milyon kar açıklarken, Twitter zarar açıklıyordu. Hadi, gel de açıkla. Herhalde en uygun cevap "nakit akışı".

Donald

This was a lot more interesting and political than I thought it would be.

Andrew Kerr

Listened to the audio book on the flight, very interesting. Really enjoyed the description of the types of optimism

Mumluk

Time spent studying this book: 18h54m
Reading Sessions: 19

What I liked: I initially delayed reading this book because of what I heard and read about Peter Thiel. I shouldn't have. Reading somebody is a great way to create at least sympathy – not empathy – to their mindset. Reading Zero to One gave me a much better understanding of how some of the most successful VCs think about the world surrounding them. I understood how they choose the companies they invest in and build their team. It was both informative and helpful as I evolve in that universe. I don't agree with all he is saying and that's okay. I also took this book to better understand Peter Thiel and people like him. In that regard, I wholly got my investment in time back and I am sure it will pay dividends in the future.

What I disliked: Taking innumerable examples from history, there were some shortcuts taken to suit his discourse. It wasn't too bad but still, you have to be cautious stepping into the mind of someone, you might end-up trapped inside it. I also disliked the very PR feeling from some chapters, which make sense as the inception of this book was teaching/recruiting at Stanford.

Comic book analogy: Peter Thiel closer comic-book parallel in my head is Ozymandias. Billionaire contrarian who sees humans on a very macro-level, ready to take the heat and make extremely bold and controversial moves, all for what he believes is “the greater good”. Peter, I know you enjoy Tolkien work, but isn't that analogy great too?

Vedant Jain

it's a quick and informative read. would recommend.

Pranav Mutatkar

4 1/2 reviews. Anything super new? No. But a great reminder of the things we should know about what it means to be a challenger and a scrappy startup to take on the big dogs. In terms of cutting through the noise this helps me reframe with the questions he poses in the book.

Wir leben in einer technologischen Sackgasse. Zwar suggeriert die Globalisierung technischen Fortschritt, doch das vermeintlich Neue, sind vor allem Kopien des Bestehenden. Peter Thiel, Silicon-Valley-Insider und in der Wirtschaftscommunity bestens bekannter Innovationstreiber ist überzeugt: Globalisierung ist kein Fortschritt, Konkurrenz ist schädlich und nur Monopole sind nachhaltig erfolgreich. Er zeigt: Wahre Innovation entsteht nicht horizontal, sondern sprunghaft - from Zero to One. Um die Zukunft zu erobern, reicht es nicht, der Beste zu sein. Gründer müssen aus dem Wettkampf des Immergleichen heraustreten und völlig neue Märkte erobern. Wie man wirklich Neues erfindet, enthüllt seine beeindruckende Anleitung zum visionären Querdenken. Ein Appell für einen Startup der ganzen Gesellschaft.

Wie Innovation unsere Gesellschaft rettet

Nat Welch

I'll probably never finish this book. I like a lot of what I've read, but it wasn't compelling enough for me to finish.

Zero to One Notes on Startups, Or how to Build the Future

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