All about Zero to One

About the Author

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998 and took it public in 2002, defined a new era of fast and secure online commerce. He is a partner at founder’s fund, A Silicon Valley venture capital that has founded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb.

Blake Masters was a student at Stanford Law school in 2012 when his detailed notes on Peter’s class “computer science 183: start up” became an internet sensation.

Introduction

This book is a complete one stop guide for anyone trying to build a start up or looking forward to playing a role in building the future.

Every successful company is different and not to copy any successful business model but rather try to innovate or go beyond what is already being practices.

Monopoly

The author stresses yourself on stand out of the crowd and be different. A monopoly business provides value that nobody else can. Thus, it sets its own price. If you sell the same product that everyone else is then your pay would not be decided by you buy by the market.

If you want to compete in a well settled marked minor improvements will do no good but your product must be 10x better.

Start Small and Monopolize

Every start up should start with a very small market. The perfect market for a start up is a small group of individuals served by no or very few competitors. Facebook was initially started to serve the students in the same class, then the same world and now the world.

“Victory awaits him who has everything in order, people call it luck.”
~Roald Amundsen

Magic of Compounding

Albert Einstein declared that compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world he was so impressed by the fact that money makes more money and how exponential growth works in coordination with time.

Warren buffet has been investing since the age of 14 but in the last 15 years itself more wealth is created than the other 53 years put together.

Our Story

Peter urges his readers to ask his/herself these seven questions before getting started so that you become familiar with your own business model more and improve the system in case you are not satisfied with the answers.

Let’s see how many does your business answer ‘Yes’ to ?

The Engineering question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
The Timing Question: Is now the right time to start your particular business?
The Monopoly Question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
The People Question: Do you have the right team?
The Distribution Question: Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your products?
The secret Question: Have you identified a unique question that others don’t see?
The Selling Question: What matters even more than an excellent your product?

What matters even more than an excellent product?

The answer is sales and distribution. An excellent product is no better than an average product if it’s not positioned and sold well. A strong distribution channel/network and sales is at least as important as a product of superior quality.

“We cannot take for granted that the future will be better and that means we need to work today to make it.”

~Peter Thiel

Entrepreneur, Investor