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Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future
In the most dysfunctional organizations, signaling that work is being done becomes a better strategy for career advancement than actually doing work
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
The lesson for entrepreneurs is clear: if you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
Just as war cost the Montagues and Capulets their children, it cost Microsoft and Google their dominance: Apple came along and overtook them all. In January 2013, Apple’s market capitalization was $500 billion, while Google and Microsoft combined were worth $467 billion. Just three years before, Microsoft and Google were each more valuable than App
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Every monopoly is unique, but they usually share some combination of the following characteristics: proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and branding.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
Non-monopolists exaggerate their distinction by defining their market as the intersection of various smaller markets:
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
Ralph Waldo Emerson captured this ethos when he wrote: “Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances…. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” In 1912, after he became the first explorer to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen wrote: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order—luck, people call it.”
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
Every startup is small at the start. Every monopoly dominates a large share of its market. Therefore, every startup should start with a very small market. Always err on the side of starting too small.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors.
from Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel