While a definitely optimistic future would need engineers to design underwater cities and settlements in space, an indefinitely optimistic future calls for more bankers and lawyers.

if your company can be summed up by its opposition to already existing firms, it can’t be completely new and it’s probably not going to become a monopoly. Disruption also attracts attention:

only invest in companies that have the potential to return the value of the entire fund.

The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors.

EVER-SMARTER COMPUTERS: FRIEND OR FOE?

The most valuable kind of company maintains an openness to invention that is most characteristic of beginnings. This leads to a second, less obvious understanding of the founding: it lasts as long as a company is creating new things, and it ends when creation stops. If you get the founding moment right, you can do more than create a valuable

EVERYBODY SELLS

If insights that look so elementary in retrospect can support important and valuable businesses, there must remain many great companies still to start.

The Engineering Question Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? 2. The Timing Question Is now the right time to start your particular business? 3. The Monopoly Question Are you starting with a big share of a small market? 4. The People Question Do you have the right team? 5. The Distribution Question Do you have