Zero to One by Peter Thiel (Book Summary)
‘Zero to one’ refers to disruptive ideas – taking a business from nothing to something – as opposed to ‘one to n’ which represents incremental innovation.
Before going into detail, my key takeaways were:
- Don’t do what other people are doing. Don’t do the opposite of what other people are doing. Do something completely different and 10x better that exploits a secret of nature or a secret about people. Formulate a plan that begins with dominating a niche then scales in a controlled manner.
- Make every person in a company responsible for doing one distinct thing.
- Selling your company to the media is a necessary part of selling it to everyone else.
Zero to One Ideas
- The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.
- Don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business
- Every monopoly is unique, but they usually share some combination of the following characteristics: proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and branding.
- A good startup should have the potential for great scale built into its first design.
- Only when your product is 10x better can you offer the customer transparent superiority.
- It’s easier to dominate a small market than a large one. If you think your initial market might be too big, it almost certainly is.
- Don’t disrupt: avoid competition as much as possible
- There are two kinds of secrets: secrets of nature and secrets about people.
- Entering a slow-moving market can be a good strategy, but only if you have a definite and realistic plan to take it over.
- Plan in detail.
- Great companies have secrets: specific reasons for success that other people don’t see.
- The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete.
Team Building
- WHENEVER I INTERVIEW someone for a job, I like to ask this question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
- Bad decisions made early on—if you choose the wrong partners or hire the wrong people, for example—are very hard to correct after they are made.
- Founders should share a prehistory before they start a company together—otherwise they’re just rolling dice.
- A board of three is ideal. Your board should never exceed five people, unless your company is publicly held.
- … hiring consultants doesn’t work. Part-time employees don’t work. Even working remotely should be avoided, because misalignment can creep in whenever colleagues aren’t together full-time, in the same place, every day.
- Recruiting is a core competency for any company. It should never be outsourced.
- Above all, don’t fight the perk war.
- The best thing I did as a manager at PayPal was to make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing… Most fights inside a company happen when colleagues compete for the same responsibilities.
- It’s more powerful but at the same time more dangerous for a company to be led by a distinctive individual instead of an interchangeable manager
- The lesson for business is that we need founders. If anything, we should be more tolerant of founders who seem strange or extreme; we need unusual individuals to lead companies beyond mere incrementalism.
Selling and distribution
- Like acting, sales works best when hidden.
- Whatever the career, sales ability distinguishes superstars from also-rans.
- Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation. The converse is not true.
- Once you have a pool of reference customers who are successfully using your product, then you can begin the long and methodical work of hustling toward ever bigger deals.
- The kitchen sink approach—employ a few salespeople, place some magazine ads, and try to add some kind of viral functionality to the product as an afterthought—doesn’t work.
- Selling your company to the media is a necessary part of selling it to everyone else.
- Selling and delivering a product is at least as important as the product itself.
- Most companies underestimate distribution, but Tesla took it so seriously that it decided to own the entire distribution chain.
Business Acquisition | Transformation | Presales
6yGreat read
{views expressed are personal}
6yI enjoyed reading this 10 min summary of 'Zero to One: Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future'. Download the bookbhook app here: https://u82f.app.link/mv2I7AD5kt
Heart-centered Multifaceted Leader specializing in talent development and workplace culture. I prepare leaders for the ever-evolving workplace through coaching, consulting, and training.
6yThanks Jeremey Donovan. Some Interesting perspectives