In his bestseller, Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Facebook’s first external investor, provides insights into the world of startups and explains which characteristics are essential for a startup to become a long-term success.
Thiel’s seven criteria for success are: groundbreaking technological progress, good timing, monopoly position, the right team, distribution strategy, sustainability, and a secret to success.
Two of the criteria stand out in particular:
1. To be successful, it is not enough to marginally improve an existing technology (from “one to n”). Success requires boldness and risk: the development of a completely new technology (from “zero to one”) or the improvement of existing technology by at least a factor of ten.
2. Contrary to common belief, it is not competition that makes a company successful but a monopoly position achieved through innovation. Competition leads to ruthless rivalry, short-term planning, and struggles for survival in which employees are not seldom the casualties. Creative monopolies, on the other hand, have resources to plan for the long term, drive progress and provide a pleasant working environment for their employees. Creative monopolies, Thiel argues, are what make the future better.
The book is relatively short, easy to read, and contains numerous entertaining anecdotes and real-world examples – of both successful and failed startups – with analyses of each of the seven success criteria.
Thiel’s theses are not based on research findings such as in “Good to Great” but exclusively on his personal experience as one of the most successful founders and investors in Silicon Valley.
An absolute must-read for anyone considering founding a startup or investing in one.
🎧 Suitable as an audiobook? Yes.
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