Zero to One Quotes

“Today, more than 97% of recruiters use LinkedIn and its powerful search and filtering functionality to source job candidates, and the network also creates value for the hundreds of millions of professionals who use it to manage their personal brands. If LinkedIn had tried to simply replace recruiters with technology, they wouldn’t have a business today.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“A complex sales approach would have made Box a forgotten startup failure; instead, personal sales made it a multibillion-dollar business.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“about your mission and answers about your team. You’ll attract the employees you need if you can explain why your mission is compelling: not why it’s important in general, but why you’re doing something important that no one else is going to get done. That’s the only thing that can make its importance unique.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“The essential first step is to think for yourself.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“humans are distinguished from other species by our ability to work miracles.”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future. For”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“No technology company can be built on branding alone.”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“A good startup should have the potential for great scale built into its first design.”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“This is why successful network businesses rarely get started by MBA types: the initial markets are so small that they often don’t even appear to be business opportunities at all.”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“Most of a tech company’s value will come at least 10 to 15 years in the future.”
― Blake Masters, Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

“Futurists can seem like they hope the answer is yes. Luddites are so worried about being replaced that they would rather we stop building new technology altogether. Neither side questions the premise that better computers will necessarily replace human workers. But that premise is wrong: computers are complements for humans, not substitutes. The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“At PayPal, our initial user base was 24 people, all of whom worked at PayPal. Acquiring customers through banner advertising proved too expensive. However, by directly paying people to sign up and then paying them more to refer friends, we achieved extraordinary growth. This strategy cost us $20 per customer, but it also led to 7% daily growth, which meant that our user base nearly doubled every 10 days.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too. This is how Facebook and PayPal both grew quickly: every time someone shares with a friend or makes a payment, they naturally invite more and more people into the network. This isn’t just cheap—it’s fast, too.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation. The converse is not true. No matter how strong your product—even if it easily fits into already established habits and anybody who tries it likes it immediately—you must still support it with a strong distribution plan.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“The best thing I did as a manager at PayPal was to make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing. Every employee’s one thing was unique, and everyone knew I would evaluate him only on that one thing. I had started doing this just to simplify the task of managing people. But then I noticed a deeper result: defining roles reduced conflict.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“Just cover the basics like health insurance and then promise what no others can: the opportunity to do irreplaceable work on a unique problem alongside great people.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“However, even a great mission is not enough. The kind of recruit who would be most engaged as an employee will also wonder: “Are these the kind of people I want to work with?” You should be able to explain why your company is a unique match for him personally. And if you can’t do that, he’s probably not the right match.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“there are two general kinds of good answers: answers about your mission and answers about your team. You’ll attract the employees you need if you can explain why your mission is compelling: not why it’s important in general, but why you’re doing something important that no one else is going to get done. That’s the only thing that can make its importance unique.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“people often find equity unattractive. It’s not liquid like cash. It’s tied to one specific company. And if that company doesn’t succeed, it’s worthless. Equity is a powerful tool precisely because of these limitations. Anyone who prefers owning a part of your company to being paid in cash reveals a preference for the long term and a commitment to increasing your company’s value in the future. Equity can’t create perfect incentives, but it’s the best way for a founder to keep everyone in the company broadly aligned.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“This problem becomes even more acute over time as more people join the company. Early employees usually get the most equity because they take more risk, but some later employees might be even more crucial to a venture’s success. A secretary who joined eBay in 1996 might have made 200 times more than her industry-veteran boss who joined in 1999.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“Startups don’t need to pay high salaries because they can offer something better: part ownership of the company itself. Equity is the one form of compensation that can effectively orient people toward creating value in the future”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“high cash compensation teaches workers to claim value from the company as it already exists instead of investing their time to create new value in the future. A cash bonus is slightly better than a cash salary—at least it’s contingent on a job well done. But even so-called incentive pay encourages short-term thinking and value grabbing. Any kind of cash is more about the present than the future.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“If a CEO doesn’t set an example by taking the lowest salary in the company, he can do the same thing by drawing the highest salary. So long as that figure is still modest, it sets an effective ceiling on cash compensation.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“A company does better the less it pays the CEO—that’s one of the single clearest patterns I’ve noticed from investing in hundreds of startups. In no case should a CEO of an early-stage, venture-backed startup receive more than $150,000 per year in salary. It doesn’t matter if he got used to making much more than that at Google or if he has a large mortgage and hefty private school tuition bills. If a CEO collects $300,000 per year, he risks becoming more like a politician than a founder.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“However, anyone who doesn’t own stock options or draw a regular salary from your company is fundamentally misaligned. At the margin, they’ll be biased to claim value in the near term, not help you create more in the future. That’s why hiring consultants doesn’t work. Part-time employees don’t work.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“A board of three is ideal. Your board should never exceed five people, unless your company is publicly held.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“In the boardroom, less is more. The smaller the board, the easier it is for the directors to communicate, to reach consensus, and to exercise effective oversight. However, that very effectiveness means that a small board can forcefully oppose management in any conflict. This is why it’s crucial to choose wisely: every single member of your board matters. Even one problem director will cause you pain, and may even jeopardize your company’s future.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“So who do you tell? Whoever you need to, and no more. In practice, there’s always a golden mean between telling nobody and telling everybody—and that’s a company. The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator.”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

“when thinking about what kind of company to build, there are two distinct questions to ask: What secrets is nature not telling you? What secrets are people not telling you?”
― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future