Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

Top positive review

If you like thinking about the future, you'll like this book.

Reviewed in Australia on 23 June 2017

I've read a lot of business books in 2017.

As I've read more and more books across business and tech, there's three criteria that I judge these books on. I know I'm going to love a book if it:
> Introduces me to new ideas
> Makes me question long held assumptions
> Balances big picture thinking with practical tactics
For me, this book delivers strongly on all three.

I don’t agree with all of Thiel’s opinions. But if you like thinking about the future you’ll probably like this book. 👍👍👍

6 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Amazon Customer

Culture overwhelms strategy

Reviewed in Australia on 17 September 2018

It overlooks culture and is perhaps applicable only to the USA environment. I also think it sets a standard for success that is far too high for the great majority of start ups, that being 10x better than competitors. This excludes a vast number of successful start ups.

3 people found this helpful

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Arunabh Bhattacharjee

Great Read

Reviewed in India on 11 June 2018

Verified Purchase

Plenty of interesting insights for anyone serious about improving their game. I would recommend this to anyone willing to broaden their perspective on how to run an innovative organization.

One person found this helpful

Brent

Be bold in a sea of gutless beige companies competing on incremental improvements.

Reviewed in Canada on 1 March 2019

Verified Purchase

Loved it! This book hits the nail on the head and is not afraid to stand against convention. Just the read I needed while preparing a new 0 to 1 startup.

One person found this helpful

ReAl

Very knowledgeable read

Reviewed in India on 10 January 2019

Verified Purchase

Improves our perspective of entrepreneurial journey and what to expect of it!

Amazon Customer

yeah and nah

Reviewed in India on 5 January 2020

Verified Purchase

Improve your packaging a little bit. Besides that everything was fine. Thanks

Prince

Must Read !!!

Reviewed in India on 21 August 2019

Verified Purchase

Good book. Must buy, but Amazon improve your packaging service.

Raj V

Good Read

Reviewed in India on 3 September 2015

Verified Purchase

So far this book has been awesome. Thanks to your story to help me with the existence of this book .

Definitely wil improve your learning curve!

Ron Lehman

Exceptional

Reviewed in Canada on 8 February 2015

Verified Purchase

Peter Thiel provokes us to ask the challenging questions of our business in order to ensure we're creating new valuable products and services. Not just incremental improvement. Great read with plenty of actionable insights.

One person found this helpful

Sandeeep kaore

Improve ur services

Reviewed in India on 22 October 2019

Verified Purchase

It's better

SANJAY BOGA

Good startup book ever read

Reviewed in India on 30 January 2017

Verified Purchase

One of the best book ever read
Guys read this book . It might change and improve ur social skills...

Harish Nair

this book (or better to say a compilation of notes) is about how ...

Reviewed in India on 24 June 2016

Verified Purchase

In the words of Peter, this book (or better to say a compilation of notes) is about how to build companies that create new things. Personally, I would say this book gives a good window into the mind of a great entrepreneur like Peter, which may give solace to other entrepreneurs with out of box idea and who are not getting support from near quarters. This is not a book which will detail out the steps in the journey, but it can tell you about what to expect in the journey. And nothing about the destination – that is for each to define as their own.

In the process, there are some gems I collected. Like the contra learnings from the dot com bust –
1. Make incremental advances
2. Stay lean and flexible
3. Improve on competition
4. Focus on product , not sale
OR what Peter professes
a) It is better to risk boldness than triviality
b) A bad plan is better than no plan
c) Competitive market destroys profits
d) Sales matter as much as the product
Which one to choose – all upto you.

Peter is unapologetic about monopoly – as he views that every business is successful exactly to the extent it does what others cannot, this making monopoly the condition for every successful business. All happy companies are those who have earned a monopoly by solving a unique problem, all failed companies are those who failed to escape competition

In order to get to the monopoly, Peter suggests to analyse the business within some parameters:
a) Proprietary technology – should be 10 times better than closest substitute
b) Network effects – an expanding network of users will bring in more users. A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too.
c) Economies of scale – the model should have a great potential to scale in its design
d) Branding – control the customer experience

Peter prefers to start small – target a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors. Dominate a small market than a large one. And then scale up.

Peter also serves some words of caution - some of which may not find universal resonance, like
a) Don’t Disrupt: focus on the act of creation. Disruptors often attract undue attention and take away substantial time
b) Last will be first : Moving first is a tactic, not a goal. Focus on cash flows. It may be better to be the last mover - to make the last great development in a specific market and enjoy years of monopoly profits
c) Full time involvement: Everyone you involve with your start up company should be involved full time – even remote working should be avoided to avoid any misalignment.
d) Do one thing : Make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing
e) Human beings are irreplaceable: Complementarity between computers and human beings is the path to building a great business (e.g. LinkedIn helping recruiters than aiming to replace them)

Using the case of large scale failure of greentech companies, Peter lays out a set of seven questions that every business must answer:
1. 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 a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6. The Durability Question -Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question - Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

At the end, Peter addresses the question about the importance of founders. He agrees on the need to have and tolerate founders who seem strange and extreme. They are important as they can bring out the best work from everybody in the company. He also agrees that it can get dangerous when the founder is so certain of his myth that he loses his mind but he feels it is equally dangerous for a business to lose all sense of myth and mistake disenchantment for wisdom

There are many other areas on which Peter gives his views like control over future, the power law of venture capital, the case for having secrets etc. He focusses on finding singular ways to create new things that will make future not just different , but better – to go from zero to one, for which the essential step is to think for yourself. His closing comment “Only by seeing the world anew and as strange as it was to the ancients who saw it first, can we both re-create it and preserve it for the future”

The book is a recommended read as it is rare to get insights into some great minds. However, as I said in the beginning, don’t mistake this for a handbook for building a great business.

50 people found this helpful

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