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  • Zero to One

  • Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
  • Written by: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
  • Narrated by: Blake Masters
  • Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (965 ratings)

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Zero to One

Written by: Peter Thiel,Blake Masters
Narrated by: Blake Masters
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Publisher's Summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”—Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta

“Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”—Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.

Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

©2014 Peter Thiel (P)2014 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“Crisply written, rational and practical, Zero to One should be read not just by aspiring entrepreneurs but by anyone seeking a thoughtful alternative to the current pervasive gloom about the prospects for the world.” The Economist

"An extended polemic against stagnation, convention, and uninspired thinking. What Thiel is after is the revitalization of imagination and invention writ large…." – The New Republic

"Might be the best business book I've read...Barely 200 pages long and well lit by clear prose and pithy aphorisms, Thiel has written a perfectly tweetable treatise and a relentlessly thought-provoking handbook." – Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

What listeners say about Zero to One

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Excellent book for Entrepreneurs

Loved this book.
Tells you to create something new instead of competing
In a race to the bottom.
Similar to blue ocean strategy, but really gets into details on the problems that need solving and pitfalls to avoid.
Starting my third listen shortly.

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So poor in every way

Disappointed
The content was weak, insights were old and rehashed. No evidence but supported by anecdotes. Better suited to People magazine.
The narrator is so flat and has no understanding of what he’s reading. It detracts further as he doesn’t get phrasing or terminology and what should be emphasized.

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Redefines your view of the world

I was captivated by this lecture.
it changed the way I see buisness, not like all the others self help books, more of a lesson on buisness mentality and inside view from large companies, I recomend it.

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monotonous narrator but insightful content

monotonous narrator but insightful content. The narrator is reading out loud instead of telling a story. The writing is smart, thoughtful and concise

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Amazing! I will probably listen 5x more

An amazing book. Even better listening directly from them. If your in any sort of business I highly recommend you listen to this!

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Well written and full of examples

Good examples all throughout the book. The narration could have been more lively and with expression.

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Great read!

This book gives some very good lessons to take and apply to your business immediately. I will be re reading this one in the future!

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Amazing

Coming out of this on a brand new perspective on product value and a Complete paradigm shift. Amazing

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Great book with great insight from a legitimate multi $1B company founder

Great audio book I will need a few more listens because this it’s so dense with wisdom and insight. A single listen would leave much not retained

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A great guide to approach innovation

Insightful beginners guide for launching a tech startup. Some cool stories first hand from the person(s) behind PayPal, Facebook, and Tesla. Great point of view of how investors think.

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  • Mark Brandon
  • 2014-10-31

Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper

What made the experience of listening to Zero to One the most enjoyable?

I am a fan of Peter Thiel, and have read the notes from the Stanford course upon which this book is based. The course notes are better because they expound better on the broad concepts. In the end, the audiobook is certainly worth the price of purchase, but I fail to give it 5 stars because I know from these notes that Thiel can do better.

To summarize two broad concepts, businesses should pursue monopoly because that is where the lion's share of profit is made. Think about Google's monopoly in search (see my comment below about this), or Microsoft's former monopoly in operating systems. Thiel artfully demonstrates how profits flow in a Power Law to these types of firms. Good enough. I agree wholeheartedly with this concept, and Thiel does a better job of explaining it than a dry Econ 101 textbook, but at its heart, it's not new thinking.

The second broad concept is that a series of Power Laws dictate a range of commercialization activities, from the aforementioned profit flow to fundraising success to income to hollywood hits to you name it. This bears repeating because so many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that markets they are entering are more linear.

Both of the concepts are intertwined, and this is where Thiel could do better (he does do better in the course notes).

First of all, monopolies don't become such until one is made, and until that point, it is utterly non-obvious to the vast majority of others. Google's search monopoly, which isn't really a search monopoly but an advertising monopoly, was so unapparent that at the time of Google's founding, most of the smart money had decided that portals were the wave of the future. Only Google decided that building a better search engine was the way to go, and even they did not conceive of their advertising monopoly until many years later. Today, it appears obvious, but it discounts the incredible risks, the incredible execution, and yes, an incredible dose of luck to make it happen.

Second, the book glosses over (again, the course notes don't) another startling fact, which is that there are more powers laws at work to execute the creation of a monopoly. Some of these are:

1) Raising money. I know from experience that raising money requires years of nurturing contacts, and just appearing on an investors' doorstep to say, "I have a vision for a monopoly I want to create" will get you thrown out more often than not. Only a small number of people who are starting out have the ability to cross the chasm between getting funded and not. I would contend that having money to build out your monopoly is one of the prime factors to creating a monopoly. It's a chicken and egg problem.

2) Talent. The best talent wants to work with the best team, but how do you become the best team without having the money (see #1) or the yet-unborn monopoly? Thiel mostly discounts the role of luck, and I found that disingenous. Just take Thiel's own experience. How lucky was it that the two most formidable competitors in payments in 1999, headed by transformational leaders (Thiel and Elon Musk) were located within a few blocks of each other, making them capable of merging and becoming Paypal? How many payments companies might have rivaled Paypal if they were located next door to Elon Musk (not to mention Reid Hoffman and the rest of the mafia)?

3) Geography. Expanding on the concept of #2, there is a Power Law at work for people who are able to get into and afford Stanford Law? Without this, would Thiel be where he is today? Not to mention the founders of Yahoo, Google, Cisco, et al?

4) Buzz. Another chicken and egg problem is that of building buzz. Journalists only want to cover hot companies, but how do you become hot without building buzz? Only a small number of companies are able to cross this chasm.

In the course notes (but not the book), Thiel talks about 11 facets of building a company. You can miss on two or three of them. Otherwise, you are toast. It's threading about 8 needles at a time. These are the concepts that should have been expanded upon. To be fair, this would probably require a multi-volume set.

Thiel discounts the Gladwellian notion that any outlier success can be traced to some fortuitous events. Though I agree that these events are only obvious in hindsight, I'm not convinced.

To me, instruction about crossing these multiple chasms would be more helpful to those of us outside of the valley bubble. Not even "Crossing the Chasm" does a good job of that.







What about Blake Masters’s performance did you like?

He did an admirable job for not being a trained voice actor

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My review tells the story. I was unsatisfied.

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216 people found this helpful

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  • D. Berzack
  • 2014-10-21

Mostly worthless drivel

This is your typical pop business book, slapping together the same tired examples to make some loosely related points, each either trivial yammering or overblown, unsubstantiated hype. The first hour is dedicated to zealous defense of monopolies, based on an extended false dichotomy with perfect competition.

If you're reading it to gather talking points for golf course or water cooler schmoozing, you'll get your money's worth. If you're interested in an exploration of the mechanisms of innovation in business, as the book promises, you'll be sorely disappointed.

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72 people found this helpful

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  • J
  • 2014-09-24

Awesome Content. Hard to listen to.

What did you love best about Zero to One?

The content is awesome! The lessons broken down into subjects and themes like a college course really makes this book easy to follow and easy to get the overall message.

How could the performance have been better?

The narration was dull and soft spoken. Blake Masters is a super smart dude, just not the greatest audiobook narrator.

Any additional comments?

I highly suggest finding Blake Masters notes on Peter Thiel's class and reading those along with this book.

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  • Oh hai
  • 2014-09-17

The importance of contrarian thinking

This book is itself contrarian in comparison to all other startup books out there. It does an amazing job of forcing you to destroy the foundations upon which you've built so many of your assumptions in the startup world, thereby revealing the truth of how to build something valuable in a world of copy & paste entrepreneurship.

All the real, non-bullshit, subconscious lessons that many successful entrepreneurs have either intuitively known or learned the hard way are concisely stated in this book.

I think I'll likely listen to it a few more times in order to untrain all the other thinking that's been ingrained in my head.

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  • Harriet T
  • 2014-10-19

Painful to listen to

What disappointed you about Zero to One?

I couldn't listen to it. So boring. So dry. So painful. Seriously. I don't know if there was good content or not.

What could Peter Thiel and Blake Masters have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Narrator was just awful.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Monotone. Boring. Painful to listen to. (Did I mention painful?)

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  • James
  • 2014-09-23

In my top 3 favorite Startup books

Where does Zero to One rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Of roughly 100 business, startup, marketing, tech books I'm listened to, this is a top 5 for sure. Between inspiration and wisdom, philosophy and experience, examples and challenges, this book is great for the first time or the many timed entrepreneur. Peter is a clear authority in the space, and this book is a summary of much of what he's learned.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Zero to One?

Explaining some of the beginnings of Paypal, and opportunities he sees available to future businesses.

Have you listened to any of Blake Masters’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't recall listening to Blake Masters before, however I would gladly listen to books narrated by him in the future. Calm voice, perfect for the wisdom based material in the book.

What did you learn from Zero to One that you would use in your daily life?

It has helped alter the way I will hire in the future. It's validated some theories and challenged other theories. It has me already looking for Zero-One type concepts vs horizontal product improvements in the fields I work in.

Any additional comments?

Just a thank you to Peter Thiel for writing this. Peter doesn't need the income from book sales, nor is he trying to force his way into becoming an authoritative figure in startups because he's already there. This is a gift. This is basically like getting a evening of the best cocktail conversation advice and stories from one of the hall of fame start up allstars.

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  • Gaganpreet S. Shah
  • 2014-09-19

Though provoking & inspiring

If you see yourself as someone with intentions to create something valuable for the world in your lifetime, this book is for you. It will give you a perspective on what being a contrarian and a founder actually means. It helps differentiate the popular myth attached to the words competition, capitalism, lean, disruption & puts them in the right context.

tl;dr In the valley? Need inspiring new ways of looking at the world? Listen to this book.

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  • F.
  • 2014-09-22

Great story, extremely poor narrator choice

Would you listen to Zero to One again? Why?

No. Once is enough, because the narrator's voice is unpleasantly grating, without any "gravitas". He sounds like a teenager. Audible has other excellent narrators. Why choose this particular narrator foir this wonderful book? I'm sure he's a perfectly nice person, but a "professional narrator" he is NOT.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Terrible voice.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, while driving. But I'm really suffering as I listen to it. Sheer willpower is carrying me through.

Any additional comments?

Audible: Please be sure to choose narrators with good voices. This is your business, after all. Thanks.

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  • Cliff
  • 2014-11-30

Monopolies are the best business to be in!

Start a monopoly, you'll be successful is the message of this book. There, I just saved you from listening to this dreadfully boring book, read by the most uninspired narrator. I was really excited when I heard about this book by Thiel, but he's so smart, why didn't he write an engaging book, read by someone with some actual emotion. I've been getting books from Audible for years now, and this may be be the worst book I've listened to. I kid you not: if my mind is a bit too busy and I have trouble sleeping, this book puts me out in just a few minutes. It's the preformer's tone, or monotone that does it.

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  • Richard
  • 2014-11-03

Gems to be found but...bad choice on the reader;-(

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The first 1/3 of the book was...well horrible. I found most of the early writing to be grandiose and without clear objectives. It made me wonder if it was a book on start-ups or a poorly written Philosophy text. The last portion of the book offers some great insights into business , mistakes, best practices and road signs to success.

Who was your favorite character and why?

This isn't a novel...

What didn’t you like about Blake Masters’s performance?

I'm sure Mr. Master's is a successful businessman but he needs to stay away from reading audio books. He took a pretty good book and made it painful to get through the audio version. Blake--All really great authors HIRE someone to read their books. Why? Because being a good writer does not make you a good reader.

The fact Mr. Masters or Mr. Thiel didn't realize this...well...just shows you can be talented in one area and not very clever in another.

Please guys...if you write any more books do reader auditions and decide on someone who does reading for a living.

Could you see Zero to One being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

Any additional comments?

Hang in there when listening to this audio book. The authors provide some great insights into making a successful start up.

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  • Louis
  • 2020-01-26

a good surprise, and a great book

What did I expected from young billionaires, founder of PayPal and several other flourishing business ?

Clearly some BS trying to explain why he did it right with self-centered pieces of evidence that couldn't be proved or disproved.

what did I got ?

A convincing piece essay on philosophical politic.

Yep. This book is less about start-ups than about the current society and how to improve it. There is still a recipe for exponential grow of start-up but it felt that it was here to not disappoint the reader and I believe the main point of this book is much bigger and much more important than "how to succeed in late capitalism".

I believe that this book is required to understand the complexity of our society and why the collapse seems inevitable and people that have the power to prevent it won't do anything about it.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-01-04

To read with very critic eyes.

A good book, but you shouldn't believe word for word what is said inside. One typical example is the impact of monopoly on market. It is been proven that it is bad (read the wealth of nation for an explanation on how consumers / citizen are the loosers).

But very interesting if you are founding a company :)

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  • selyannes
  • 2019-07-09

Super interessant! A lire!

Un très bon livre. Je ne m'attendais a pas quelque chose de très original, et j ai été surprise! J'avais un apriori très négatif sur l'auteur, et entendre un point de vue originale et construit m'a fait révisé mes opinion

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2017-08-26

A good cultural testimony (the startup spirit)

but not an acedemic worthy enough viewpoint : question it and it becomes actually good

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  • Django
  • 2022-10-08

The best ever

The best book I have ever read and listened to. It is very inspiring and an eye opener to facts we do jot see everyday.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-12-24

Très instructif pour qui veut entreprendre!

Très instructif pour qui veut entreprendre.
Ce livre apprend à penser différemment et aide à comprendre comment créer une start up se démarquant d'un environnement concurrentiel pour générer une croissance virale, exponentielle et durable !

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  • SL
  • 2019-03-02

Insightful book

Clearly structured and full of useful insights about start-ups. Thiel has strong contrarian ideas and opinions backed by philosophy. Sharp advice from someone who really knows what he’s talking about, as a former Paypal co-founder/CEO, Palantir co-founder and Founders Fund VC.

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  • Imad
  • 2018-05-16

Excellent!

Excellent book for would be entrepreneurs or anyone who wonders how to harness innovation and channel it into a viable business.

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  • Hexsail
  • 2018-04-18

Interesting audiobook!

Very interesting point of view and lots of examples coming from an inside view of real companies.

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