Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Create a Successful Future

Samuel: The book was awesome there was they should be more the how is to be more clarified with with examples other than that it is always good to read a books

India on Oct 02, 2023

Amazon Customer: I expected more insightful discussions.

Japan on Sep 23, 2023

GadgetGuruGiggles: Einleitung:
"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" ist ein Buch, das nicht nur Wissen, sondern auch Inspiration vermitteln möchte. Geschrieben von Peter Thiel, einem der Köpfe hinter PayPal, soll es angehenden Unternehmern und Innovatoren den Weg von der Idee zum erfolgreichen Start-up weisen. Doch kann ein Buch wirklich der Schlüssel zum Unternehmenserfolg sein? Finden wir es heraus!

Funktion 5/5:
Dieses Buch ist nicht nur eine Lektüre, es ist ein Werkzeugkasten! Es bietet klare, prägnante Ratschläge und Denkanstöße, die dem Leser helfen, innovative Ideen zu entwickeln und in die Tat umzusetzen. "Zero to One" funktioniert als Leitfaden, Mentor und Inspirationsquelle in einem!

Bequemlichkeit 5/5:
Die klare Struktur und der flüssige Schreibstil machen das Lesen zum Vergnügen. Die Kapitel sind logisch aufgebaut, und die Inhalte werden auf verständliche Weise vermittelt. Man kann das Buch leicht in einem Rutsch durchlesen oder immer wieder zur Hand nehmen, um sich Inspiration zu holen.

Design 5/5:
Das Buchdesign ist schlicht und ansprechend, ganz im Sinne von "Form follows Function". Der Fokus liegt klar auf dem...

Germany on Sep 23, 2023

Marty Neumeier: In this chest-thumping book, author Peter Thiel comes off as a brilliant young man with a tendency toward exaggeration. Indeed, everything about him seems exaggerated: his businesses successes (founder of PayPal and Palantir), his net worth ($1.5 billion and counting), his educational credits (Stanford BA in philosophy, JD in law), his political views (avowedly libertarian), his energy level (off the charts), his self-confidence (not a doubt in sight), his vision for technology (human longevity, “seasteading” communities, eventual takeover by intelligent machines).

And now this book.

Let me assure you that Zero to One is worth reading, even if you’re not engaged in the world of startups and venture capital. It’s worth reading in the same way a triple espresso is worth drinking: it makes you feel superhuman, at least for the moment. You can almost hear the caffeine coursing through your veins as you absorb the ideas.

You might want to read the book on two levels: both as a business book and as a political manifesto. And because the book is a hybrid, you may need to work a little to separate the baby from the bath water.

Thiel’s first point is...

United States on Jun 27, 2017

Harish Nair: 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...

India on Jun 24, 2016

Brian K.: I really wanted to like this book. I've never read or heard anything previously from Thiel, so I had little bias going in. I heard a recent radio interview with Peter Thiel where I thought he handled questions really well and gave some great advice for entrepreneurs. From the amount of 5 star reviews on Amazon and an online list I found of best business books of all time with this book on it, I was expecting something very profound. I guess you could say no amount of Peter Thiel's novel insights and experiential knowledge could have met my high expectations. However, I was going to give the book 4 stars until I hit about half-way through book, where it just all seemed to go downhill thereafter. I suddenly started questioning many of Thiel's assertions from the earlier chapters, and ended up with a lopsided Pros vs. Cons list. I started researching into Thiel's accomplishment's and failures. The result was a three star review. My opinions are outlined below.

I'll start with what I liked:

1.) The book has a core theme of empowering the individual. The technological future is not going to happen unless individuals or teams thereof make it happen. The future is not...

United States on Nov 14, 2014

Athan: A better title for this book would have been "Six ideas Peter Thiel wants to put out there" but that admittedly sounds less catchy than "Zero to One"

Two of the ideas are HUGE and the rest are filler. The first infuriated me and the second inspired me. The remaining four ideas were not exactly news to me because I once founded and ran a startup. There's also a couple rants, one against biotechnology and one against green tech, which to my ears sounded tribal.

After the ideas and the rants comes some rather embarrassing stuff that probably should not have made it into print. For example "we never invest in entrepreneurs who turn up for the interview in a suit" or "four of the founders of PayPal had built bombs as children." Memo to Peter Thiel: you are successful despite your prejudice against people who don't share your sartorial taste, and your partners made it to adulthood despite having been poorly supervised as children.

Idea number one is that "Monopolies are Good"

Not just for the monopolist (that would hardly have been a contribution) but also for everybody else. The general idea is that competition hurts profits and the lack of profits leads...

United Kingdom on Nov 04, 2014