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Zero to One

How do you build something that nobody else has ever built?

1. Challenge the future

Going from zero to one is much bigger of a task than going from 1 to 10, or from 10 to 100. The first computer was difficult. The next one becomes easy.

2. Party Like it's 1999

Learn from the dot com bubble

3. All Happy Companies Are Different

Horizontal vs Vertical progress. Horizontal is copying things that work. Vertical progress is making something entirely different. Small, agile groups like startups are the best place for innovation. Big organizations are slow.

4. Competition

Competitive businesses have super tight margins, while monopolies can afford to think about things besides the bottom line. People get competitive with their rivals and lose sight of the important goals. Don't become obsessively competitve. Sometimes the best solution is to merge with your rival. Sometimes you have to fight, and in those situations, you should fight hard and fight to win.

Startups in innovative markets are more likely to become monopolies, and so they can have much higher valuations than established companies.

5. Last Mover Advantage

Characteristics of Monopolies: Proprietary technology that provides a 10x benefit compared to the next best thing. Network effects - as more people use the product, the more valuable it becomes. E.g. Facebook. Not labour intensive. Service is hard to scale. Goods are easy to scale. Especially software. Good brand image. E.g. Apple

Start small, monopolize your niche, then scale up into a bigger niche.

6. Luck vs Hard work

Don't rely on the future being better than the present day. We need to do the work to get there.

7. Follow the Money

Starting your own company is hard, and if you fail, you'll own 100% of nothing. If you hitch a ride on a company with rapid growth, and you get just a few % share, but it becomes a billion dollar company, you're good to go.

8. Secrets

"There are no hard questions left. Just easy questions and impossible questions." There are many secrets left. Think about math. How many mathematic principles seem so intuitive that it seems as though you could have figured it out by yourself?

There are two kinds of secrets; there are secrets of nature and there are secrets about people. To find out about secrets of nature, you can study the physical world. Secrets about people are usually harder to find because they are either things that people don’t know about themselves or else they are things that people are actively trying to hide from others.

If you learn a secret, be careful who you share it with. It could be dangerous to reveal your knowledge. As a rule of thumb, it’s best not to share secrets with anyone except for those you need to tell.

9. Foundations

Decisions made early on can be hard to change later. Choose your cofounder wisely. Choose your starting team wisely as well. Everyone should mesh well and roles should be defined.

Keep everyone working full time and avoid outsourcing. You're either on the bus or you're off the bus. Provide stock options to early employees.

10. Mechanics of Mafia

Get a tight team. Have each other's backs. All should be aligned with a similar vision.

11. If you Build it, WIll They Come?

Sales and distribution suck but they are critical.

Marketing and advertizing are for lower priced products. Viral marketing is also only really good for inexpensive, universal products. Get at least one solid distrubtion channel, or you'll fail.

Don't just sell to your customers. Sell to the media and your employees.

12. Man and Machine

Computers are tools. Humans are also good at certain things. Computers can make humans great at certain things. Find those things.

13. Seeomg Greem

Don't just do something 'good' for society. Do something 'different' for society. 50 different companies creating the same solar panels is not helping anyone. And they're trying to get an extra 1% efficiency.

14. The Founder's Paradox

Founders don't tend to be 'normal' people.

Conclusion

The singularity might be just around the corner. AI might solve all our problems tomorrow. But we can't take it for granted, and need to work hard to get there.