{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Book","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/","name":"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future","shortTitle":"Zero to One","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Thiel with Blake Masters"},"isbn":"9780804139298","numberOfPages":10,"wordCount":4450,"timeRequired":"PT18M","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","publisher":{"@id":"https://readstacks.com/#organization","@type":"Organization","name":"Read Stacks"},"workExample":[{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-1-the-challenge-of-the-future/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-1-the-challenge-of-the-future/","name":"The Challenge of the Future","position":1,"wordCount":425,"timeRequired":"PT1.5M","abstract":"Thiel opens with the question he uses to interview job candidates: what important truth do very few people agree with you on? Most people fail the question by either restating something widely-accepted or proposing a contrarian view that turns out to be conventionally contrarian.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-2-party-like-its-1999/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-2-party-like-its-1999/","name":"Party Like It's 1999","position":2,"wordCount":404,"timeRequired":"PT1.5M","abstract":"Thiel revisits the 1990s dotcom bubble not as cautionary tale but as cautionary frame. The conventional post-bust narrative — be cautious, build incrementally, prove revenue before scale — produced its own pathology: lean startup methodology applied as an excuse to avoid the genuinely ambitious bets that vertical progress requires.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-3-all-happy-companies-are-different/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-3-all-happy-companies-are-different/","name":"All Happy Companies Are Different","position":3,"wordCount":445,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter's title inverts Tolstoy: all unhappy families are different, all happy families are alike. Thiel argues the opposite is true for companies. Unhappy companies all share a common failure pattern — they are competing in commoditized markets where margins compress toward zero.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-4-the-ideology-of-competition/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-4-the-ideology-of-competition/","name":"The Ideology of Competition","position":4,"wordCount":459,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"Thiel turns from the economics of competition to the psychology of it. Why do people stay in competitive markets if they are economically worse than monopoly markets? The answer, he argues, is that competition is a cultural default — the way our schools, sports, and…","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-5-last-mover-advantage/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-5-last-mover-advantage/","name":"Last Mover Advantage","position":5,"wordCount":443,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter inverts another piece of received startup wisdom — first-mover advantage. Thiel argues that being first is over-rated; what matters is being the last successful entrant in a category, the one whose monopoly position outlasts everyone else's.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-6-you-are-not-a-lottery-ticket/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-6-you-are-not-a-lottery-ticket/","name":"You Are Not a Lottery Ticket","position":6,"wordCount":446,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"Thiel uses this chapter to push against the cultural assumption that success is luck. The post-1970s consensus, he argues, has treated outcomes as largely random — the universe is unpredictable, plans are arrogant, the modest move is to adapt rather than to design.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-7-follow-the-money/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-7-follow-the-money/","name":"Follow the Money","position":7,"wordCount":438,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter is about the power law: in venture capital, in startup employment, in career outcomes, the best investment, hire, or decision in a portfolio is worth more than all the others combined. Thiel illustrates from his own data at Founders Fund: across years of…","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-8-secrets/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-8-secrets/","name":"Secrets","position":8,"wordCount":475,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter is about the existence of important truths that most people don't know. Thiel argues that the cultural consensus — that all the easy discoveries have been made and progress will only come from incremental refinement — is wrong.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-9-foundations/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-9-foundations/","name":"Foundations","position":9,"wordCount":451,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter argues that the most important decisions in building a company are made at the very beginning — the founders chosen, the equity split, the company's structural relationship to time, the values that get encoded before the first employee shows up.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-10-the-mechanics-of-mafia/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/zero-to-one-peter-thiel/chapter-10-the-mechanics-of-mafia/","name":"The Mechanics of Mafia","position":10,"wordCount":464,"timeRequired":"PT2M","abstract":"The chapter is about company culture, written by a founder whose original team (the PayPal Mafia) went on to seed an extraordinary share of subsequent Silicon Valley successes — Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp, Palantir, and many others.","datePublished":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-05-16T19:00:00Z"}]}