He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of successful technology startups, many run by former colleagues who have been dubbed the “PayPal Mafia.” He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb.

The same year he launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002, defining a new era of fast and secure online commerce. Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. 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. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.ĭoing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business.

Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. 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.

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