Summary : Zero To One – Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

Founders should share a prehistory before they start a company together – otherwise they're just rolling dice.

No company has a culture; every company is a culture. A startup is a team of people on a mission, and a good culture is just what that looks like on the inside."

"Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances. Strong men believe in cause and effect."

Have you identified a unique market opportunity that nobody else sees

d doubt that the creation of new value can never be reduced to a formula which can be applied by professional managers

the lifetime value of a new customer exceeds $10 million or more, you won't need salespeople. Instead, buyers will want to be dealing with the CEO directly.
If the lifetime value of a new customer is in the $10,000 to $100,000 range, then you'll need a personal sales team who have the tools to sell to end users who will benefit.
For a product priced around $1,000, you end up in a dead zone where you can't afford a sales team but traditional advertising won't work either. That's a very hard spot to be in.
For relatively low-ticket items with mass appeal, marketing and advertising works best. You advertise using whatever channels you can affor

Simply put computers are tools, not rivals.

Do you have the right team assembled, or can you get it

Are you starting with a big share of a small market, not vice versa

Therefore, salespeople call themselves "account executives", "business development specialists" or even "investment bankers.