Zero to one book summary

Zero to one book summary

Zero to one

That progress can take one of two forms. Horizontal or extensive progress means copying things that work—going from 1 to n. Horizontal progress is easy to imagine because we already know what it looks like. Vertical or intensive progress means doing new things—going from 0 to 1. Vertical progress is harder to imagine because it requires doing something nobody else has ever done. At the macro level, the single word for horizontal progress is globalization—taking things that work somewhere and making them work everywhere.The single word for vertical, 0 to 1 progress is technology. Properly understood, any new and better way of doing things is technology.

Positively defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future.

Every monopoly is unique, but they usually share some combination of the following characteristics: proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and branding.

1)Proprietary technology is the most substantive advantage a company can have because it makes your product difficult or impossible to replicate.As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage. Anything less than an order of magnitude better will probably be perceived as a marginal improvement and will be hard to sell, especially in an already crowded market. A drug to safely eliminate the need for sleep, or a cure for baldness, for example, would certainly support a monopoly business.

2)Network effects make a product more useful as more people use it. For example, if all your friends are on Facebook, it makes sense for you to join Facebook, too. Unilaterally choosing a different social network would only make you an eccentric.

3. Economies of Scale

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A monopoly business gets stronger as it gets bigger: the fixed costs of creating a product (engineering, management, office space) can be spread out over ever greater quantities of sales. Software startups can enjoy especially dramatic economies of scale because the marginal cost of producing another copy of the product is close to zero.

4. Branding

Seven questions that every business must answer:

1. The Engineering Question

Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?

2. The Timing Question

Is now the right time to start your particular business?

3. The Monopoly Question

Are you starting with a big share of a small market?

4. The People Question

Do you have the right team?

5. The Distribution Question

Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?

6. The Durability Question

Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?

7. The Secret Question

Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?