Y Combinator
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 12 months, 2017–2025
50:28 · 2.5M views · Mar 22, 2017
Peter Thiel's lecture from the How to Start a Startup course on business strategy and monopoly theory, arguing that competition destroys profits and that startups should aim to build monopolies. It covers the ideas of Zero to One.
HN recommends it as a serious, influential talk on market size and monopoly, though some commenters criticize its philosophy as endorsing anti-competitive goals.
12 comments from Hacker News
For context, this article is about a new book, 'The Contrarian' about Thiel (I haven't read the book). I've long been a fan of Peter Thiel's thinking. If you're unfamiliar, this talk from YC's Startup School 2014 covering the ideas from Zero to One is excellent: this video But back the book this article is based on, I found this review of the book on Amazon quite insightful: [LINK] I've never met Peter Thiel, don't know much about him personally, and don't agree with everything he says and does, but he's a complex and interesting character that I've learned a lot from over the years. I think we all can.
Whenever I hear someone saying the market is huge I think of this classic Thiel talk. Sounds like its definitely something you should watch. this video
Peter Thiel discusses this same doom loop and some of your points in this lecture that I highly recommend: this video
One phenomenon I've recently clued into is that of the "market-hostile business". Not only old businesses, watch Peter Thiel's "competition is for losers": this video
Watch this talk, "Competition is for losers" (by Peter Thiel) this video It's a clickbaity title but it's a serious talk.