Zero to One

1. “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.”

2. “Most cleantech companies crashed because they neglected one or more of the 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? We’ve discussed these elements before. Whatever your industry, any great business plan must address every one of them. If you don’t have good answers to these questions, you’ll run into lots of “bad luck” and your business will fail. If you nail all seven, you’ll master fortune and succeed. Even getting five or six correct might work.”

3. “Sequencing markets correctly is underrated, and it takes discipline to expand gradually. The most successful companies make the core progression—to first dominate a specific niche and then scale to adjacent markets—a part of their founding narrative.”

4. “The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.”

5. “For a company to be valuable it must grow and endure, but many entrepreneurs focus only on short-term growth. They have an excuse: growth is easy to measure, but durability isn’t. Those who succumb to measurement mania obsess about weekly active user statistics, monthly revenue targets, and quarterly earnings reports. However, you can hit those numbers and still overlook deeper, harder-to-measure problems that threaten the durability of your business.”

6. “In the real world outside economic theory, every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something others cannot. Monopoly is therefore not a pathology or an exception. Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.”

1. Create Monopolies, Don't Compete

Competition destroys profits and innovation. Instead of competing in existing markets, create new markets where you're the only player. Google didn't build a better search engine—they built the first truly effective one. Monopoly isn't about market abuse; it's about being so much better that no reasonable substitute exists.

2. Technology Should Be 10x Better, Not 10% Better

Incremental improvements get lost in the noise, but 10x improvements create new categories. PayPal was 10x better than checks for online payments. Tesla wasn't just a better car—it reimagined what cars could be. Breakthrough innovation requires dramatic leaps, not gradual steps.

3. Start Small and Dominate Niche Markets

Facebook started with Harvard students, not everyone on earth. Amazon began with books, not everything. It's better to be the dominant player in a small market than a small player in a big market. Once you own your niche, you can expand to adjacent markets from a position of strength.

4. Secrets Still Exist—Find Them

Every successful business is built on a secret—something important that few people know or believe. These aren't conspiracy theories; they're insights about nature or human behavior that others haven't discovered. The biggest companies solve problems others don't even realize exist yet.

5. Distribution is as Important as Product

Building great technology is only half the battle—you must also solve distribution. Even the best product fails without effective sales and marketing. Engineers often underestimate this, but customers don't care how good your product is if they never hear about it. Superior distribution can even overcome inferior products.