March 23, 2017
This is my quick summary of Peter Thiel’s video: Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5). Here is the annotated text version
The most important business idea that people don’t understand is that there are two kinds of businesses:
Shockingly little in between
Competition is for “losers”, ie. avoid competition and become a monopoly.
Company | Cash ($ billions) | Gross Margin |
---|---|---|
Apple | 98 | 40% |
Microsoft | 52 | 78% |
45 | 65% | |
Amazon | 10 | 14% |
We have a tendency to view increased competition as validation (eg. B-school students trying to be like Mike Milken in 1999, Silicon Valley in 2000, housing and private equity in 2005-7).
Written by Jeremy Bernier who left the NYC rat race to travel the world, work remotely, and make the world a better place.