Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel
A key book on starting a business – from zero to one. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there.
Review
Zero to One challenges the status quo of innovation in a way that’s surprisingly relevant to traditional media like print. While the book focuses on tech startups, its core premise, that true progress comes from creating something entirely new rather than iterating on what exists, resonates deeply in our field. In an era where many dismiss print as outdated, Thiel’s philosophy pushes us to ask: How can we reinvent tangible marketing for the digital age?
Thiel’s contrarian thinking inspired our recent campaign for a luxury brand, where we paired artisan letterpress with NFC technology, creating a hybrid that was neither purely analog nor digital, but something entirely new. His emphasis on monopoly (dominating a niche rather than competing in crowded markets) also influenced our shift toward hyper-specialised print solutions for boutique clients.
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