Been going through Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup class notes on Blake Masters’ blog.
Why do a startup:
You can’t develop new technology in existing entities. Anyone on a mission tends to want to go from 0 to 1. You can only do that if you’re surrounded by others who want to go from 0 to 1. That happens in startups, not huge companies or government.
Doing startups for the money is not a great idea. Perhaps doing startups to be remembered or become famous is a better motive. Perhaps not. A better motive still would be a desire to change the world.
Where to start:
The path from 0 to 1 might start with asking and answering three questions. First, what is valuable? Second, what can I do? And third, what is nobody else doing?
The intellectual rephrasing of these questions is: What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
The business version is: What valuable company is nobody building?
You know you’re on the right track when your answer takes the following form: “Most people believe in X. But the truth is !X.”
I have reservations about how many startup founders are motivated by a desire to change the world, which leads me to the second point Peter Thiel brought up – so many tech startups are founded on ideas that have already been done. This is a problem that is especially prevalent in the Singapore startup scene. There is a dearth of original ideas from startup founders whose ambitions are orders of magnitude greater than a multi-million dollar exit. This is not a criticism of local tech entrepreneurs – everybody has to start somewhere, and the local tech scene is much better for all the people out there trying to build a tech company. I’m just saying that the world needs more Elon Musks – individuals who want to change the world, and are crazy enough to try.
therealjohntan 