MI383: Zero to One: Lessons From Peter Thiel w/ Shawn O’Malley
The Intrinsic Value Podcast - The Investor’s Podcast Network
Lessons from the Dot-Com Bubble
This chapter explores the pitfalls of the dot-com bubble and how its unrealistic beliefs led to unsustainable business practices, drawing comparisons to recent market trends. It emphasizes the need for innovation balanced with economic realities and critiques the contrasting dynamics of value creation and capture across different industries.
In today’s episode, Shawn O’Malley (@Shawn_OMalley_) goes through the best-selling book Zero to One by the prolific investor Peter Thiel, who’s best known for co-founding PayPal and Palantir and for being the first outside investor in Facebook. Thiel is a highly contrarian thinker, and the book organizes his notes from his time at Stanford lecturing to the next generation of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs.
You’ll learn Peter Thiel’s favorite question to ask in interviews, the difference between horizontal and vertical progress, how the Tech Bubble changed Silicon Valley, why Peter Thiel actually likes monopolies, what investors get wrong about competition, how the Pareto Principle applies to the venture capital industry, plus so much more!
Prefer to watch? Click here to watch this episode on YouTube.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN
00:00 - Intro
06:06 - What Peter Thiel’s favorite interview question is
09:42 - What the difference is between horizontal and vertical progress
11:41 - Why Thiel thinks that technological progress has stagnated since the 1970s
17:43 - How Thiel took advantage of the Dot-Com Bubble to scale PayPal
19:57 - How the Dot-Com Bubble changed the culture of Silicon Valley and the goals of its founders
23:22 - Why Peter Thiel encourages funders to build a monopoly in specific niches
26:34 - How competition destroys profits
34:50 - Which types of monopolies are good for society
41:10 - What the Pareto Principle means for the venture capital industry
And much, much more!
*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
- Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Kyle and the other community members.
- Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One.
- Check out the Podcast review of Peter Thiel’s Zero to One on We Study Billionaires | YouTube Video.
- Check out the Executive summary of Zero to One by Preston Pysh and Stig Brodersen.
- Clayton Christensen's book, The Innovator’s Dilemma.
- Nassim Taleb's book, The Black Swan.
- Check out the books mentioned in the podcast here.
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