Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5)

Y Combinator · 2.5M views · 2017-03-22 · 50:28

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Overview

Peter Thiel's lecture from the How to Start a Startup course on business strategy and monopoly theory, arguing that competition destroys profits and that startups should aim to build monopolies. It covers the ideas of Zero to One.

From the video description

Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir, discusses business strategy and monopoly theory in "Competition is For Losers".

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as a serious, influential talk on market size and monopoly, though some commenters criticize its philosophy as endorsing anti-competitive goals.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2017–2025

Topics

Startups & entrepreneurship Tech industry & business models Startup stages and lean startup

What people said

WhatIsAModel · 2024-04 · Strong recommendation
Peter Thiel discusses this same doom loop and some of your points in this lecture that I highly recommend: [VIDEO]
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gmays · 2021-09 · Strong recommendation
For context, this article is about a new book, 'The Contrarian' about Thiel (I haven't read the book). I've long been a fan of Peter Thiel's thinking. If you're unfamiliar, this talk from YC's Startup School 2014 covering the ideas from Zero to One is excellent: [VIDEO] But back the book this article is based on, I found this review of the book on Amazon quite insightful: [LINK] I've never met Peter Thiel, don't know much about him personally, and don't agree with everything he says and does, but he's a complex and interesting character that I've learned a lot from over the years. I think we all can.
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yyyuutt · 2020-09 · Strong recommendation
Whenever I hear someone saying the market is huge I think of this classic Thiel talk. Sounds like its definitely something you should watch. [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Y Combinator, played through YouTube.

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