Rating: 8.⁵⁄₁₀ Read: 2016.03.13

Paypal founder, don of Paypal Mafia, investor (Facebook). For the last several months he was in the news as the bankruptor of Gawker media, as the main supporter of Hulk Hogan. The book is about a frameworks or questions that we should pursue if we want to create something big, a new venture.

• You have to start at a market, that is enable you to have monopoly (Google -> First good search engine)
• Do not tackle with the competitors, buy it or starve it out
• Long term growth > Short term growth, is your business will be viable in 10 years?
• Be ten times better as the rivals
• The more user use your product the better the usability, but it must be usable in the start
• Is it scalable?
• Brand building continously
• Choose small market first, monopolize than scale horizontally for similar products
• Do not distrupt, its lead to incremental advantage over the competitors
• The idea of MVP and iterations are not good for these type of companies
• The founders should be exceptional in 1-2 skill (power law distribution)
• Aim for full-time workers in the beggining
• Recruit: Culture fit > Smart. The bigger the output of the team if the individuals likeability is bigger
• Do not use office perks as motivators, the mission should be important for everyone
• Everybody should be doing 1 thing (To avoid internal competition)
• Aim for viral marketing, even if it means buying out marketing channels
• Specialize in 1 marketing channel
• Sales > Product

Main questions:

1. Is your product 10 times better as your competitor?
2. Is this the best time to start the company?
3. Do you pursue monopoly?
4. Do you work with the best employees?
5. Are you able to spread the product?
6. WIll it be viable in 10 years?
7. What is that one thing that no one recognize?