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In the spring of 2012 Peter Thiel taught a class on startups, CS183, at Stanford, where he had studied philosophy and law. A student, Blake Masters, posted detailed notes on each lecture online, and they were popular enough to become a book: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, published on 16 September 2014. Its central distinction is between going from 0 to 1, making something new, and from 1 to n, copying what already works. It argues that competition destroys profits and that every successful business is a kind of monopoly, and it offers Google as the example, with 95 per cent of its revenue then coming from search advertising. The ten writers below all try to explain where new things, and new companies, come from.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Startups · Business strategy · Innovation · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
For readers of Zero to One, the closest matches are Paul Graham's startup essays, Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things (2014) and Joseph Schumpeter, the economist who argued that large firms with market power drive innovation. Further down are the writers who disagree with Thiel: on luck, on lean startups and on who really pays for invention.
10 authors like Peter Thiel
Where to start if you loved Peter Thiel
If you want more on building a startup, read Paul Graham.
His essays, starting with ‘How to Start a Startup’.
If you want the founder's side when things go wrong, read Ben Horowitz.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
If you want the economics behind monopoly, read Joseph Schumpeter.
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942).
If you want the counter-argument, read Mariana Mazzucato.
The Entrepreneurial State, and then Taleb's Fooled by Randomness.
If you have not read Thiel himself, start with Zero to One.
His first book, The Diversity Myth (1995), written with David O. Sacks, is a different kind of book: a critique of multiculturalism at Stanford.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Peter Thiel
What books are like Zero to One?
Paul Graham's Hackers & Painters (2004), Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things (2014) and Andy Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive (1996) are the closest in subject. Eric Ries's The Lean Startup (2011) is the book Zero to One most clearly argues against.
Who writes like Peter Thiel?
Paul Graham writes the closest kind of short, confident startup argument. For the economic idea behind Zero to One, that market power can pay for innovation, read Joseph Schumpeter.
What should I read after Zero to One?
Read one book that builds on it and one that disagrees: Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things for the practice of running a company, and Mariana Mazzucato's The Entrepreneurial State (2013) for the argument that the state funded much of the technology founders built on.
Is Zero to One like The Lean Startup?
No; they disagree. The Lean Startup advises building a minimum viable product and iterating with customers, while Zero to One argues that a bold, definite plan matters more than constant iteration.
Who co-wrote Zero to One?
Blake Masters, whose notes on Thiel's 2012 Stanford class CS183 were the basis of the book.
Does Peter Thiel have a new book?
No. His books are The Diversity Myth (1995), with David O. Sacks, and Zero to One (2014), with Blake Masters. Since 2025 he has given lectures on the Antichrist in San Francisco, Paris and Rome, but they have not been published as a book.
Sources
- Zero to One — Wikipedia
- Zero to One — book notes by Derek Sivers
- Peter Thiel's Antichrist lectures in Rome — Fortune
- Mariana Mazzucato — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 30 October 2026.
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