The innovators book club: Zero to One

On Thursday, Wesley and I went to a meetup at the “Innovator’s Book Club”. The club meets once a month to discuss a book about any topic remotely connected to innovation and entrepreneurship. This meeting took place in the marvelous old rooms of one of the most famous co-working spaces of Stockholm, namely Knackeriet. It won a price as the best co-working space in Stockholm a couple of years back and has a really unique atmosphere.

The chosen book for this month was: ”Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel is famous for being one of the co-founders of PayPal and the first outside investor at Facebook. Today he is one of the most renowned Venture Capitalists in the Silicon Valley.

“This book is about the questions you must ask and answer to succeed in the business of doing new things: what follows is not a manual or a record of knowledge but an exercise in thinking. Because that is what a startup has to do: question received ideas and rethink business from scratch.”

– Peter Thiel in “Zero to One”

While the book itself was a quite interesting read we especially enjoyed the discussion and reflection about it in the group. It was great to hear different opinions about the topics at hand, like monopoly vs. perfect competition and the future development of artificial intelligence.

Next months book will be Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. It promises to be another eyeopening read! If interested, feel free to check out the upcoming events here.