On September 17th, 2014
Peter Thiel Came to Columbia University to
Launch the National Book Tour for
His New Book “Zero to One”

• VIDEO:   Full Length: Peter Thiel launches Zero to One book tour on the campus of Columbia University [video] – 1:02:10
• VIDEO:   Excerpt: Introductions [video] – 8:36
• VIDEO:   Excerpt: “Entrepreneurship is a Slippery Subject [video] – 2:05
  
• VIDEO:   Excerpt: “How Can we Develop the Developed World?” [video] – 4:22
• VIDEO:   Excerpt: “Kieth Goggin ’91JRN Reports On The Opening of the Brown Institute” [video] – 4:22
• VIDEO:   Excerpt: “Contently founder Shane Snow ’10JRN Interviews Peter Thiel” [video] – 28:53

PHOTOS: See our facebook page

PRESS:

• The Business Journals October 16th, 2014  5 Brain-twisting, entrepreneurial lessons form PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel – More
• Huffington Post September 19th, 2014 Ten Game-Changing Ideas on Entrepreneurship from Peter Thiel – More
• Entrepreneur.com September 19th, 2014 Why Peter Thiel’s Philosophy on Hiring Is Hurting Silicon Valley – More
• Upstart Business Journal September 19th, 2014 Five Brain-Twisting Lessons from Peter Thiel’s Book – More
• http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2014/10/5-lessons-from-paypal-co-founder-peter-thiel.html

Order Zero to One now!

“Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar.
But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1.
The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.”
—From Zero to One by Peter Thiel

 “Zero To One will immediately become the first book
any working or aspiring entrepreneur must read.”
—Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz

Progress is at the heart of ZERO TO ONE (On sale September 16; $27; 978-0-8041-3929-8; Crown Business), written by technology entrepreneur and cofounder of PayPal, Peter Thiel. In 1998, Thiel foresaw a world where people could seamlessly transfer money online, and by co-founding PayPal he helped to make e-commerce as we know it possible. Hailed as one of the most successful investors in the world, Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook, and he has funded hundreds of other early stage companies including LinkedIn, Yelp, Spotify, and SpaceX.

ZERO TO ONE is at once an optimistic view of what the future of progress looks like in America and an intellectual meditation on the nature of innovation and other challenges of today’s business world of which Thiel writes: “If American business is going to succeed, we are going to need hundreds, or even thousands, of miracles. We call these miracles technology.”In recent decades there have been rapid advances in information technology, but there is no reason why technology should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley for that matter. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It requires just one thing: a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom and ask oneself the question: what valuable company is nobody building?

ZERO TO ONE is Thiel’s impassioned plea for an entirely new way of thinking about innovation, urging future business leaders not to compete on well-trodden paths but to explore a new frontier, stake their claim, and do something that has never been done. This book is about the questions you must ask to find value in unexpected places and blaze a trail to a future that we have yet to dream, but will someday be our reality.

Shane Snow ’10JRN, co-founder of Contently will interview Mr. Thiel on stage following the keynote address.  Mr. Snow is a New York City-based journalist and Web entrepreneur, and the cofounder and chief creative officer of the media technology company Contently.  He holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.  Snow contributes regularly to Wired magazine and Fast Company, and has written about innovation for numerous publications, including the New Yorker, theWashington Post, and Advertising Age.  Snow is a sought-after speaker at technology and advertising summits, and writes for LinkedIn’s Influencer program.  His work in technology entrepreneurship has been recognized by the United Nations, the New York Times, Inc., Forbes, Details, and New York City’s Economic Development Council.

Peter Thiel is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He first gained attention for innovations in banking and startup finance. Today he is known as the mentor of the PayPal mafia of entrepreneurs, as well as for his warnings of a coming technology deficit with severe economic consequences. He works to accelerate innovation to prevent such a crisis by identifying and funding promising technology ideas and by guiding successful companies to scale and dominate their industries.

In 1998, Mr. Thiel made e-commerce easier, faster, and more secure by co-founding and leading PayPal, which now has more than 128 million active financial accounts. In 2002, he sold PayPal to eBay and founded a global macro fund, Clarium.

In 2004, he co-founded Palantir Technologies, which offers platforms for finance companies and intelligence, defense, and law enforcement communities to integrate, visualize, and analyze the world’s information. In the same year, he made the first outside investment in Facebook, a social networking hub that now has more than a billion million active members. He serves on its board.

Building on his personal success as a venture capital investor, Mr. Thiel co-founded and manages Founders Fund, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital fund that has pioneered new methods of venture financing that benefit founders. Through Founders Fund, as well as through his private investing, he has helped the next generation of tech companies, such as SpaceX, LinkedIn, Yelp, RoboteX, and Spotify.

Mr. Thiel established and funds the Thiel Foundation, which promotes freedom in all its forms. He sponsors the Committee to Protect Journalists, The Seasteading Institute, and the Human Rights Foundation. He funds the artificial intelligence research of theMachine Intelligence Research Institute. He also aids work against violence through theOslo Freedom Forum and through the research of philosopher René Girard, which is extended and promulgated by Imitatio. He also promotes better health by funding the longevity research of Dr. Cynthia Kenyon and the SENS Research Foundation.

Mr. Thiel created the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which nurtures the tech visionaries of tomorrow. And he formed Breakout Labs to help independent scientists, engineers, and inventors advance their most radical ideas.

Mr. Thiel earned a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he occasionally teaches on globalization and technology and serves on the board of overseers of the Hoover Institution. His articles have appeared in Policy Review and the Wall Street Journal. He co-produced the film Thank You for Smoking, was rated a master by the United States Chess Federation, and received the Innovation Award from the Economist in 2010. He lives in San Francisco.