Startups Should Be Built on Secrets

Finding secrets instead of problems often result in better ideas

Legendary entrepreneur and VC Peter Thiel has for a long time been advocating big, revolutionary ideas. In his book, Zero to One, he introduces the concept of secrets. Secrets are described as non-obvious problems and should be the basis for startups, according to Thiel. For a short summary of Zero to One, including the most important takeaways, see the article below.

Main Takeaways from Peter Thiel’s Zero to One

Secrets are often divided into two groups:

1. Secrets about people
2. Secrets of nature

People secrets are unknown characteristics about people. These are often unknown either because the person isn’t able to see the secret or because he or she is trying to hide it from others. Due to the non-obvious nature of people secrets, the best place to look for them is where no one else is looking. All people have different backgrounds and knowledge, and will most often think in terms of what they know. There are, however, many fields that matter, but haven’t been standardized yet. One such field is nutrition, which is important to all people, but very few people study. In order to discover people secrets, it could be useful to ask the following questions:

1. What secrets are people not telling?
2. What is underappreciated?
3. What is forbidden?
4. What is taboo?
5. What are people not allowed to talk about?
6. What fields do we know little about which is still very important to most people?

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Nature secrets are characteristics about nature that are not well-known, it’s something undiscovered about the world. In order to discover such secrets, people should study physics and science. This will not only help them develop domain knowledge but also make them better prepared if they end up starting a business in one of these domains. In order to discover nature secrets, it could be useful to ask the following questions:

1. What is undiscovered about the world?
2. What secrets are nature not telling you?

Examples of secrets can be e.g. that you need a keyboard to write text on a laptop. Most people will consider that a common truth, but researchers and early adopters know that the current quality of voice typing is already quite high. Further, most health specialists claim that long, hot showers will dry your skin. Could it be possible to develop a cream or something else that prevents skin from drying during a shower? For more examples of secrets, read the article below.

This is How you Generate Great Ideas

Both of the secrets in the above paragraph are discovered by thinking around Peter Thiel’s favorite interview question: What important truth do very few people agree with you on? The nature of the above question will by definition steer your mind away from common and unoriginal ideas, and aspiring entrepreneurs should therefore constantly be on the lookout for common truths that they can build their startup on.

[1] Peter Thiel. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (September 16, 2014).