A few days ago, I was reading Zero to One by Peter Thiel (2014). Although the topic was not discussed explicitly, hearing Thiel talk about his team at PayPal made me curious about what is required of the people in a founding team to build a great startup. So I took a look at the founding teams behind several well known companies and products. The team behind PayPal is a separate topic, but after analyzing a number of successful startups, I noticed a specific pattern.
Examples:
Cursor
- Michael Truell
- Sualeh Asif
- Aman Sanger
- Arvid Lunnemark
- Larry Page
- Sergey Brin
Page and Brin met at Stanford University in 1995.
Apple
- Steve Jobs
- Steve Wozniak
- Ronald Wayne
Jobs and Wozniak got to know each other through their mutual friend Bill Fernandez.
And I could go on...
(sources are linked through the company names.)
The point is that they all met through their social networks. Why did so many of them meet at university? Because universities concentrate ambitious people who want to learn and achieve more. They can provide an ideal environment for people with similar interests to meet and work together.
Looking at this pattern, you could argue that it is extremely difficult to found and build a great company entirely alone. In my opinion, this is not simply a matter of whether someone should or should not have co-founders. A group of great people working on a specific problem or product can produce greater outcomes, not only because of their individual capabilities, but also because of the knowledge, connections, and opportunities accessible through each person.
These are only some of the clearest examples. In these cases, social networks directly influenced the formation of the founding teams, but indirect connections also count. Believing that one person can build every part of a great company alone ignores the limits of an individual’s time, knowledge, and capabilities.
Applying this knowledge to my own life, I will stop treating school and official forms of certification as irrelevant alternatives. I have often argued that school is inefficient and requires spending a lot of time in a slow moving structure that does not always match my interests or preferred pace. Because of that, I did not care much about it and did not want to invest my time in such a system.
I am still aware of these problems, but I now see school as a stage I have to use and complete in order to move forward. It can give me access to universities, environments, and people I might otherwise never encounter.
This was never about the material. I have always loved learning, and I have never had a problem with the content or the knowledge itself. Most of every day I spend learning new things.
I think working with great people is one of the best things that can happen in someone’s career.