Sheldon page
What is this newsletter about?
The Zero to one newsletter we believe is named after the book of the same title by Peter Thiel. Thiel writes about how start ups make it through the phase of going from 0 (having no product) to 1 (having a product that people want to use). This is considered one of the hardest challenges in entrepreneurship because you need to make something out of nothing.
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A small tangent, the book goes on the offer a very interesting perspective and critique about what happens when a society shits from predominantly builders (Engineers / Entrepreneurs) to professional services (Lawyers, Financiers) who sake to make their living off the back of those same said group of builders vs. being builders themselves and the deleterious effects of a shrinking builder class. Definitely worth a read.
-- Tangent end --
Sheldon Bishop, the writer of zero to one, takes the role of a 'reverse engineer', providing rigorously researched and well put together case studies on companies who have gone from nothing to something. The scope of this is not confined however just to product development, with a lot of case studies focused on the growth marketing stories of these successes. Each post is a new case study of his reverse engineering to get to the heart of how each company cracked the 0 to 1 problem.
Why its worth your time
Sheldon only launched in February of this year (2024) but is really living up to his sites namesake. As of this writing he has 42 reverse engineers done thats an average of 8.5 case studies a month!
Quantity is not trumping quality here however. Maybe Sheldon did a lot of prep work in advance of launching his blog, and kudos to him if thats the case because each reverse engineer is very well researched, with a lot of data points to present in his research.
Each case study is a clear, focused exposition on the steps each of these companies took to crack the 0 to 1 problem and the playbook that seemingly worked for them.
The best part of his writing style is the 'outcome first' structured punchy narrative. Often writers will like to entice readers with an intriguing but often obfuscated title. You have a general sense of what the article may be about, but you're not exactly sure what you're going to be reading or learning from this piece.
Sheldon builds his pieces like the great startups he covers. Each one puts value up front. What you're going to get out of it and delivers in a clear and succinct way. Its not hyperbole to say that each of his pieces are mini-products on their own.
Sheldons comes from a long history of business consulting. We think this is probably where his passion and focus on reverse engineering these growth machines is coming from. Seeing it from the inside, helping his customers achieve this and now turning that into a focused routine of laying bare whats working.
Another aspect we like so far is his choice of companies. Its easy to research and write about the biggest companies. Firstly there is usually such a plethora of information on them already so its generally easy to put together details but more so, for the already big brand names in startsups their stories are well known. More current and valuable insights are from companies you haven't yet heard of or who are growing fast in todays climate. This is the hidden gem we think exists here with Sheldon. he's covering smaller firms that have very interesting strategies you can learn about now, while its still early-ish at least.
For entrepreneurs this blog has very clear value, each piece is a strategy you can consider adopting at your own firm to try and leverage. But for anyone in any capacity in business the growth lessons here are broadly universal on how to gain attention for value that you're trying to put out into the world. This is relevant at the company, team and individual level. We are all, to a person, trying to advance ourselves professionally through putting value in the world and trying to grow attention towards that value. These playbooks can also be adapted to the individual professionals life as a strategy for career advancement.
Where to dip your toes in
Our pick for a great starting read: Loom - From chrome extension to almost 1B exist
Its one of the more unique stories here given the origins of the product and demonstrates that yes a small utility can become a massive business.
Full details on Sheldon & Zero To One
The blog: https://www.thezerotoone.co/
Sheldon on X.com: https://twitter.com/Sheldonbishop01
