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Blake Masters, a venture capitalist and political candidate, has a rich background in entrepreneurship, politics, and law. His educational credentials include a bachelor's degree in political science and a J.D. from Stanford University Law School. Masters co-authored the book "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" with Peter Thiel, demonstrating his proficiency in entrepreneurship. His professional journey includes roles as the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation. Moreover, he co-founded the legal research service Judicata in 2013.
Masters made a significant political stride when he won the Republican Party nomination for the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona. His political positions and perspectives were shaped and influenced by his alliance with Peter Thiel and former president Donald Trump during his campaign. Despite losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, Masters showed resilience by announcing his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in 2024. His political views, campaign strategies, and public speaking engagements during his run for the Senate have equipped him with firsthand experience in public discourse and political negotiation.
Aside from his professional and political pursuits, Masters has shown his capacity for innovative fundraising strategies, such as the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), through which he raised $575,000 within the first 36 hours of his campaign. His accomplishments led to his inclusion in Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2014.
Speech Topics
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investors Peter Thiel and Blake Masters show how we can find singular ways to create those new things. They begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.
The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Copying others takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace; they will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.
Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.
Computer Science 183: Startup
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