3 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American oil magnate who founded Standard Oil in 1870 — controlling 90% of US oil refining by 1880 — through relentless price cutting, secret railroad rebates, and the absorption of competitors, before being broken up by the Supreme Court in 1911.
John D. Rockefeller's oil refining company — which grew to control 90% of US oil refining by 1882 — through horizontal integration, ruthless cost reduction, and the systematic acquisition or destruction of competitors, making it the greatest monopoly in American history before its 1911 dissolution.
Peter Thiel and Blake Masters's 2014 distillation of Thiel's Stanford startup course — arguing that the path to building a transformative company is creating a monopoly through genuine innovation (zero to one) rather than incremental competition (one to n).