Nova: What important truth about how we learn do very few people agree with you on? It’s a tough question, right? But according to legendary entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the answer to that question is the single most important starting point for building anything truly new. Most of us are taught that competition is healthy, that it drives innovation. But what if that’s a lie? What if the path to creating transformative value, especially in a field as vital as education, isn't to win the competition, but to escape it entirely?

kejia li: That’s a powerful and, for many, an uncomfortable thought. We're conditioned from a young age—through grades, sports, and even college admissions—to compete. The idea of sidestepping it feels almost like cheating.

Nova: Exactly! And in his book 'Zero to One,' Thiel gives us a radical playbook for doing just that. Today, with education entrepreneur Kejia Li, we're going to explore this from two powerful angles. First, we'll challenge the very idea of competition and explore why building a 'monopoly' might be the most creative act you can undertake. Then, we'll discuss the forgotten art of having a grand plan, and why finding 'secrets' is the key to building a future you can actually own. Kejia, as someone building transformative products in education, I can't imagine a better person to unpack these ideas with. Welcome.

kejia li: Thanks for having me, Nova. Thiel's thinking is a constant source of challenge and inspiration, so I'm excited to dive in. It forces you to question the foundational assumptions of your industry.

Nova: So Kejia, let's start with that big, provocative idea. Thiel says, 'All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.' What does that feel like from your perspective in the education world?

kejia li: It feels incredibly true, and a little painful to admit. The education and EdTech space is a sea of sameness. You see a successful language-learning app, and suddenly there are fifty clones with slightly different color schemes. It's a classic "1 to n" scenario, as Thiel would say. Everyone is fighting for the same piece of the pie, which means margins get thinner, and the focus shifts from real pedagogical innovation to just marketing louder than the next guy.

Nova: You're just describing the very trap Thiel warns about. And he illustrates this with a brilliant, brutal comparison that I think makes it so clear. Let's look at the US airline industry versus Google, back in 2012. The airlines were creating massive value, flying millions of people and generating an incredible $160 billion in revenue. It's a huge, essential industry.

kejia li: Right, you'd think they'd be printing money.

Nova: You would! But the industry was, and is, so brutally competitive that for every single passenger trip, the average airline made a measly 37 cents in profit. It was a total bloodbath for value. Now, contrast that with Google. In that same year, they brought in 'only' $50 billion, less than a third of the airlines. But their profit margin was over 21%. They kept more actual profit than the entire U. S. airline industry combined.

kejia li: And the reason is monopoly.

Nova: Precisely. The airlines were in what economists call perfect competition—they were selling a commodity, a seat from A to B. Google, on the other hand, was a monopoly. Its search technology wasn't just a little better; it was so fundamentally superior that it had no real competition. It owned its market. When you hear that, Kejia, does it reframe how you think about building a 'successful' education company? Is it about getting a slice of the huge education market, or creating a small, new market you can own completely?

kejia li: It absolutely reframes it. The 'airline' model in EdTech is trying to build a general AI tutor that's 10% better than the last one, or a learning management system with one extra feature. You're just competing on price and features. The 'Google' model, the 'Zero to One' approach, is to find a unique problem that no one is solving well.

Nova: And what could that look like?

kejia li: Well, for example, instead of a general-purpose AI tutor, what about a hyper-specialized AI coach for a very specific, difficult, and high-value skill? Imagine an AI that could teach surgeons a new, complex robotic procedure, providing real-time feedback that a human observer couldn't. The value there is immense, the market is initially small and defined, and there are no alternatives. You monopolize that niche first. You become the 'Google' of robotic surgery training.

Nova: I love that. It's not about being a little better for everyone, but about being 10 times better for a specific someone. It’s a total shift from a red ocean of competition to a blue ocean of your own creation.

kejia li: And from a leadership perspective, it changes everything. Your goal isn't to out-maneuver rivals; it's to perfect your unique solution for your specific user. It's a much more creative and, frankly, more fulfilling mission.

Nova: That's a perfect segue, Kejia, because monopolizing a niche like that requires more than just luck or a good idea. It requires a plan. This brings us to Thiel's second big challenge to modern thinking: his critique of what he calls 'Indefinite Optimism'.

kejia li: This is the one that really hits home for anyone in the startup world today.

Nova: It really is. He argues that our culture, especially in the West, generally believes the future will be better, but we have no concrete vision for. So, what do we do? We hedge our bets. We diversify our careers, our investments. In the startup world, this manifests as the 'lean startup' model: iterate, pivot, adapt, see what the market tells you. Thiel argues this is a recipe for incrementalism, for going from 1 to 1.1.

kejia li: Instead of building the future, you're just reacting to the present.

Nova: Exactly. He champions what he calls 'Definite Optimism': believing in a, better future and having a detailed plan to get there. And here's the key: that plan is always built on a secret. A secret is an important truth that very few people agree with you on. And the ultimate story of this is, of course, Facebook.

kejia li: A company you're a big admirer of.

Nova: Well, the story is just undeniable. In 2006, Yahoo offered to buy Facebook for a staggering $1 billion. The board, the investors—they were all ready to cash out. It was life-changing money. But a 22-year-old Mark Zuckerberg walked into the board meeting and, according to the story, said, 'Okay, guys, this is just a formality, it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. We’re obviously not going to sell here.'

kejia li: The audacity is incredible.

Nova: It's pure conviction! He had a definite plan. His 'secret' was that he understood the future of social connection and identity in a way that Yahoo, with its diversified portfolio of web properties, simply didn't. He wasn't just building a 'hot college website'; he was building a global utility. As an entrepreneur inspired by these figures, Kejia, how does that story land with you? Is the 'iterate and pivot' mantra a trap that prevents us from making big, definite bets in education?

kejia li: It's a huge tension. On one hand, the lean methodology is valuable for testing assumptions and not wasting millions on something nobody wants. But on the other hand, I believe true transformation in learning—a 'Zero to One' moment—must come from a pedagogical 'secret.' It has to be based on a contrarian truth about how people learn.

Nova: What kind of secret?

kejia li: It could be anything. Maybe the secret is that for adult learners, the biggest barrier isn't content, but confidence, and you build a platform 100% optimized for building psychological momentum. Or maybe the secret is that AI's best use isn't to teachers, but to give them 'superpowers'—to handle all the grading and admin so they can focus 100% on human connection. Building a company around a secret like that requires definite optimism, because the early data might not look promising. You have to have the conviction of a Zuckerberg to see it through.

Nova: So you have to be willing to look wrong for a while.

kejia li: You have to be willing to be misunderstood. If everyone understood your secret, it wouldn't be a secret. You'd be back in the airline industry, competing with everyone else.

Nova: It’s so fascinating how these two ideas are deeply connected. To escape the competition trap, you need a monopoly. To build a monopoly, you need to solve a unique problem. And the foundation of that unique solution is a secret, a contrarian truth.

kejia li: And to act on a secret, you need a definite plan and the courage to see it through. It’s about moving from being a participant in an existing market to becoming the creator of a new one. It's a fundamental shift in mindset from 'how can I compete?' to 'what unique value can I create that no one else is even thinking about?'

Nova: It’s a call to be an architect of the future, not just a decorator of the present. A powerful way to end. So for everyone listening, especially those of you trying to build something new, whether it's a company, a non-profit, or even just a new way of working, we'll leave you with Thiel's question, reframed for Kejia's world: What valuable learning experience is nobody building?

kejia li: The answer to that might just be your 'Zero to One'.

Nova: Kejia, thank you so much for sharing your insights. This was fantastic.

kejia li: The pleasure was all mine, Nova. Thank you.