It&#x27;s not a prerequisite for success. It&#x27;s a prerequisite for raising an insane VC round.<p>Plenty of profitable businesses take a different path and don&#x27;t try to be a Thielian monopoly. That&#x27;s fine, it&#x27;s not invalid as a business. But that&#x27;s not what VCs are interested in investing in.<p>The extremely high startu failure rate means they need enormous returns on the very few investments in their portfolio that actually work. Such huge returns imply a Thielian monopoly business.