Starting Greatness

Mike Maples

Host Mike Maples Jr from venture capital firm FLOODGATE offers lessons from the startup super performers—BEFORE they were successful—featuring interviews with some of Silicon Valley’s most legendary entrepreneurs and thought leaders, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Nextdoor co-founder Sarah Leary, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, and more.

  • 43 minutes 33 seconds
    Daphne Koller: Changing Lives With Coursera

    Few startup founders follow a path to success like Daphne Koller, a polymath whose academic career in machine learning, computer vision, and computational biology make her a force far beyond the business arena. Koller left her academic career at Stanford in 2012 to co-found Coursera, the world’s largest platform for massive open online courses (MOOCs). After building the company into a global phenomenon she left Coursera in 2016 to become chief computing officer at Calico, and in 2018 she founded insitro, a drug discovery startup. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate talks with Koller about the origins of Coursera and the challenges the company faced in its early days, as well as its lasting impact for learners worldwide. She also discusses what she sees in the future for insitro and why she believes so strongly in machine learning-driven drug discovery and development.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    5 August 2024, 7:00 am
  • 36 minutes 40 seconds
    Pattern Breakers: Which Startups Change the Future?

    On this special episode of Pattern Breakers, host Mike Maples Jr. of Floodgate joins LinkedIn founder and legendary investor Reid Hoffman for a conversation on Hoffman’s podcast Masters of Scale, where iconic business leaders share lessons and strategies that have helped them grow the world's most fascinating companies. Mike discusses the insights he’s gathered from decades of investing, inflection theory, what the latest AI sea change means for the future of business, and ideas from his new national bestselling book, Pattern Breakers.

    This episode originally aired on the Masters of Scale podcast.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    29 July 2024, 7:00 am
  • 39 minutes 45 seconds
    A Sneak Peek at Pattern Breakers

    Today is a huge day for Pattern Breakers, the book.

    Co-written with Peter Zeibelman of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Pattern Breakers has been dubbed “the most important start-up book of the last ten years” by legendary entrepreneur and co-creator of the Lean Startup movement Steve Blank. Pattern Breakers draws from decades of experience in entrepreneurship and venture capital from its co-authors to offer a radical set of new ideas for how entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders can dominate the future.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    9 July 2024, 7:00 am
  • 40 minutes 8 seconds
    Maddie Hall: A Different Path to the Future

    There is no single path to becoming the founder of a pattern-breaking startup. For Maddie Hall, her journey began with a crucial choice: to brainstorm startup ideas or to spend time with people already shaping the future. She chose the latter, following Sam Altman at OpenAI as his Chief of Staff. This experience, along with the connections and knowledge she gained, inspired her to co-found Living Carbon. Her startup offers "supertrees" that grow faster, produce harder wood, and absorb more carbon from the atmosphere. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate talks with Hall about her career path and how her decisions led her to start Living Carbon, where she is driven by the urgency of addressing the climate crisis.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    1 July 2024, 7:00 am
  • 12 minutes 12 seconds
    Breakthrough Lessons: Founder-Future Fit

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    24 June 2024, 7:00 am
  • 41 minutes 59 seconds
    Justin Kan: Pattern Breaker Personified

    If pattern breaker was a term in the dictionary, you just might find an image of Justin Kan. From his attempts as a teenager to send a camera to outer space, to selling his first company on Ebay, to strapping a camera to his head to play the starring role on Justin.tv, Kan has always been a man with uncommon ideas and the ability to convince people to follow his lead. On this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Kan about the  runaway success of Twitch, but also his fear of scarcity, chasing extrinsic goals, and what he learned from his setbacks at Atrium, where he served as founding CEO.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    10 June 2024, 7:00 am
  • 11 minutes 16 seconds
    Breakthrough Lessons: The Value of a Superbuilder

    In the early days of a start-up, the superbuilder can be as important to greatness as the start-up leader, and they’re often not the same person. But what are the traits of a great superbuilder, and why do they play such a crucial role in the zero to one phase of a company? In this Breakthrough Lesson, Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate discusses the success of superbuilder Kyle Vogt and how his ingenuity saved Justin.tv, as well as how superbuilders help a startup tackle adversity and attract greatness to the team.

    Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  

    Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.

    3 June 2024, 7:00 am
  • 39 minutes 2 seconds
    Kyle Vogt: A Problem Solver With A Purpose
    Kyle Vogt has always been fascinated with designing robots and machines. From his youngest days, he retrofitted his father's car to drive itself along the highways of his home state of Kansas. Later, he dropped out of MIT and became a wildly successful startup founder, playing a crucial role in the development of Justin.tv and Twitch. With Cruise Automation, he returned to his roots, making robotaxis a reality rather than science fiction. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Vogt about his career and the lessons learned from a lifetime of solving problems.Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    27 May 2024, 7:00 am
  • 11 minutes 48 seconds
    Breakthrough Lessons: Learning to Savor Surprises
    The ability to notice and savor surprises is a key overlooked skill of the greatest founders. It allows you to narrow in on the types of capabilities that will lead to breakthroughs. In this Breakthrough Lesson, Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate calls on the lessons learned by Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear to discuss why founders should seek surprises instead of validation, and how positive surprises can be a key source of greatness.Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    20 May 2024, 7:00 am
  • 38 minutes 38 seconds
    Emmett Shear: How Twitch Changed Media by Merging it with Gaming
    Emmett Shear was a gamer long before he helped define one of the most important new media companies at the intersection of gaming, media, and the creator economy. What can we learn from his success as a founder? (hint: it has something to do with truly listening to users.)Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    13 May 2024, 7:00 am
  • 10 minutes 10 seconds
    Breakthrough Lessons: The One Thing That Matters Most…
    In the early days of a startup, finding product-market fit is paramount. Once you have it, failure is almost impossible. Without it, you can do everything else right, and still fail. In this Breakthrough Lesson, Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate discusses three heuristics for maximizing the odds of success: Find the right North Star, offer a Delta 4 experience, and don’t fool yourself.Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    29 April 2024, 7:10 am
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