Mike Maples Jr
Co-founder & Partner at Floodgate
Mike Maples Jr is a legendary seed-stage investor at Floodgate, early backer of Twitter, Lyft, and Twitch, and eight-time Forbes Midas list member who has codified three elements of breakthrough startup ideas.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Mike Maples Jr shares the three elements that separate breakthrough startups from the rest: inflections (technology shifts that create asymmetric opportunity), insights (secrets about the future), and founder-future fit. Drawing on 20 years of seed investing, he reveals that 80% of his biggest returns came from pivots and that living in the future is the best way to discover what to build.
Leadership Principles
- → Breakthrough startups require three elements: inflections, insights, and founder-future fit
- → Inflections let founders wage asymmetric warfare on the present
- → If you're living in the future and notice what's missing, your intuition about what to build is far more likely to be right
Notable Quotes
"Business is never a fair fight. What inflections let the founder do is wage asymmetric warfare on the present."
— On why timing and inflection points matter more than execution alone
"If you're living in the future and you notice what's missing, your intuition about what to build is far more likely to be right."
— On how breakthrough founders discover secrets
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