Mike Maples
46 statements across 11 episodes · 14 bullish · 11 bearish · 8 people on the record · first statement Dec 2, 2015 by Samir Kaji · said 1 times in 1 episodes since 2016 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Mike Maples's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Harry Stebbings (1)
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Everything said about Mike Maples, oldest first
Dec 2, 2015 positive
Oct 10, 2016
Maples: Founders Fail by Rushing Opportunity Selection to Build Product
“A lot of times that the founders, when they're picking their opportunity to go start a company around, they rush the pick and get straight to doing the product, and a lot of founders would be better off if they didn't rush the picking part of it, just like a l…”
Oct 10, 2016 positive
Oct 10, 2016 bearish
Oct 10, 2016
Oct 10, 2016
Oct 10, 2016 bullish
Maples: Backed Cruise Over Internal Pushback Because Kyle Vogt Made Him Money
“I came in and I said, I want to do this cruise deal. I think that Kyle's really smart. He made me money on Twitch and I, you know, I've decided I want to do it. And a lot of people read me the riot act and said, this is crazy.”
Oct 10, 2016
Oct 10, 2016
Maples: Early-Stage Venture Requires Picking; Late-Stage Relies on Firm Branding
“The earlier you invest, the more important picking skills become, right? So if you're If you're investing later stage, branding obviously matters a lot because you're going to have a company that's becoming a more obvious breakout win, and you're going to be c…”
Oct 10, 2016 negative
Oct 10, 2016
Maples: Floodgate's biggest venture wins were not competitive deals when funded
“In our sector of the business, everything is so crazy, early, risky, and maybe even legally ambiguous. It's hard for me to say that, that our very best wins have been hotly contested and competed for, at least at the time we invested.”
Nov 16, 2016 positive
The largest venture outcomes require pivots and extra discovery time
“And so the more we looked, the more we found that the biggest outcomes of the vintage were companies that had either pivoted once or on their second or third business model, or took a little bit more Time and that learning and discovery phrase to use Mike Mapl…”
Nov 27, 2017 positive
Gordon: Mike Maples provides game-changing insights in every board meeting
“So I love Mike Maples from Floodgate. He's been, I've been on a couple boards with him. What he does is so well, he has high empathy for CEOs. It seems in every board meeting, he says at least one thing that's game changing.”
Jan 26, 2018 positive
Neil Young: Mike Maples provides pragmatic 'lizard brain' clarity on boards
“If Bing is the wizard brain, Mike is the lizard brain, or as probably he would like to be the thunder lizard brain, but the lizard brain in that Mike very expertly states the obvious. His instincts about what you should do at any given point in time are not pa…”
Jun 10, 2019 bearish
Jan 31, 2023
Mar 24, 2023 neutral
Maples: Fund size dictates VC strategy during market crises
“The multi-stage firms, like any firm, your fund size is your strategy. So if there's a crisis, you're going to tend to worry about the companies that move the needle in your large fund. Less so than, oh, I wrote a million dollar check to this company 18 months…”
Mar 24, 2023 positive
Mar 24, 2023 negative
Mar 24, 2023 bullish
Mar 24, 2023 positive
Maples: Effective crisis communications require zero spin and explicitly stating unknowns
“I think you gotta tell people what you know, you tell people what you don't know, and you tell people what you're doing to figure out what you don't know, specifically, and you wanna focus on facts and not happy talk, Zero spin, right?”
Mar 24, 2023 negative
Mar 24, 2023
Mar 24, 2023 positive
Maples: Deciding twice as fast lets leaders correct mistakes before competitors act
“Even if my first move is wrong, if I'm moving at twice the rate that you're moving, I can adjust and make my next move before you make your first move. And so, even though I was wrong, I end up being right because I'm getting feedback from your decisions, and …”
Mar 24, 2023
Maples: Startups start dead and must focus solely on product-market fit
“Startups start out dead and have to prove they're alive. And they have one job to do, which is get product market fit, And that means answering one very specific question, which is, what can we uniquely do that people are desperate for? And anything that you d…”
Mar 24, 2023 negative
Maples: Venture capital signaling risk is overrated
“I think signaling is overrated. I think that companies that perform well always raise money. And companies that perform so-so Can sometimes benefit from a positive signal, but usually, usually not being able to raise is a function of not getting product market…”
Sep 20, 2023 positive
Maples: Venture outliers usually start at low seed valuations
“I believe that the outliers usually start out at a low price, because they're outliers. Because they're non-consensus and right. People tend to believe that the world is divided between low price deals with low upside and high price deals with high upside. I d…”
Sep 20, 2023 neutral
Sep 20, 2023 bearish
Sep 20, 2023 negative
Sep 20, 2023 negative
Maples: VCs' 2021 fund failures stemmed from fast 18-month deployment
“And so, you know, I think that part of why people want mulligans on their twenty-twenty-one funds is they were investing their funds in an eighteen-month cycle. And, you know, what they should have been doing is investing in a five-year cycle because the, ever…”
Sep 20, 2023
Maples: Seed venture capital is about micro 'bird spotting' for novel startups
“Yeah, for me, the job is sort of like, you know, when you're in the Galapagos Islands and you spot some, Finch with a weird looking beak that nobody's ever seen before. Like, I think that's kind of what Eric and I try to do, right? We're trying to, but like, i…”
Jan 6, 2025 neutral
Maples: Fund size dictates VC strategy due to power law math
“Your fund size is your strategy, and I guess I'm kind of famous for saying that for a long time. I don't know if I've ever really expressed why that is, so here's why. The power law is real, and so people don't realize that Pareto is not just eighty-twenty, it…”
Jan 6, 2025 negative
Jan 6, 2025 neutral
Jan 6, 2025
Jan 6, 2025 positive
Jan 6, 2025 positive
Jan 6, 2025 bullish
Jan 6, 2025 neutral
Jan 6, 2025 neutral
Jan 6, 2025
Maples: Floodgate 'detaches with love' when losing faith in founders
“I have this saying detach with love. So I'm like, Hey, you know, it seems like I'm not able to help much here. If that changes, let me know, but I'm not gonna, I'm not just gonna sit here and tell you that you're not doing a good job and that we disagree about…”
Jan 6, 2025 negative
Jan 6, 2025
Jan 6, 2025 neutral
Oct 31, 2025
Ferriss treated his initial $120K angel investing budget as non-refundable tuition
“Why don't I take what I would have spent on tuition, a 120 K for two years, something like that. And that would have been sunk cost. I pay out of pocket. And what's the hope with business school, what you learn and the connections you make, make it worth it th…”