Mike Maples Jr.
also referred to as: mike maples, jr.
27 statements across 1 episodes · 6 bullish · 1 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Jul 7, 2024 by Mike Maples, Jr. · said 3 times in 1 episodes since 2023 · across every show →
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Everything said about Mike Maples Jr., oldest first
Jul 7, 2024 positive
Maples: Floodgate made 85x on Twitch despite forgetting they owned shares
“About 10 years ago, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for nine hundred and seventy million. And we made something like 85 times our money. And normally you'd think that's a really good thing. It was a good thing, but I had forgotten that I was even a shareholder a…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Startups can only win where desperate demand outweighs execution quality
“The only chance for a startup to win is to win on a playing field where better doesn't matter. Where execution isn't as important as gotta have that thing. I'll take any version of it you give me because I am desperate for it.”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Startup inflections are step-function empowerments, not continuous improvement curves
“Moore's law is not an inflection. You know, an improvement curve is not an inflection. An inflection, I'm a little persnickety about. It's a turning point. And so, you know, in math, it's a turning point on a curve where the slope changes, but in, in, in tech …”
Jul 7, 2024 neutral
Jul 7, 2024 positive
Maples: Great startup ideas come from living in the future
“What you do to come up with great startup ideas is you live in the future and you notice what's missing in the future. And it's like, It's axiomatic. If you're living in the future, there will be unbuilt missing things because if it was all built, you'd be liv…”
Jul 7, 2024
Jul 7, 2024
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Breakthrough founders face unfair criticism both before and after succeeding
“Ironically, before they win, they have to have the courage to be disliked because people don't like their idea. They think it's stupid, lonely, but then after they win, it's even worse because everybody says you cheated, or you're a bad guy, or you broke the r…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Startups spend all raised capital within 18 months regardless of amount
“Startups almost always spend their money in 18 months regardless of the amount? And I said, yeah, I call it Mike's Law. It almost always happens. I said, because once you have the money, all the pressure is on you to spend it.”
Jul 7, 2024 bullish
Maples: Floodgate Fund I pitched that $500K was the new $5M
“When I was raising fund one for floodgate, I would go to an LP and say, We believe that there's a gap between angels and VCs and VCs are writing five million dollar checks, angels, 250,000 dollar check. We believe that 500,000 is the new five million because o…”
Jul 7, 2024 neutral
Jul 7, 2024 neutral
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Startups win by being radically different, not just better
“Better doesn't matter when you're a startup. Because better is an extension of the present. Better is when you think the future will resemble the present, but only be slightly different. The way startups win is by being radically different. A startup wins by a…”
Jul 7, 2024 negative
Maples: Answering every investor objection creates an obscure 'Franken deck'
“A lot of times, this is the other thing I see happen is the poor founder will get advice from 20 different people about their pitch deck. And a lot of the people giving them advice are not believers in that different future. They're giving generic startup advi…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Startups must change the rules because they lack compounding moats
“A corporate capitalist makes money by persistently compounding, makes money by extending their advantage, makes money by having a moat, makes money by you know, doing things well. Over and over again in a compounding way. Startup has none of those things. Ther…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: A correct insight lets founders navigate past failed initial implementations
“If you have the right insight and we'll get to some of this, you have a first mover advantage into the future. And so a lot of times your first implementation won't be right, but if your insight is correct, you can navigate the implementation to the right impl…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Targeting big incumbent-defined markets is a strategic trap
“The mistake that a lot of founders make, and it's very understandable. They say, I want to go after big market opportunities. So they analyze big markets. They find unserved customers. With unmet needs in under addressed markets. So then they go build a produc…”
Jul 7, 2024
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Okta pivoted from cloud systems management to identity management
“So like Okta, at first they wanted to do cloud systems management. They thought that they needed to do problem resolution, but when they showed it to customers, they were kind of meh about it. And they said, well, what, you know, why are you mad about this? An…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Best startup ideas face broad skepticism but irrational niche love
“And so the best startup ideas have this trait where most people don't like it or are even hostile to it or just kind of meh about it. But some subset of people are just like, oh my God, where have you been all my life? This is amazing. I love this. But, you kn…”
Jul 7, 2024 neutral
Maples: Ridesharing would have failed before iPhone 4S's GPS locator chip
“You know, you could have had the idea for ride sharing before the iPhone four S, but it wouldn't have mattered because the riders and the drivers wouldn't have been able to locate each other well enough. If you'd waited too long after the iPhone four S it woul…”
Jul 7, 2024
Jul 7, 2024
Jul 7, 2024 positive
Maples: Pitch slide one should explain what a startup does in plain English
“Slide one, you say what you do as if I literally know nothing. So it's not, we're Airbnb, we're a marketplace for unused residential housing space. Bad. But you'll get advice that says to do that because VCs think marketplaces are hot, residential real estate'…”
Jul 7, 2024
Maples: Great startup founders backcast radically different futures rather than forecast
“So the normal companies forecast, they say, I'm going to look forward from the present and forward project what the future will be. Great founders, pattern breakers, back cast. They say it's a given that the future has to be radically different for me to be a …”
Jul 7, 2024 positive
Jul 7, 2024 positive
Maples: Founders are Obi-Wan mentors, not the heroes of startup stories
“Your job as the founder is to be Obi-Wan, not Luke. So the founders sometimes make the mistake of thinking that they're the hero, but they're not. The early believers are the heroes. And it's the job of the founder to tell a story. That emotes early believers …”