When Amplitude launched in 2012, the analytics market looked crowded, and the company spent more than a year struggling to find any traction. But co-founder and CEO Spenser Skates prioritized truth seeking over narratives. He studied the outcomes of past Y Combinator batches and noticed a simple rule: Most companies died before they even learned enough to make something that people want. All Amplitude had to do was survive.

In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Skates about that crucial realization and how his company preserved through its first two years on the map, why he’s never been afraid of failure, Amplitude’s surprising early adopters, the value of learning sales skills, and how he tries to raise the bar for the company even higher amid all of its success.

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

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

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 Best known as the CEO who helped transform Google from a promising startup into one of the best businesses in human history, Eric Schmidt has recently become one of the most important voices in the global conversation about artificial intelligence. He’s co-written two books on the subject including the New York Times bestseller Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit, co-written with longtime friend Henry Kissinger. He goes beyond examining what AI can do, and asks larger questions about the implications on human judgment, dignity, diplomacy, and democracy when intelligence is decoupled from morality.

In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Schmidt about  how AI is transforming human agency, global stability, and the very nature of innovation, from personal super intelligence to geopolitical risk. The conversation dives deep into the moral, philosophical, and strategic stakes of AI's rise, and what it means for the future of humanity.

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

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

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Amjad Masad's journey is defined by relentless persistence. Born and raised in Jordan, he borrowed computers to teach himself coding, and then earned money building software for local internet cafes. He applied to Y Combinator again and again, finally gaining acceptance on his fourth try. His constant drive fueled continuous improvement, culminating in the breakthrough success of Replit, the $1.1B company focused on empowering the next billion software creators.

In this wide-ranging episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Masad about his journey from Jordan to Silicon Valley and the early days of Replit, how he always focused on figuring out the future of technology, the reasons some founders simply feel born to succeed, and why the 1997 book The Sovereign Individual resonates so loudly today.

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

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

Follow Mike on X!