Pattern Breakers

By Floodgate

Host Mike Maples Jr. from venture capital firm Floodgate offers lessons from the rare startup super performers — BEFORE they were successful. Pattern Breakers features interviews with some of Silicon ... more

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FAQs about Pattern Breakers:

How many episodes does Pattern Breakers have?

The podcast currently has 112 episodes available.

Pattern Breakers episodes:

August 01, 2022 Breakthrough Lessons: The Sales Learning Curve
When a startup launches a new product, it's tempting to ramp its sales force too quickly. Often, this leads to a crash-and-burn scenario for companies that failed to learn what it took for the *entire organization* to achieve product-market-fit. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how Mark Leslie's Sales Learning Curve framework helps startups keep themselves honest about their progress toward product-market fit, rather than falling into the trap of wishful thinking that usually leads to disaster.
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!
...more
12min
August 01, 2022 Mark Leslie: Silicon Valley Go-to-Market Legend (Part 1)
During the 1990s, Mark co-founded Veritas Systems, which he piloted from nothing to 6,000 employees and $1.5B in revenue in a decade. Now a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Leslie is one of the foremost experts in go-to-market strategy in Silicon Valley, and in the first of this two-part series with Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE, Leslie discusses what strategies he used to make Veritas a runaway success, and the origins for the Sales Learning Curve.

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!
...more
46min
May 16, 2022 Breakthrough Lessons: The Infinite Game
We’re taught from a young age about *finite* sporting games like baseball, basketball, and soccer. Or board games like checkers or chess. Or academic games like grades and test scores. Or status games like credentials and university degrees. In these games, we know the rules and how to determine who scored the highest, according to rules set by someone else. But what about *infinite* games, where the rules and players are changeable, and the primary goal is to keep the game going? In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how Shopify founder Tobi Lutke exemplifies the advantages of playing the Infinite Game and how to tell when business leaders have fallen into the trap of finite games at the expense of achieving their mission.
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!
...more
7min
May 16, 2022 Tobi Lutke: A Startup Founder Arming The Rebels Against Amazon
Growing up in Germany, Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lutke was never quite comfortable with people telling him to do things because that's the way they're done. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Lutke to discuss the origins of Shopify, the difference between finite games and infinite games, and the reason it's important for startups and companies to always question assumptions imposed by "experts."
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!
...more
41min
February 28, 2022 Tim Westergren: How The Band Kept Playing At Pandora
Tim Westergren maxed out 11 credit cards, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and was rejected 348 times for a second round of funding for his revolutionary idea for a music streaming platform. But like any true artist, Westergren remained committed to his vision of creating an aesthetically more beautiful future with Pandora, and now the company boasts more than 6 million monthly subscribers. Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Westergren to discuss the company’s humble beginnings, why it took an act of Congress to keep the company alive, and why both men believe the best founders are artists who can sell their vision.
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!
...more
42min
February 28, 2022 Breakthrough Lessons: The Artistry of Startup Breakthroughs
Too many people mistakenly believe that being a good entrepreneur comes from simply talking to customers and solving their pain. But the most impactful companies are built for aesthetic reasons - think of Twitter, Lyft, Apple, and Medium - and those companies serve as expressions of what their founders thought the world needed. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses the success of Pandora’s visionary founder Tim Westergren, and offers three tips for founders looking to bring a more aesthetically beautiful future to the world.
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!
...more
9min
December 20, 2021 Breakthrough Lessons: “BIG D" Design
Lots of people think about design from the perspective of how a product should look and function. But design can be applied to greatness on many more levels than most realize. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how you can design your opportunity, your team, your market, your category, your culture, and even your own life. "Big D" design is about understanding that you have the chance to be more intentional in more areas that contribute to success than most realize.
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!
...more
8min
December 20, 2021 Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig of Applied Intuition: A Startup Designed to Win
Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig both grew up in the backyard of American automotive giant General Motors in Detroit, but didn’t cross paths until their days as product managers at Google. Since then they’ve pooled their affinity for cars and technology as the co-founders of Applied Intuition, a fast-moving startup that has already achieved greatness with their advanced simulation software for autonomous vehicles. Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Younis and Ludwig to discuss how the company has made its mark so quickly, and the value of being highly intentional about what will drive success from day one.

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!
...more
38min
November 15, 2021 Breakthrough Lessons: How to Defeat "We're F*cked, It's Over" (WFIO) Moments
Your startup will face multiple WFIO moments on the path to greatness...COUNT ON IT. But that doesn’t mean you should let these moments get inside your head. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how every startup team MUST be prepared to take the initiative in the crucible of the WFIO moments they will inevitably face. The bright side? You can use these horrible situations as defining moments to show everyone that your startup is destined to defeat the impossible.
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!
...more
13min
November 15, 2021 Ben Horowitz: “The IPO From Hell” and Other REAL Lessons from the Startup Crucible
Startups are romanticized AFTER they win. But it takes extraordinary grit to have what it TAKES to win. Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen-Horowitz, is the perfect guest to tell it like it is, as he has for many years in his books "the Hard Thing About Hard Things" and "What You Do Is Who You Are." Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Ben to discuss the ups and downs of dealing with "the struggle," and why the best startup leaders are often the ones who simply refused to quit.
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!
...more
45min

FAQs about Pattern Breakers:

How many episodes does Pattern Breakers have?

The podcast currently has 112 episodes available.

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