Pattern Breakers - by Mike Maples & Peter Ziebelman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Pattern Breakers had its roots in the time when Mike Maples, a seasoned venture capitalist, was stumped, unable to get a grip on why some businesses he funded-Twitter, Twitch, and Okta, for example-took off, while others, some deemed "most likely to succeed," shut their doors despite doing everything right. Was it dumb luck that separated gold from dross? What Maples and Stanford University's Peter Ziebelman discovered contradicts accepted wisdom and upends today's formulaic approach to entrepreneurship: that one should look for a big open market, talk to prospective customers to find their highest needs, their "pain points" in that market, and then build what is missing. Rather, patterns are broken and the potential for breakthrough opportunity created when inflection points-events that offer the potential for new empowering capabilities-are harnessed, transforming how people think, work, feel, and act. Uber and Lyft, for example broke the pattern of transportation by harnessing the power of the GPS-enabled smartphone. The Covid pandemic spurred telemedicine. Pattern-breaking ideas like these unlock different powers and radically change the rules, driven by people with the independent-mindedness and courage to divert from the consensus. With intriguing and entertaining storytelling based on a lifetime of experience, Pattern Breakers vividly illustrates what differentiates breakthrough ideas from those that initially seem promising but that meet with mediocre results, and why others that initially seem unworthy-even idiotic-end up radically changing how people live"--

Book Synopsis

A radical set of new ideas for how entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders can use the pattern-breaking mindset to dominate the future

The breakthrough concepts of Pattern Breakers come from the observations of Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned venture capitalist, who noticed something strange. Start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft had achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for "best practices." In contrast, other startups deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right.

Seeking answers, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success. Pattern-breaking success, they reveal, demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy.

Pattern Breakers is filled with firsthand storytelling about initial interactions with some of the most transformative start-ups of recent times. Maples and Ziebelman vividly illustrate an unexpected world where chaos is welcome, naysayers are a positive signal, movements galvanize believers--but one that ultimately change the future. They challenge us to rethink how to transcend the ordinary and achieve the extraordinary.

Review Quotes

"Straightforward advice on launching a startup... aspiring entrepreneurs will find some sensible suggestions."
--Publishers Weekly

"Pattern Breakers flips the narrative on uncertainty, transforming it from a daunting obstacle to an offensive weapon. This strikingly different book reveals how elite founders don't just navigate uncertainty--they harness it to redefine what's possible."--Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

"Luck in a start-up might actually be a strategy hiding in something others haven't seen clearly enough. Pattern breaking often involves the hard work of seeing inflection points before others do."
--Seth Godin, author of This Is Marketing

"Mike Maples Jr. and Peter Ziebelman explain what founders need to know to build billion-dollar businesses: how to break through patterns of conventional thinking and spot the biggest ideas. Told through entertaining case examples based on their firsthand experience working with some of the most innovative tech companies, Pattern Breakers is an indispensable guide to start-up success."
--Safi Bahcall, author of Loonshots

"A useful, accessible package for those seeking a revolutionary path... The authors make their case with conviction and intelligence, bringing new thinking to an old problem."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Mike Maples, Jr is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and the co-founder of FLOODGATE, a leading seed stage fund in Silicon Valley that invested in companies like Twitter, Twitch, Okta, and Outreach at the very beginning of their startup journeys. An eight-time member of the Forbes Midas List of Top Venture Capital investors, he was one of the pioneers of the seed investing movement, which started in the mid-2000s and now is a mainstream part of startup funding. Mike has 79,000 Twitter followers and a popular podcast, Starting Greatness (https: //podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/starting-greatness/id1488560647)

Peter Ziebelman splits his time between academia and the business world. He teaches entrepreneurs as a lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he is the principal instructor for the popular graduate school course on entrepreneurship and venture capital. He has also lectured for the Wharton School and the University of Chicago. He started his career as part of the innovative start-up team for speech synthesis semiconductors at Texas Instruments and then later he was a systems software entrepreneur at a venture-backed start-up. In 1996 he co-founded, Palo Alto Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He consults with Fortune 500 companies on entrepreneurship, and advises start-up companies as an independent board member.