Origins - Inside Venture Capital, Hosted by a GP and an LP Finding Pattern Breakers & Winners from Seed to Growth with Mike Maples and Jai Das
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Oct 1, 2024 
Jai Das, President and Partner at Sapphire Ventures, is a veteran in enterprise investing with a portfolio that includes Box and Square. Mike Maples Jr., co-founder of Floodgate, is a pioneer of seed investing with successes like Twitter and Lyft. They discuss their contrasting focuses in venture capital and the challenges of identifying future winners. The conversation dives into how AI reshapes investment opportunities, the importance of adaptable management teams, and navigating exit strategies in a shifting market.
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Venture Challenges and Sea Change
- Venture capitalists face challenges with high valuations and the need for outsized returns.
- A "sea change" in mass cognition, similar to the rise of mass computation and connectivity, is occurring.
Finding Pattern-Breaking Founders
- Look for founders who are not just right, but non-consensually right.
- Identify inflections, or external change events, that empower startups to disrupt existing patterns.
Pivots and Platform Shifts
- Pivots are common and often lead to successful exits, especially in consumer-facing businesses.
- Enterprise software companies can succeed by capitalizing on platform shifts without necessarily creating new categories.