Pattern Breakers

What job should a desperate customer hire YOUR product to do? Answering this question is key to unlocking a key lesson of greatness. Here we discuss how the Instagram founders illustrate this lesson perfectly and how you can apply it to your own success as a startup founder.  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!

Find out how Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger trusted their instincts and overcame rookie mistakes on the way to building Instagram, which now gets close to 100 Million photos uploaded a DAY.   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!

The Startup Rollercoaster is not fun, but it's a reality of startup life. The great founders learn to manage it rather than be overwhelmed by it. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples summarizes key lessons from Kim Polese's success at this, as well as specific techniques to stay grounded through all of the inevitable ups and downs.  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!

Kim Polese, the founding product manager for Java at Sun, as well as co-founding CEO of Marimba, talks about how Java almost didn't come to be....as well as her experiences riding the startup rollercoaster as a high-profile, and ultimately successful startup founder.  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!

If you want find greatness, you have to improvise to beat impossible over and over again. There is no course or framework to teach you how to do this. Instead, you must never surrender to any fear or obstacle you face.   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!

Osman Rashid, co-founder and original CEO of Chegg, talks about how Chegg’s startup team of misfit rebels navigated through a crazy sequence of near-death experiences…one day at a time…and lived to tell the tale of achieving greatness.   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!

William Gibson, the cyberpunk novelist has said “The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.” This perfectly describes a key lesson of greatness from Marc’s Netscape experience.   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!

Mike Maples, Jr talks to Marc Andreessen, Co-founder of Netscape—the startup that launched the Internet era. What it was like when Netscape was about to blow up? What does he wish Netscape had done differently? -- and what lessons from its success are not fully understood?  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!

“Getting out of the building” means something deeper than many realize. Mike Maples Jr explores why in this key lesson of greatness.   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!

Steve Blank’s Customer Development methodology is one of the critical teachings of entrepreneurship over the last twenty years This episode explains why great founders are more like artists than normal business people and why getting out of the building is more about artistry than running a focus group.   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!