Inflection points are crucial for startups to succeed by creating entirely new rules and denying the premise of existing ones. Startups need to harness inflections, which are change events that bring radical new empowerment. For example, Lyft's success was propelled by the inflection of the iPhone 4S with a GPS locator chip, enabling the implementation of a ride-sharing system that wasn't possible before.
Mike Maples is a co-founding partner at the venture capital firm, Floodgate. He’s also the author of the new book, “Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future.” Alex Friedman caught up with Maples for a conversation about:
- How to spot true visionaries.
- Missing out on an early investment opportunity in Airbnb.
- Whether the AI future will be defined by incumbents or upstarts.
Companies mentioned: AMZN, LYFT, OKTA, CHGG, AAPL, MSFT
Host: Alex Friedman
Guest: Mike Maples, Jr.
Producer: Mary Long
Engineers: Dez Jones, Tim Sparks
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