Saturday, December 16, 2017
“Holding a grudge is a symptom of not knowing how you want to spend the gift of the day.”
– Mike Maples, Jr.
Mike Maples, Jr. (@m2jr) is the man who taught me how to invest. He’s one of my favorite people and a personal mentor.
He is a partner at Floodgate, a venture capital firm that specializes in micro-cap investments in startups. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and named one of Fortune magazine’s “8 Rising VC Stars.” Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was inolved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back starup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM) and Motive (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). Some of Mike’s investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv. ngmoco, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaar-voice, Spiceworks, Okta, and Demandforce.
Enjoy!
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Connect with Mike Maples, Jr.:
Floodgate | Twitter | Medium
- Castro Theatre
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
- Mike Maples Talks Venture Capital And Thunder Lizards by Michael Arrington, Tech Crunch
- Hobee’s Stanford
- Kepler’s Books
- You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones
- Digg
- Dutch Goose
- Sequoia
- The Real History Of Twitter by Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider
- SXSW Interactive Festival
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
- How We Built the First Real Self-Driving Car (Really) by Kyle Vogt, Medium
- Moore’s Law
- Metcalfe’s Law
- SpaceX Launches and Lands its First Used Rocket for NASA
- Mike Maples, Jr. and Ron Conway speak at Stanford University
- Finding Billion Dollar Secrets by Mike Maples, Jr., Austin Startups
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware
- On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
- The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: The United States, Harvard Business School
- The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo, The Tim Ferriss Show
- The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler
- The Way Things Work: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology by C. van Amerongen
- Fishes of the World by Joseph S. Nelson, Terry C. Grande, and Mark V. H. Wilson
- Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach
- Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant
- Mental Toughness Training for Sports: Achieving Athletic Excellence by James E. Loehr
- Metta Meditation, Metta Institute
Show Notes
- Introduction. [05:30]
- How we did market research back in the day. [10:15]
- When he first hit the scene, Mike had trouble getting hired as a venture capitalist. [13:17]
- How did Mike connect with our mutual friend Kevin Rose? [16:19]
- Sometimes great introductions make up for lackluster investments. [18:03]
- Mike’s not a man who holds many grudges. Here’s why. [23:09]
- What happened when Mike invested in podcasting platform Odeo, and how its failure led to an opportunity to invest in Twitter. [25:30]
- Rehearsing my SXSW talk in front of three chihuahuas. [34:51]
- Overcoming technical difficulties when it came time to give the real talk. [35:49]
- What Mike considers one of the most fun things about being an investor in contrast to being a founder. [36:34]
- Without children of my own, some might wonder why I often ask guests for their parenting advice. Mike’s responses are one reason. [38:39]
- What does Mike say to bolster the morale of entrepreneurs who are going through a rough patch? [41:48]
- Why Mike thinks he might be “the worst person to talk to depressed people.” [46:35]
- How Mike helped me act simple. [47:59]
- One investment that seemed like a bad idea at the time but paid off very well, and how investment decisions happen at Floodgate. [52:28]
- How does Mike know when to persist, quit, pivot, or double down with an idea? [56:53]
- Mike explains how investment is like surfing. [1:00:19]
- Early encouragement and advice about first principles thinking. [1:03:00]
- What does Mike really think about the concept of social proof? [1:04:21]
- Good first principles in action. [1:04:28]
- The lessons Mike hopes to drive home for entrepreneurial students at Stanford. [1:07:25]
- How does Mike recommend people find their unique gift, and what blocks that quest? [1:11:02]
- I’ve recently moved to Austin. Where else might I have ended up? [1:14:16]
- What books does Mike recommend and gift the most? [1:15:31]
- Thoughts on death, grief, and grieving. [1:17:41]
- What emerging technologies does Mike believe are most promising for anti-authoritarian disruption? [1:19:53]
- Why Mike isn’t afraid that cryptocurrency adoption will disrupt venture capitalism. [1:26:16]
- Mike’s view of the government’s role and how cryptocurrency helps separate politics from economics. [1:29:10]
- Early traits that made Mike successful. [1:30:30]
- Why did Mike’s dad tell him not to have heroes? [1:34:54]
- What would Mike put on his billboard? [1:36:26]
- Mike’s take on Jim Rohn’s famous, “you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” [1:38:35]
- Powerful new truths I’ve come to realize. [1:40:25]
- On applying loving-kindness meditation. [1:44:52]
- What is Mike’s 60-second idea to change the world? [1:45:47]
- Parting thoughts. [1:46:31]
People Mentioned
Posted on: December 16, 2017.
Please check out Tribe of Mentors, my newest book, which shares short, tactical life advice from 100+ world-class performers. Many of the world's most famous entrepreneurs, athletes, investors, poker players, and artists are part of the book. The tips and strategies in Tribe of Mentors have already changed my life, and I hope the same for you. Click here for a sample chapter and full details. Roughly 90% of the guests have never appeared on my podcast.
Who was interviewed? Here's a very partial list: tech icons (founders of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Pinterest, Spotify, Salesforce, Dropbox, and more), Jimmy Fallon, Arianna Huffington, Brandon Stanton (Humans of New York), Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ben Stiller, Maurice Ashley (first African-American Grandmaster of chess), Brené Brown (researcher and bestselling author), Rick Rubin (legendary music producer), Temple Grandin (animal behavior expert and autism activist), Franklin Leonard (The Black List), Dara Torres (12-time Olympic medalist in swimming), David Lynch (director), Kelly Slater (surfing legend), Bozoma Saint John (Beats/Apple/Uber), Lewis Cantley (famed cancer researcher), Maria Sharapova, Chris Anderson (curator of TED), Terry Crews, Greg Norman (golf icon), Vitalik Buterin (creator of Ethereum), and nearly 100 more. Check it all out by clicking here.