Lenny's Podcast · Jul 7Pattern Breakers: How to find a breakthrough startup idea | Mike Maples, Jr. (Partner at Floodgate)
Mike Maples Jr.'s firm, an early seed investor that treated seed investing as a movement. Its first fund pitch argued that $500,000 is the new $5 million thanks to lean startups, and he has made the Forbes Midas list eight times.
Tips
- Structure the seed deck: what you do, your insight, then proof▶ 1:21:46Pitching Floodgate fund one, he stated the insight that $500,000 is the new $5 million thanks to Lean Startups, and told LPs that if they disagreed, the rest wouldn't matter.
- Spend time only with early believers, not skeptics▶ 29:33Maples now regrets passing on Airbnb at a $1.5 million valuation, saying a bad pitch has no bearing on whether to invest.
- Avoid raising more than you need; raised money gets spent▶ 1:26:14
- Ask non-judgmental questions to learn why a company really succeeded▶ 9:57He keeps original pitch decks, including Airbnb and Pinterest, for every startup that would have returned 100x on a first check.
