Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future
by Mike Maples Jr. & Peter Ziebelman · 2024
In a nutshell
A groundbreaking book that reveals the hidden forces behind outlier startup success. Written by Mike Maples Jr. and Peter Ziebelman, it challenges conventional startup wisdom by showing how the most successful founders think differently and break established patterns to create transformative companies.
Overview
Pattern Breakers reveals why some start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft achieved extraordinary success despite ignoring "best practices," while others that seemed highly promising often failed. This book offers a fresh perspective on startup success grounded in Mike Maples Jr.'s experience investing in companies at Floodgate.
About the Authors
Mike Maples Jr. is the cofounder of Floodgate, a leading seed stage fund in Silicon Valley that invested in Twitter, Twitch, Okta, and Outreach at the very beginning of their startup journeys. He is also an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and podcaster.
Peter Ziebelman is on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches entrepreneurship.
Key Concepts
The book's breakthrough concepts come from observations that start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for "best practices," while other start-ups that were deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right.
Pattern-breaking success demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy. The most successful founders don't follow patterns—they break them.
Reception
Steve Blank, co-creator of the Lean Startup movement, called it "The most important start-up book of the last ten years."
Publication Details
Published in 2024 by PublicAffairs.
Reference
Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future — publisher / official page. Summary adapted from the Awesome Startup Books collection.
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