Social Leverage Letter | Issue #12

Pinning Startups to “Silicon Valley Time.”

Listen to this episode from Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on Spotify. My guest today is Mike Maples, co-founder and partner of Floodgate. As a child of the computer revolution, Mike was deconstructing calculators in grade school, writing video games in high school, and inevitably found himself building businesses in Silicon Valley after college. After his success as an operator, Mike eventually transitioned to become a full-time venture investor in the 2000s, and has since built a track record that includes Twitter, Twitch, Lyft, Octa, and a long list of successful tech businesses.   I'm not sure I've recorded a conversation with more applicable ideas and advice for company builders. We discussed early insights and secrets, value hypothesis testing, customer development, growth, team orchestration, and a lot more.   This is a masterclass from somebody who has seen it all. Also, do not miss his answer to the kindest thing question at the end of the conversation. I hope you enjoy this great talk with Mike Maples.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. -----   This episode is brought to you by SnackMagic. SnackMagic is the only 100% customizable snack and swag service that allows recipients to build their own snack stash. Whether you want to thank your global team, need goodie bags for your upcoming hybrid event or want to stock your office pantry, the menu of over 1,000 types of snacks and sips covers just about every preference. Learn more and get 10% off your first order with code Patrick at snackmagic.com/patrick.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Versett. Versett designs, builds, and scales digital platforms for some of the world's most ambitious companies. If you require a high-performance team to tackle a hard or ambiguous problem, then Versett is the firm to call. To check them out, visit versett.com/patrick .    -----   Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:08] - [First question] - His philosophy on the power of forcing a choice [00:04:43] - How he knows when he comes across a team that has an apple quality [00:07:39] - Exploring and hunting new inflections in ever-changing systems [00:10:37] - Why recognizing winning insights allows you to not have to predict the future [00:12:23] - Whether or not the evolving nature of the funding landscape changes his thinking [00:14:18] - An example of his insight framework and stress testing a team’s potential [00:17:21] - Practice reckless optimism [00:18:54] - Commonalities between teams and their ideas when they get inflections wrong  [00:20:12] - What the value hypothesis is and how to test it [00:22:15] - Ways that effective startup teams operate compared to big corporations  [00:25:36] - His involvement post-investment and where outsiders can be most helpful in a companies’ early days [00:28:34] - Lessons learned about finding, convincing, and marketing to their first customers  [00:32:13] - An example of early customer selection done phenomenally well [00:34:09] - Why it was possible for companies like Justin.TV and Lift to pivot so dramatically from their original ideas  [00:38:49] - Customer development and using good customers to your advantage [00:42:31] - Who went from founder to the best growth executive  [00:43:05] - What he thinks his firm will need to do to continue offering an apple to founders [00:46:08] - The most useful stress tests his firm can offer founders [00:46:52] - Defining category design and what the process of category design looks like [00:50:33] - Inflections he’s currently paying the most attention to [00:52:07] - His experience with an HP35 calculator and how it shaped his life  [00:54:41] - What venture capital may look like in the future [00:56:30] - The most difficult things he faces in his career [00:57:52] - Ways he’s learned to manage failure more effectively [00:59:06] - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for him  

Job Opening: Software Engineer at beehiiv in Remote.

Payitoff is a venture-backed infrastructure provider automating every aspect of student loan repayment for fintechs, workplace providers, and financial institutions. We are fully remote, family friendly, and committed to investing in diversity within o...

The Team: You’ll be joining a small and experienced marketing team of digital, growth, content, brand, and product marketing professionals with experience in both B2C and B2B strategies. We’re nimble, goal-oriented, often nerd out on finance jokes, and are just a hint of quirky! We have a tight-knit culture, supporting each set of marketing goals as a team, and bring our authentic selves to work. We look forward to bringing on our newest teammate! About the Role: We’re looking for a Senior UX Writer to join the Product Marketing team. In this newly created role, you will be responsible for driving a high-quality and cohesive client experience for Secfi’s digital product environments through compelling copy. You’ll offer a content strategy perspective through the product development process and set the tone for our product messaging across our public website, Secfi.com, and our product platforms. You’ll work cross-functionally with a talented group of product managers, product desig