Pattern Breakers

Spenser Skates: How Perseverance Paid Off for Amplitude

 When Amplitude launched in 2012, the analytics market looked crowded, and the company spent more than a year struggling to find any traction. But co-founder and CEO Spenser Skates prioritized truth seeking over narratives. He studied the outcomes of past Y Combinator batches and noticed a simple rule: Most companies died before they even learned enough to make something that people want. All Amplitude had to do was survive.In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Skates about that crucial realization and how his company preserved through its first two years on the map, why he’s never been afraid of failure, Amplitude’s surprising early adopters, the value of learning sales skills, and how he tries to raise the bar for the company even higher amid all of its success. Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike. Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.Follow Mike on X!

Wade Foster: Why Zapier is Built for the AI Revolution

When Wade Foster was a kid growing up in Jefferson City, Missouri, there weren’t many models for how to carve out a career in entrepreneurship. But when he and his friend Bryan Helmig developed an easier way to help users connect web-based applications, they ushered in what would eventually become Zapier, a remote automation giant that’s now worth an estimated $5 billion and is ideally positioned for the AI era. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Foster about his early days in Missouri and his first impressions of Silicon Valley, the concept of seed-strapping and how the company has thrived despite raising just $1.3 million, the importance of making constant contact with reality, and why Zapier is the perfect model for how to build a large-scale company while challenging virtually every part of the conventional wisdom.   Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books. Follow Mike on X!

Howie Liu: Building Airtable to Feel Magical

 Spreadsheets were originally designed for finance people. But when Howie Liu and his co-founders started Airtable in 2012, they had a deeper insight that a spreadsheet-database hybrid could be used by anyone for just about anything, including project management, content calendars, recipes, and even travel itineraries. Now the company is valued at an estimated $4 billion, and it’s a prime example of why showing a real difference with your product is vital for achieving breakthrough success. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Liu about the original idea behind Airtable and the company’s early days of development, as well as why it took the company roughly two years to release a product to the public. They also discuss the value of visual metaphors and magical capabilities and how they helped Airtable differentiate from competitors in the market, as well as how Airtable is preparing for the future of AI.   Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books. Follow Mike on X!

Joe Liemandt: The AI-Powered School Rewriting the Future of Education

Long before he attended Stanford, founded software giant Trilogy, or became the youngest member of the Forbes 400, Joe Liemandt wrote a high school paper about the potential for a futuristic technology called Artificial Intelligence. Four decades later Liemandt sits in the principal’s chair at Alpha School, an AI-powered private school founded in Austin, Texas with a revolutionary approach to learning and ambitious plans for the future. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Liemandt about what an average school day looks like at Alpha School, why kids can still excel with just two hours of focused academics per day, how the school teaches grit and self-confidence, what he’s looking for from pattern-breaking entrepreneurs eager to join his team, and what it was like to be stuck in an elevator with Maples, his college roommate at Stanford.   Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books. Follow Mike on X!

Mårten Mickos: Essential Lessons From A Legendary Tech CEO

Mårten Mickos isn't the kind of CEO who tries to dream up world-changing ideas or invent brand new markets. Perhaps best known for leading MySQL to becoming a $1 billion success story that powered Facebook, Google, and YouTube, Mickos also led teams at Eucalyptus and HackerOne and has consistently shown an ability to convert the potential energy of an idea into the kinetic energy of execution. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate speaks with Mickos about the essential lessons he’s learned from being a CEO, the importance of developing curiosity in the startup world, and why it’s essential to know your genius, own your gaps, and surround yourself with people who carry the tools you don't.   Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.   Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books. Follow Mike on X!