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Pattern Breakers

Pattern Breakers

Written by: Floodgate
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 Host Mike Maples Jr. from venture capital firm Floodgate offers lessons from the rare startup super performers — BEFORE they were successful. Pattern Breakers features interviews with some of Silicon Valley’s most legendary entrepreneurs and thought leaders, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, business maverick Mark Cuban, and Shopify co-founder Tobi Lütke. Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Wade Foster: Why Zapier is Built for the AI Revolution

    Wade Foster: Why Zapier is Built for the AI Revolution
    Nov 18 2025
    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!
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    42 mins
  • Howie Liu: Building Airtable to Feel Magical

    Howie Liu: Building Airtable to Feel Magical
    Sep 29 2025
     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!
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    46 mins
  • Joe Liemandt: The AI-Powered School Rewriting the Future of Education

    Joe Liemandt: The AI-Powered School Rewriting the Future of Education
    Sep 9 2025
    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!
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    43 mins
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