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This week, Erik is joined by Mike Maples, Jr, co-founder of Floodgate, a storied seed firm that's invested in Lyft, Okta, Twitch, and Twitter, to name a few unicorn portcos. In this episode, Mike and Erik dive into why it's so important to force a choice and not a comparison when differentiating, why discipline and patience are a form of arbitrage, and ultimately why they've shifted their strategy to predicting who the next great founders will be.
This week, Erik is joined by Mike Maples, Jr, co-founder of Floodgate, a storied seed firm that's invested in Lyft, Okta, Twitch, and Twitter, to name a few unicorn portcos. In this episode, Mike and Erik dive into why it's so important to force a choice and not a comparison when differentiating, why discipline and patience are a form of arbitrage, and ultimately why they've shifted their strategy to predicting who the next great founders will be. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine
RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with David Weisburd, where David talks to the investors behind the investors: https://www.podpage.com/the-limited-partner/
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Episode Preview
(01:00) The biggest inflection points in Floodgate's history
(03:03) Force a choice, not a comparison
(07:16) Why didn't Floodgate scale like a16z did?
(11:28) Sponsor: Synaptic
(12:31) How to bet on people before they have a company
(15:38) On how to pull out signal from founder references
(17:38) What questions would Mike be asking fund managers as an LP?
(20:46) On how venture has evolved
(24:12) On YC and their non-consensus economics
(25:58) Will Floodgate pursue incubation?
(28:05) Frameworks for identifying good ideas
(32:35) How Mike thinks about AI
(37:59) If Mike started Floodgate today, what would be his differentiating approach?
(40:07) What kind of firms will flourish in the next 10 years?
(42:10) On firm differentiation
(47:57) Mike's take on Sam Lessin's thesis on seed investing
X / TWITTER:
@m2jr (Mike)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@floodgatefund
@TurpentineVC
SPONSORS:
Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s your all-in-one source for alternative data that helps you make better investment decisions. To learn how Synaptic can improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, visit https://synaptic.com/turpentine
