#15 — Mike Maples Jr. — Backcasting to build the future

Mike Maples (@m2jr) is the co-founder and partner at Floodgate Capital and was one of the original “super angels”. For episode #15, I chatted with Mike about the process entrepreneurs should use to uncover breakthrough insights, a fishing trip with his Dad that taught him a lifelong lesson, how he stumbled into his first angel investment (Twitter), how he broke into venture capital after being a founder, and one of the biggest issues facing our country that almost no one talks about. We even turned the tables and Mike fired some questions my way. Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of the “8 rising stars” by Fortune Magazine. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was involved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back startup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (IPO TIVS, acquired by IBM) and Motive (IPO MOTV, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent.) Some of Mike’s investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, ngmoco, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaarvoice, Spiceworks, Okta, and Demandforce. Mike is the host of an amazing podcast called “Starting Greatness” and freely shares his insights on Twitter @m2jr. Mike is someone I’ve really enjoyed getting to know over the past year and he is compassionate and big hearted as he is insightful and wise. I hope you enjoy this episode with Mike Maples.