STVP’s new fellowship for master’s students in Stanford’s School of Engineering kicked off with wise words from Mike Maples, Jr., co-founder of the venture capital firm Floodgate. The Silicon Valley veteran was the featured speaker at the first class session for the DFJ Entrepreneurial Leaders Fellowship, a new nine-month program that combines courses, professional development and experiential opportunities for students interested in leading entrepreneurial ventures during their careers.
With a career in high-tech spanning more than two decades, Maples talked about how much luck can play into a startup’s success. In general, people often look at life and success through the lens of taking out risk. But when you are super early and risky, it’s more important to think about “what can go right,” Maples says.
This can involve focusing on cutting-edge technology that is timed well, and it can involve surrounding the company with the right people. Or it can involve articulating and exploiting potential “free moves,” according to Maples (more on that below). “But above all, it is a mindset of increasing the odds of luck finding you and knowing how to take advantage of it.”
In no certain order, here were a few other takeaways from his Jan. 26 talk:
- In startups, it’s not enough to work hard. The first prototype must rock people’s world. “We ask ourselves: Is this the team that can pull off something very compelling for less than $1 million?”
- Don’t assume rules as “givens.” Design a set of “free moves” for yourself. “When I was in school, I decided that I wanted to meet every important VC on Sand Hill Road and every important pre-IPO CEO. How did I do it? I just called up the people I wanted to meet!”
- Always put yourself in situations that are exceptional. Be at an exceptional company with exceptional people. Great entrepreneurs are a magnet for great people.
- Hire your boss. Only work for people who will have an impact on your life. As you spend time with them, you’ll learn counter-intuitive tools that will generate lucky breaks.
- The people who make a dent in the universe are not motivated by money – and that makes them dangerous (and often lucky). “They will try all kinds of whacky stuff,” Maples said. “Embrace Stanford’s ‘Why not try it?’ mentality.”
Of course, the industry veteran tempers his inspirational advice with reality, stressing that exceptionalism in entrepreneurship is truly rare: Only 10 companies out of the 10,000 to 20,000 started each year create 97 percent of the value in the tech-business.
According to Maples, “Many entrepreneurs and VCs never truly internalize the importance of this and fall into the trap of ‘doing a startup’ rather than locking in on the opportunities that have a chance to create exponential outcomes.”
