Mike Maples Jr.

Investment thesis

The biggest companies come from founders who break existing patterns rather than optimise within them. Emphasises being non-consensus and right.

Communication style

Philosophical, provocative, focused on non-consensus insight. Pushes hard on whether the idea is genuinely new.

Red flags

• •Consensus thinking
• •A better version of an existing thing
• •No inflection that makes this newly possible
• •Founder not living in the future
• •Incrementalism

Signature questions

1. 1.What do you believe that almost nobody else believes?
2. 2.What inflection just happened that makes this possible now?
3. 3.Are you breaking the pattern or optimising within it?
4. 4.Who is your first fanatical user, not your first customer?
5. 5.What future are you living in that the rest of us are not?