Michael Maples

Michael Maples General Information

Description

Mike Maples is a Co-Founder & serves as Partner at Floodgate. Mr. Maples served as a Board Member at IRL. He is a Board Member of AirGarage, and SBR Health. He served as Board Member at SwivelMeta. Before becoming a full-time investor, he was an entrepreneur and operating executive who worked in a variety of senior management roles in high-growth companies. He serves as an Advisory Board Member at Second Time Founders. His background spans a variety of markets including consumer technology, small business, and enterprise, and he has led various functions in product development, marketing, business development, and corporate strategy. He began his technology career in high school when he started a software company that developed games and educational products for the original IBM PC. He has been passionate about the technology industry ever since. He serves as a Board Member at Tapatalk. He co-founded Motive, the world's leading broadband software company in 1997, and played critical roles in its growth from raw start-up through sales of more than $75 million. The motive was one of the only successful technology IPOs in 2004 and the most successful infrastructure software IPO for the prior three years. At Motive, he was General Manager of Motive's Corporate Business Unit, as well as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Before Motive, he was responsible for worldwide product marketing at Tivoli Systems, where he managed the company's product portfolio from its early-stage development through its 1995 IPO and growth to a $750M line of business within the IBM Software Group. He began his professional career at Silicon Graphics, serving in business development and product marketing roles. He holds an Engineering degree from Stanford University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Texas. He also serves as a Board Member of SwiftTest, Egnyte, and Reputation.com. He also served as a Board Member at DoubleDutch and Sharethrough. He is a Board Member of Stipple and Almanac. He has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade and was also named a "Rising Star" by FORTUNE and profiled by Harvard Business School for his lifetime contributions to entrepreneurship. 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, Clover Health, Okta, Outreach, Chegg, Demandforce, and Applied Intuition. Mike is known for coining the term "Thunder Lizards," which is a metaphor derived from Godzilla that describes the tiny number of truly exceptional companies that are wildly disruptive capitalist mutations. Mike likes to think of himself as a hunter of the "atomic eggs" that beget these companies. Mike is the author of the National Bestselling book Pattern Breakers and host of the Pattern Breakers podcast, which shares startup lessons from the super performers.