Mike Maples, Jr.
PARTNER
Mike Maples is a co-founding Partner at Floodgate. 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, ngmoco, Chegg, Bazaarvoice, and Demandforce.
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 host of the Starting Greatness podcast, which shares startup lessons from the super performers.
Interests:
Calligraphy, Cinematography, Cars, and Sporting Clays.
Education:
BS, Engineering, Stanford
MBA, Harvard Business School
For my seventh birthday, the HP-35 calculator was at the top of my wish list. It was a legendary product that gave technology power to individuals…even first graders. By third grade, my dad taught me how to take it apart and how circuits worked. Back in those days, I had no idea how technology could have such a massive, positive, global impact. Today, my goal is to do everything I can to help startups bring abundance to the world.
Before long, I was a child of the PC revolution, writing video games for the original Apple II and IBM PC in high school. My interests led me to Stanford, where I learned about the special magic of Silicon Valley. My childhood interests came full circle when I met the legendary David Packard himself.
I’ve focused on tech startups from the beginning, both as a member of the startup team of Tivoli Systems, where I was Director of Product Marketing (IPO 1995; acquired by IBM in 1996) and as a founder of Motive Communications where I was the Chief Marketing Officer (IPO 2004; acquired by Alcatel-Lucent 2007).
In 2004, it hit me that there would be a major shift in how companies would get started. Ubiquitous connectivity, open source software, and variable-cost web services would change the game. There was a chance to create a new type of venture firm, so Floodgate was born as one of the very first seed funds.
I will always be grateful that some of the very best founders gave me the chance to be an investor and co-conspirator. It’s a joy to watch founders create breakthroughs that move the world.
