Podcasts about demandforce

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes. The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Mike Maples Jr is a co-founding Partner at Floodgate. He has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade and was recently profiled by Harvard Business School for his lifetime contributions to entrepreneurship. Some of his early investments include: Twitter, DemandForce, Twitch, and Applied Intuition. Mike is also the bestselling author of Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future. Notes   Chance favors the prepared mind. We are all visited by luck, but most of us don't answer the door. We need to become a professional noticer. That is Mike's favorite verb. Noticing. Most people don't have prepared minds. Be intentional about noticing the world around you and being prepared for when luck visits you. Mike's dad died 7 days before we recorded. “He was a mentor, a friend, and one of the greatest inspirations of my life.” His advice: Do your best. There's only one of you. Decide what to do with your gift of time, be intentional. Have gratitude for your time. Make the most of it. Don't waste it trying to be someone else. Focus - Fishing competition when Mike was 5 or 6. Let's find a good spot and stay there the entire time. While everyone else moved constantly, Mike and his dad stayed in their spot, caught a big carp, and won. Bill Gates begged Mike's dad to “be the adult in the room” at Microsoft. Mike Sr would say to the people he led at Microsoft, "I want to know that you're thinking about what you're doing." He used a Socratic method. He was not prescriptive. Be proactive. Have an intentional strategy. Be intentional. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - The biggest limits in the world are the limits of your mind, your imagination, and your actions– not the limits of the world itself. Have to get over that voice in your head that says, “You're not good enough.” We get told to be realistic or stay within the lines. Everybody is figuring it out as they go. Everyone is “winging it.” Only by being radically different can you make a radical difference. Great founders are like Patrick Mahomes and Steph Curry. You don't know how they're going to score, but you know they will. Practice Reckless Optimism – The world is built by Optimists. You need to be FOR something. Bet ON something, not against it. Mike sees himself as a co-conspirator more than an investor. There can't be a recipe for a breakthrough because by definition breakthroughs haven't happened yet. “Chance favors the prepared mind.” We are all visited by luck but most don't answer the door. Chris Rock - Forming unexpected connections. Sam Beskind (Stanford basketball player where he played for Rob Ehsan) - Time management strategy. Stanford coaches had a one-pager with 3 keys to winning. Not 20. 3. If you have 20 keys, you have none. Nobody can remember all that. Life/Career Advice: Internalize what it means to do your best. Gratitude for your time. Avoid the trap of mimetic desire. The “T” of knowledge. Charlie Munger. Try to know what the best ideas that have ever existed in a wide range of fields. Then choose one field to know about more than anyone else in the world. Have one area where you are fanatically obsessed. For Mike, that's startups.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I have the wonderful pleasure of welcoming Mike Maples Jr. to the show this week. He 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, which was acquired by IBM, where his dad used to work, and Motive acquired by Alcatel-Lucent. Some of Mike's investments include Twitter, Clover Health, Okta, Outreach, Chegg, Demandforce, and Applied Intuition. And he has a new book out called Pattern Breakers with his co-author, Peter Zimmerman.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone curious to learn about the ingredients to start-up success.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…why is it that 80% of start-ups fail? What factors sets the 20% apart? As a seasoned venture capitalist, Mike says it comes down to breaking patterns. In this episode, he shares how to break away from linear strategies and dare to think boldly and take a risk.    KEY TAKEAWAYS... Great startups force choices, not comparisons.  Early believers are essential for co-creating groundbreaking futures. Intrapreneurs succeed by innovating discreetly before scaling their ideas. Striking out on bold experiments is crucial - safe bets won't lead to grand slams.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Mike says that the best ideas often begin as unsettling or even disliked by many. It's a testament to the power of sticking to bold, authentic visions despite early skepticism.   Running Time: 30:05   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Mike Online: Substack  X    Mike's Book: Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future

Mike Maples is one of the OG seed investors of the last two decades. As a co-founding Partner at Floodgate, Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade. Some of Mike's investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, Clover Health, Okta, Outreach, Chegg, Demandforce, and Applied Intuition. In Today's Episode with Mike Maples We Discuss: 04:02 Does Seed Even Make Sense as an Asset Class?  05:16 Fund Size and Strategy: How to Do a 10x Fund? 08:12 Follow-On Investments: Are they BS? 16:41 Finding Inefficiencies in the Market 26:31 Exit Strategies and Liquidity Events: When to Sell? 35:14 How Floodgate Lost Billions Missing Airbnb and Pinterest 35:43 3 Frameworks for Evaluating Startups 36:23 Case Studies: Zoom and Okta 43:34 How to Truly Analyse Product-Market Fit 45:22 Challenges with Overfunding Startups 50:02 2024 in Review: Company and Fund of the Year 54:25 Predictions for 2025  

Mike Maples is the co-founding partner at Floodgate, a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments in technology companies. He has been featured on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the past decade, recognized as a “Rising Star” by FORTUNE, and profiled by Harvard Business School for his enduring contributions to entrepreneurship. As a founder and operating executive, Mike played pivotal roles in two successful IPOs: Tivoli Systems (later acquired by IBM) and Motive (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). Mike's career as a seed investor has solidified his legendary status in Silicon Valley. Some of his notable investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, Clover Health, Okta, Outreach, Chegg, Demandforce, and Applied Intuition. Together with Stanford Professor Peter Ziebelman, Mike developed insights on identifying "Pattern Breaking" concepts, referred to as "Inflections." These ideas form the foundation of his book, Pattern Breakers, which explores over 15 years of investment experience to reveal the sources of breakthrough potential in startups. The book is a National Bestseller and ranks as the #1 Venture Capital book on Amazon.On today's show, Alan and Mike dive into Mike's latest book, Pattern Breakers, exploring what pattern breakers are, their key components, and how they drive transformational change. They examine the concept of inflection points, pivotal moments that define the trajectory of a startup. Mike explains the importance of being radically different and the necessity of building a movement around your business and products to stand out in competitive markets. They also explore what truly makes a company radically different and how these elements come together to fuel extraordinary success.In this episode, you'll learn:Why being radically different is essential for startups and how to achieve itStrategies to identify and connect with your ideal customer base early Key startup principles that even large companies can adopt, plus actionable tips for collaborating with startupsKey Highlights:[02:17] Being a professional calligrapher  [03:32] Career path to Floodgate[05:50] Why is now the right time for the book, Pattern Breakers[08:53] Why startups need to be radically different[14:00] Is getting competition good or bad[15:58] How to find the customer base early on[18:59] How the principles of a startup can apply to large companies[22:28] Tips for large companies working with startups[23:46] Risk profiles and mindsets [26:16] Inflections [30:05] Different categories of growth[32:05] Inflections, pattern breakers, creating movements relating to marking[34:04] Does radically different only matter if its a commercial success[37:50] An experience from your past that defines you[41:35] Advice to your younger self- personal monopoly [43:50] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about - AI [50:12] Trends or subcultures others should follow[50:51] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers todayLooking for more?Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest! Become a member today and listen ad-free, visit https://plus.acast.com/s/marketingtoday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're re-joined by Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate, this time to discuss his just released new book "Pattern Breakers."Mike was first on the pod in 2021 and it was great to catch up again, this time to discuss the importance of identifying founders who are true pattern breakers. We spoke about how his observations on the last 14 years at Floodgate inspired him to write the book. We went through concepts such as founder-future fit, the winning formula of inflections and insights, and his experience that 80% of their returns have been from companies with some major insight or pivot.   You can find Mike's book "Pattern Breakers" and additional insights on his substack at patternbreakers.substack.com.About Mike Maples, Jr.:Mike Maples, Jr. 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 Pattern Breakers podcast, which shares startup lessons from the super performers.In this episode, we discuss:(02:00) The story behind writing "Pattern Breakers" and the investment in Twitch and the importance of pivots(04:07) Insights from returns on pivots and major insider pivots(05:02) The concept of founder-future fit and initial skepticism(07:04) The inflection point of Twitch pivoting from Justin.tv(10:28) Authenticity and insights in startup founders(14:32) The role of pattern recognition in startup success(16:24) Creating movements and attracting early believers(21:12) Importance of inflection points in startup success(25:00) Non-obvious inflection points and backcasting(29:52) The formula of inflection plus insight(32:00) Non-consensus and right: key to venture success(34:52) Venture capital and risk-taking(38:00) Inflections and protecting unconventional ideas(41:00) Patience as a form of arbitrage in venture investing(45:00) Insights from Annie Duke on decision-making in venture capitalI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Mike. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Earlier this week, I visited the offices of Floodgate Partners in Menlo Park to talk with its co-founding partner Mike Maples. As an early investor in Twitter, Twitch.tv and many other successful start-ups, Maples is one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture capitalists. He is, to borrow the title of his new book, an investor in “Pattern Breakers” - entrepreneurs whose radical innovations challenge preexisting conventions and, quite literally, change the future. But, as he explained, while pattern breakers might sometimes have to be disagreeable, that doesn't justify what he calls the “jerks “who all-too-often do a disservice to the business of building the future. 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.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode of the Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different we have a conversation with Mike Maples Jr., co-founder of Floodgate, about his new book "Pattern Breakers." We explore the concept of Pattern Breakers, non-consensus thinking, and the breakthrough sequence for startups. Mike shares some insights on the role of language in defining new patterns and the significance of early adopters. The conversation provides valuable perspectives on the mindset and strategies essential for entrepreneurial breakthroughs and category design. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go. Mike Maples Jr on Understanding Pattern Breakers Mike Maples Jr. introduces the concept of pattern breakers as individuals or companies that disrupt the status quo by proposing radically different futures. These entities don't just imagine a different future; they live in it, tinkering with new technologies and experiencing firsthand the opportunities to break the limits of current thinking, feeling, and acting. Mike also discusses non-consensus thinking, and how is crucial it is for pattern breakers. It involves challenging widely accepted norms and beliefs to create transformative value. He emphasizes that breakthrough startups often face resistance from the present and the status quo, making it essential for founders to be disagreeable in the right situations. The Breakthrough Sequence for Startups The first step in the breakthrough sequence is achieving insight breakthroughs. Founders need to immerse themselves in the future they envision, understanding new opportunities and creating new patterns. Mike uses examples of legendary founders like Marc Andreessen and Bob Metcalfe, who were visitors from the future, to illustrate this point. Once insight breakthroughs are achieved, the next step is to achieve product-market fit. This involves building what's missing for early adopters and lighthouse customers, who play a crucial role in shaping the direction of a startup. Founders must listen to these early believers and co-create the future with them. The final step in the breakthrough sequence is driving growth. This involves creating a movement and category design, gradually moving more people to the envisioned future. Mike highlights the importance of using differentiated language to escape the comparison trap and the conformity trap, leading people into a different future. The Role of Big Companies in Creating Breakthroughs Big companies can also create breakthroughs by harnessing inflections and insights to change the future. Mike discusses different approaches big companies can take, such as sustaining innovation, organic growth, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and partnering. However, he also acknowledges the challenges and biases that come with being a successful company. One effective strategy for big companies is backcasting, where leaders stand in the future and look back to the present, envisioning how they achieved a radically different future. This approach helps companies switch their mental scaffolding from being in the present and looking forward to being in the future and looking back to the present. To hear more from Mike Maples Jr on Pattern Breakers and creating breakthroughs for your company, download and listen to this episode. Bio Mike Maples Jr. is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He's co-founder of Silicon Valley based, early-stage VC Floodgate. And the host of the popular “Starting Greatness” podcast. Investments include Twitter, Lyft, Bazaarvoice, Sparefoot, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Doubledutch, Twitch.tv, Playdom, Chegg, Demandforce, Rappi, Smule, and Outreach. Link Connect with Mike Maples Jr.! Floodgate | Twitter | LinkedIn | Starting Greatness Podcast Check out Mike's new book, Pattern Breakers! Amazon Books | Porchlight Books | Starting Greatness | Patte...

“My whole business isn't about how often I lose but it's about the magnitude of the rightness when I win”  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 the host of the Starting Greatness podcast, which shares startup lessons from the super performers. On this episode Mike shares the mindset that has had the greatest impact on his life, what is true about the greatest startup founders and the key to unlocking greatness in investments.  Interested in having Sean DeLaney be your executive coach? CLICK HERE  Caldera Lab– Get 20% off high performance men's skincare!  – Click HERE Marketer Hire– Get $500 off your first hire! – Click HERE https://youunleashedcourse.com/ You Unleashed is an online personal development course created by Sean DeLaney after spending years working with and interviewing high achievers.The online course that helps you ‘Unleash your potential'! You Unleashed teaches you the MINDSETS, ROUTINES and BEHAVIORS you need to unleash your potential and discover what you're capable of. You know you're capable of more and want to bring out that untapped potential inside of you. We teach you how. Enroll Today!- Click Here Subscribe to my Momentum Monday Newsletter Connect with us! Whatgotyouthere TikTok YouTube Twitter Instagram   

Our ego is made of our mindset, beliefs, and unconscious habits. That means 99% of our decisions are driven by our ego, which is not necessarily bad if we think our ego is both our weaknesses and strengths. In a way, we owe our success to our ego; it pushed us through challenging times and helped us reach the top.Yet CEOs, team leaders, and managers need other people to meet them at the top, and that's where the ego gets in the way.In this episode, Christie Garcia, President of Mindful Choice Coaching, teaches us how to become better leaders by understanding the ego's influence in our decision-making process. In over 12 years in business, Mindful Choice Coaching helped many individuals reach their leadership potential, from companies like Airbnb, Twitter, Oakley Inc, and DemandForce, to name a few.Throughout our conversation, Christie talks about the 30ft fall that changed her life and the question she had to answer three times to realize "she wasn't okay". We learn about the three types of ego and how they operate, how to prevent our ego from running our company, how to develop a healthy, balanced, and optimal ego, and so much more.Tune in to Episode 381 of Becoming Your Best and learn how mindful choices can produce real change in your leadership abilities.Some Questions I Ask: Please tell us about your background and how you got into what you're doing today (2:50) How do we develop a healthy, balanced, optimal ego? (14:10)In This Episode, You Will Learn: Christie talks about the 30ft fall that changed her life (6:00) Are you really "doing okay"? (8:20) The three types of ego (12:20) How ego sabotages our happiness (17:10) The communication component of ego management (21:10)Connect with Christie: Website LinkedInBecoming Your Best Resources: Becoming Your Best Website Becoming Your Best University Website Becoming Your Best Library Email: support@becomingyourbest.com Book: Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders Book: Conquer Anxiety: How to Overcome Anxiety and Optimize Your Performance Facebook Group – Conquer Anxiety Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Lochhead on Marketing, we have a dialogue with Mike Maples Jr. on how artificial intelligence is changing startups and venture capital. Mike Maples Jr. is the co-founder of Floodgate, one of the highest profile early stage venture capitalists. He also has a podcast called Starting Greatness, and it is one of my absolute favorites. By the end of it, we hope that you'll gain a new way to think about both technical risk for startups and market risk. And why in an AI world, you must either be radically different or radically disintermediate something. Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. The number one charting marketing podcast for marketers, category designers, and entrepreneurs with a different mind. Mike Maples Jr. on AI We begin the discussion on the topic of challenges of making sense of the rapidly evolving field of AI. Mike also talks about the traditional funding model of startups, where the primary focus was taking out technical risk, and how the LAMP stack, which commoditized what was once expensive, made it easier to start a startup. Mike notes that the nature of the LAMP stack changed what startups were funded for. “What I like to say is that the LAMP stack was deflationary in terms of the cost of starting startup. And so what does that mean? It meant that what you were funding was different, because if Kevin Rose can start dig for $1,500, over a weekend, there's no technical risks there. I mean, he hired a contractor to do it that he didn't even know at the time.” – Mike Maples Jr. Who gets Product Market Fit first The conversation then moves on to the changing dynamics of venture capital investment. The discussion continues with the notion that technical risk and market risk are inversely related. Solving a technically difficult problem that is valuable to society will create a market; if the problem is easy to solve technically, it will all come down to who achieves product-market fit first. To add value to the business, Floodgate and YC have taken the approach of funding market risk takedown. As technology becomes more commoditized and innovations become more accessible, the person who creates something people want the quickest wins. This is why YC was so successful: it offered young people $100,000 to either take market risks or leave. He also mentions that the traditional venture capital model may not be appropriate for all businesses and that deflationary factors such as content, code, and data may change the way businesses are built. Mike Maples Jr. on AI and the future of Venture Capital Mike Maples Jr. then returns to the topic of artificial intelligence and its implications for the future of venture capital. Here, Mike emphasizes two ends of the risk spectrum: high technical risk and high market risk. On the one hand, some projects require large amounts of funding for mass computation in order to build massive models that have the potential to change humanity. On the other hand, AI is being used in a variety of fields, including content generation for marketing, customer service chatbots, and lead generation, resulting in a deflationary effect on content, code, and data. According to Mike, some businesses may not require traditional venture capital funding and should instead focus on achieving $50 million in revenue with a small team and minimal funding. There is also speculation that the current billion-dollar funds may be providing the wrong incentives to these companies. To hear more from Mike Maples Jr. and how AI can affect the future of startups and venture capital, download and listen to this episode. Bio Mike Maples Jr. is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He's co-founder of Silicon Valley based, early-stage VC Floodgate. And the host of the popular “Starting Greatness” podcast. Investments include Twitter, Lyft, Bazaarvoice, Sparefoot, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Doubledutch, Twitch.tv, Playdom, Chegg, Demandforce, Rappi, Smule, and Outreach. Link

If you're like most business leaders, you spend plenty of time designing your company's business model. Mike Maples warns that you need to spend as much time designing your team, based on your company's stage & strategy. He should know. Mike is Co-Founder & Partner at Floodgate, one of the original early-stage venture capital firms (i.e. writing the first $1M check) he formed 15 years ago. Mike's been named to the Forbes Midas List 8 times in the last decade, and for good reason.. He was an early investor in the companies you love: Twitter, Lyft, Bazaarvoice, Storable, TaskRabbit, Twitch (acquired by Amazon), Chegg, Demandforce, Smule, Outreach, Okta, Weebly (acquired by Square) Better still, he's built companies on both sides of the table, starting as an executive at back-to-back startup IPOs: Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM) and Motive (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent) He's one of the most insightful investors I've met. Which is why I'm hooked on his Starting Greatness Podcast. On it, he talks about teams & hiring Says Mike: “To build your bench, you must spend 25% of your time on recruiting, no matter what.” Something tells me if Mike wasn't a legendary VC investor, he'd make a remarkable recruiter. In this 20-minute conversation, Mike shares how to design the right team for your business model & current stage.  

Episode #31 Do you struggle to separate your ego from your own self especially when it comes to your success? How do you manage your ego before it gets too big? Your ego is an essential aspect of who you are while confidence is certainly a good thing but most of the time, ego-driven individuals are often led by unhealthy overconfidence convinced they are right regardless of the facts. Learning to recognize when your ego is driving your business can be tough. In this episode, Christie Garcia talks about ego management and how to enable a healthy mind that will makes you a better leader or a better boss. If you are a business owner or anybody leading people who want to grow and know your best self but has been manipulated by your ego, this episode is perfect for you. A Bit About Christie After ten years within the walls of corporate business, working as a recruiter and in sales management in the healthcare industry, Christie increasingly grew frustrated watching talented individuals be promoted to management and fail to reach their leadership potential. She began to realize that these shortcomings were a result of the lack of resources available to develop managers into great leaders. These individuals had been praised for years based upon their own individual success (the “I” mentality). However once promoted, they struggled to turn the corner and adopt a big picture perspective and the “We” mindset. There was an unrealistic expectation and lack of guidance to help them transition into this new perspective and a deeper level of self-awareness. She realized that it was time to ditch the “old training model” and create programs focused on developing leadership effectiveness. Christie now seeks to reintroduce the human element into leadership development and immediately make an unignorable, positive impact on a person's overall potential. She wants to offer solutions that empower leaders to transition out of the “I” mentality and begin to embrace the “We” in order to accomplish big-picture goals. Example Client List: Airbnb, Twitter, Oakley Inc, DemandForce, Suntoucher, Sunrun, MGE Underground, Xamarin, SLO Hothouse, CAPSLO, Ambiance Boutique, JUSTIN Winery, Turley Wine Cellars, 805 Consulting. Services include: Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Sales Training, Team Building, Culture Alignment, Event Facilitation, Keynote Speaking LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiegarcia/ Website: https://www.mindfulchoicecoaching.com/

Daniel Huang is a Mid-Market AE at HubSpot. He was formerly a rep at KeepTruckin and Demandforce. Daniel is also an avid home cook and former mediocre USAPL powerlifter. In this episode, we talk about Daniel's process of finding his dream job at HubSpot, building his LinkedIn network and actionable tips for anyone else on the job hunt. This podcast is brought to you by Postal.io, A Curated Experience Marketing Platform that Helps You Cut Through the Noise. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to grow this show and find the best guests possible for you. Follow The Podcast: Apple/Spotify: Millennial Sales Twitter: @TommyTahoe Instagram: @TommyTahoe YouTube: TommyTahoe Website: Millennialmomentum.net

Daniel Huang is a Mid-Market AE at HubSpot. He was formerly a rep at KeepTruckin and Demandforce. Daniel is also an avid home cook and former mediocre USAPL powerlifter. In this episode, we talk about Daniel's process of finding his dream job at HubSpot, building his LinkedIn network and actionable tips for anyone else on the job hunt. This podcast is brought to you by Postal.io, A Curated Experience Marketing Platform that Helps You Cut Through the Noise. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to grow this show and find the best guests possible for you. Follow The Podcast: Apple/Spotify: Millennial Sales Twitter: @TommyTahoe Instagram: @TommyTahoe YouTube: TommyTahoe Website: Millennialmomentum.net

Ethan Bloch is the Founder and CEO of Digit, on a mission to tackle the number one stressor for Americans: financial well-being. In doing so, Ethan aims to make financial health effortless for everyone. His obsession with personal finance started at age thirteen when he began day trading technology stocks with his bar mitzvah money and continued as he studied behavioral finance in college and realized that that financial health does not come naturally to most. To combat this, Ethan created Digit, the first personalized and automated savings app that helps members reach their financial goals and achieve results. One of the fastest growing financial service companies, Digit has helped members save over $5 billion and pay down over $180 million dollars of debt to date. An early adopter of social media, Ethan founded his first successful Silicon Valley venture, Flowtown, at age twenty-three. The platform, which helped small businesses connect email and social marketing, was acquired by Demandforce two years after its launch. Ethan has a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida. He is based in San Francisco. Some of the Topics Covered by Ethan Bloch in this Episode What Digit is and how it works Ethan's passion for finance and how the idea for Digit developed The original MVP of Digit at launch in February 2015 and how it has evolved into what it is today Initial customer acquisition The importance of trust in financial services The role referrals play in the industry and how they developed Digit's referral program Referrals as one of Digit's core growth channels The challenge of resource allocation Why Ethan doesn't recommend being a solo founder How Ethan approached building out the Digit team Ethan's experience fundraising $65M in four rounds of funding Strategic thinking in fundraising The extra hurdles of creating a financial services company Digit's grand ambition and how they're working towards their mission Why Digit focused on saving as the first element of financial health How Digit began to move beyond saving How Digit's product development mirrors an individual's financial health journey Ethan's approach to reading and researching and his view on accelerated learning How Ethan prioritizes reading How Ethan unwinds and finds balance Sign up for The Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

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.

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways During the pandemic, there’s been a lot of inflection points in belief. People believe in telemedicine, remote work, and eCommerce more now than ever before“Part of these belief inflections happen because of the elimination of the paradox of choice. If you have no choice but to work remote, you figure out how to do it.” – Mike Maples Jr. What’s the secret to becoming a great venture capitalist?“I think it gets lucky in the first five years” – Mike Maples Jr.Mike’s first investment was Twitter and most investors on the Midas list made an incredibly lucky first investmentA college degree is more of a signal than proof of skill“Really what a college degree is, is it’s a signal. And companies have decided that they respect that signal.” – Mike Maples Jr.Instead of thinking of a startup or market when trying to start a company, think about inflections that you can become obsessed with. Then imagine multiple different futures that would be possible with that inflection and work your way backward to the present.That’s backcasting: Using an insight to predict multiple futures and then working backward to the present  “The asymmetric upside of being right about the bet is where you have an awesomely powerful startup” – Mike Maples Jr.More on Backcasting from MikeGreat entrepreneurs are able to resolve the impedance mismatch between people who live in the future and people who live in the present “What an entrepreneur really is, is a time traveler who based on inflections, identifies a valuable non-consensus future. Then comes back to the present and starts a movement, and recruits early people to join their movement.” – Mike Maples Jr. “The future is not something we try to predict, it’s something we create”– Mike Maples Jr.Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMike 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.

Today, the 1st in a two-part series on entrepreneurship, we have entrepreneur, Co-Founder of FloodGate and host of “Starting Greatness” Mike Maples, Jr. He recently wrote “How to build a breakthrough: the secret of back-casting” and we’re going to go deep on it today! Watch out for our next episode, we’re having founder/CEOs Osman Rashid. He started $8B, publicly-traded Chegg and now Convo.com. Status of Silicon Valley Christopher and Mike starts their discussion about the state of Silicon Valley. Both agreed that most of Silicon Valley companies are the first adopters of sheltering in place and work from home arrangements. It has definitely benefitted some companies who have adjusted early on. However, they also Mike also describes this coronavirus pandemic as a “hand of God” who “punished” some companies and catapulted some to success.  “I've never really seen a situation where you have a tale of two types of businesses. Most recessions, they affect some worse than others, but they affect everybody badly to some degree. Whereas what we're seeing in this one is: it's almost like a lot of things that were already starting to gather, got accelerated forward — telemedicine, remote distributed work, distance learning, remote work infrastructure. So you could make the case that this has had a dramatic impact in both directions ironically.” - Mike Maples Jr. Moving Forward By Looking Backward Mike recently created an interesting piece about moving forward by looking backward. He mentions that the future doesn't happen to us. It happens because of us. He further explains why he wrote the piece and how it can help entrepreneurs plan their future.  “Great founders design the future. Design is the right word. It's not just about drawings or how things look or even how they function or perform. It's about people with a determined idea of what a better future should be. Not only building that better future, but convincing people in the present to change the trajectory, that they're on.”  - Mike Maples Jr. Create A Movement To Move A Market For Mike, entrepreneurs don't discover markets. They create movements that become markets. They move people to their point of view and they move people from the present to a better future.  “I thought it might be useful to try to help entrepreneurs get some lessons that I'd received from some of the super performers that I've worked with on how do you build a breakthrough. I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to deconstruct what they do and how it's different from what normal startups look like. That is why I wrote this post on backcasting.” - Mike Maples Jr. To know more about how backcasting can help you design the future that you want and for more information about Mike, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Mike Maples, Jr is a Partner at Floodgate. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of “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 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. Interests: Calligraphy, cinematography, and sporting clays. Links: FloodGate Twitter: @m2jr Linkedin: Maples How to build a breakthrough, Medium We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Today, the 1st in a two-part series on entrepreneurship, we have entrepreneur, Co-Founder of FloodGate and host of “Starting Greatness” Mike Maples, Jr. He recently wrote “How to build a breakthrough: the secret of back-casting” and we’re going to go deep on it today! Watch out for our next episode, we’re having founder/CEOs Osman Rashid. He started $8B, publicly-traded Chegg and now Convo.com. Status of Silicon Valley Christopher and Mike starts their discussion about the state of Silicon Valley. Both agreed that most of Silicon Valley companies are the first adopters of sheltering in place and work from home arrangements. It has definitely benefitted some companies who have adjusted early on. However, they also Mike also describes this coronavirus pandemic as a “hand of God” who “punished” some companies and catapulted some to success.  “I've never really seen a situation where you have a tale of two types of businesses. Most recessions, they affect some worse than others, but they affect everybody badly to some degree. Whereas what we're seeing in this one is: it's almost like a lot of things that were already starting to gather, got accelerated forward — telemedicine, remote distributed work, distance learning, remote work infrastructure. So you could make the case that this has had a dramatic impact in both directions ironically.” - Mike Maples Jr. Moving Forward By Looking Backward Mike recently created an interesting piece about moving forward by looking backward. He mentions that the future doesn't happen to us. It happens because of us. He further explains why he wrote the piece and how it can help entrepreneurs plan their future.  “Great founders design the future. Design is the right word. It's not just about drawings or how things look or even how they function or perform. It's about people with a determined idea of what a better future should be. Not only building that better future, but convincing people in the present to change the trajectory, that they're on.”  - Mike Maples Jr. Create A Movement To Move A Market For Mike, entrepreneurs don't discover markets. They create movements that become markets. They move people to their point of view and they move people from the present to a better future.  “I thought it might be useful to try to help entrepreneurs get some lessons that I'd received from some of the super performers that I've worked with on how do you build a breakthrough. I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to deconstruct what they do and how it's different from what normal startups look like. That is why I wrote this post on backcasting.” - Mike Maples Jr. To know more about how backcasting can help you design the future that you want and for more information about Mike, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Mike Maples, Jr is a Partner at Floodgate. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of “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 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. Interests: Calligraphy, cinematography, and sporting clays. Links: FloodGate Twitter: @m2jr Linkedin: Maples How to build a breakthrough, Medium We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

The legendary investor Mike Maples Jr joins me on Base Layer. Some of Mike’s investments include being one of the first investors in Twitter & Twitch.tv as well as early investor in Chegg, Bazaarvoice, Okta, and Demandforce. Mike comes on to talk about a whole spectrum of issues relating to pre and post COVID19 world as it relates to venture investing; we also talk extensively about Bitcoin and its role in a world where governments are flooded the economy with liquidity. This is a very special episode and one to send around! 

Mike Maples, Jr. is Founder and General Partner of Floodgate, a seed investing firm that has made early investments in companies like Twitter, Demandforce and Lyft.  He was #12 on the 2018 “Midas List” of top venture capitalists. The seed investing trend he identified has become, literally, an entire category of investors.  He is also the host of his own podcast – Starting Greatness. In this episode of Something Ventured we talk about Mike’s path to Silicon Valley, the investing opportunity he saw here, and how it has changed over time.  He explains terms like ‘earned secret’ and “thunder lizard”, and the overarching importance of “why now”. If you’d like to get to know Mike Maples, Jr. – don’t miss this episode, and listen to his new podcast – Starting Greatness. Starting Greatness podcast https://medium.com/starting-greatness Floodgate https://floodgate.com Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us 

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I had the privilege of sitting down with another guest from Lever, his name is Erik Bulichi. Erik is currently a Senior Sales Manager for the corporate segment at Lever, a modern applicant tracking system company.    Erik started his tech sales career at 8x8, a cloud communications and customer engagement solutions provider located in Santa Clara, California. From there, he found himself at a small startup called DemandForce.    Erik held a few different leadership roles and exited three years after Intuit acquired the company. Then he found himself back in the startup world, this time it was in the head of sales capacity at Zozi, a booking and resource management solution in the tour and activity space.    Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:   How Erik and his team build their sales process.    “The Buyer’s Journey” - how do we truly create empathy around their situations or problems.   Marketing qualified leads (MQL) versus sales qualified lead (SQL).   What constitutes a sales qualified lead.   How Erik and his team implemented ‘APV’ (always provide value) in their sales process.   The difference between inbound leads and outbound leads and how to handle them.      Links and Resources:   Erik Bulichi: http://bit.ly/2GxbSpr Lever: www.lever.co       Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here: Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com   Plus, whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your startup… Grab a free copy of my book It explains the core selling strategies that EVERY startup needs to sell, if you really, really have to and don’t know how…  Click Here Join me on my monthly LIVE Sales Q&A Every month, I tackle YOUR sales questions on anything and everything sales – Prospecting, Pipeline, Sales Metrics, Buyer Behavior and more…Click here to save your spot and send me your toughest sales question. Work with me and my team privately If you’d like to work directly with me to take your company from Start Up to Ramp Up to Scale Up, just reply to this message, put “Private” in the subject line, and tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you the details!  Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.

How will people embrace the idea of the abundance of networks for the betterment of humanity? On today's episode of Legends and Losers, a venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley Mike Maples, Jr. joins us to talk networks and the stock market, and why we need to underscore the opportunity and hope technological innovations bring. “We can either destroy each other out of our cynicism or we can lift each other up out of our shared purpose.” - Mike Maples, Jr. Three Things We Learned Accepting the shift from companies to networks for business Most people think that companies have always been there as we know them, but the truth is far from it. In the 1800s, there were no companies in America with less than a hundred employees. But since the arrival of the railroad and steam engine, the stock market came to be, hence the birth of networks. The power of investing in networks Corporations characterized by mass production and distribution would eventually yield to networks characterized by mass computation and connectivity. These networks would also impact transportation and consequently, energy, housing and manufacturing. Mike claims that investing in these networks is one sure way to improve one's standard of living. Embracing networks and the future People must start entertaining the thought that investing in networks will bring about the same kind of change 200 years ago. Prior to the stock market, people just tried to get by. Change accelerated in the 1800s after humanity embraced the power of technological innovations and their impact on overall standard of living. When we frame the issues that surround technology and the stock market, we need to do so through the lens of opportunity and hope. We should shy away from using language that induces fear in those less informed. Instead, we should help people realize that the abundance of networks and wealth ultimately aids humanity. Bio: Mike Maples, Jr. is a Partner at Floodgate and is widely considered to be one of the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of “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 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. Interests: Calligraphy, cinematography, and sporting clays. Links: Floodgate Twitter Medium LinkedIn We hope you enjoyed Mike Maples, Jr. on this episode of Legends and Losers! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

Mike Maples is the founding partner at Floodgate and has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010. 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. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including Mike's decision to become a VC and how he raised Floodgate's first fund, how Floodgate's fund strategy and portfolio construction has evolved since, and how he and his partners think about building the firm in the years and decades to come.

Nihal Mehta kicks off Seed to Scale’s opening episode with one of VC’s most prominent investors Mike Maples, the founding partner of Floodgate. Mike has backed some of the most well-known tech companies today, including Twitter, Twitch.tv, Lyft, Okta, Chegg, Demandforce, among many others. In this episode, Mike talks about his journey from being an entrepreneur in junior high writing video games to being a founder of two IPO companies, Tivoli and Motiv, and how his pivot to investor was his way to remain close to startups in order to “stay forever young.” He gives advice to investors on the importance of making randomness your friend and to remember you don’t have a monopoly on truth. Mike also digs into his role of spotting the Thunder Lizards before they hatch, what he believes makes a good founder: “They want to start a movement, not just a company,” and his biggest red flag. Let us know what you thought: Send comments or suggestions to seedtoscale@eniac.vc or @seedtoscale.

Josh Melick is CEO and Co-Founder of Broadly.com, a review generation platform focused on local business online reputation. Prior to founding Broadly, Josh was Director of Product at DemandForce, which was acquired by Intuit in 2012. Josh also held leadership roles with Ingenio, which was purchased by AT&T in 2007.

Mike Maples, Jr. (@m2jr) is the man who taught me how to invest. He's one of my favorite people and a personal mentor.He is a partner at Floodgate, a venture capital firm that specializes in micro-cap investments in startups. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and named one of Fortune magazine's "8 Rising VC Stars." Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was inolved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back starup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM) and Motive (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). Some of Mike's investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv. ngmoco, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaar-voice, Spiceworks, Okta, and Demandforce.Enjoy!This podcast is brought to you by ConvertKit. After trying the competition, this is the only email tool that has made email marketing intuitive for my team without sacrificing any of the features and benefits I need to run a profitable business. It's easy-to-use systems, split testing, resending technology, automation, targeted content, high rates of deliverability, integration with more than 70 services -- like WordPress, Shopify, and Sumo -- and excellent customer service are the reason I made it my go-to ESP.Whether you have a thousand subscribers or a million, whether you run a simple blog or a whole company, ConvertKit has a plan that's scaled to fit your budget and requirements. Go to ConvertKit.com/Tim to try it out and get your first month for free! Test the platform and make sure it works for you and your business.This podcast is also brought to you by WordPress, my go-to platform for 24/7-supported, zero downtime blogging, writing online, creating websites — everything! I love it to bits, and the lead developer, Matt Mullenweg, has appeared on this podcast many times.Whether for personal use or business, you’re in good company with WordPress — used by The New Yorker, Jay Z, FiveThirtyEight, TechCrunch, TED, CNN, and Time, just to name a few. A source at Google told me that WordPress offers “the best out-of-the-box SEO imaginable,” which is probably why it runs nearly 30% of the Internet. Go to WordPress.com/Tim to get 15% off your website today! ***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the form at tim.blog/sponsor.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

After 8 months at construction software provider Procore Technologies, Jenn Chen is close to the finish line. The company will soon launch their online community. The process of getting there is the focus of this episode, including how Jenn worked for interdepartmental support and buy-in, conducted surveys with beta users (what happens if they don’t actually want a community?) and where she’s at right now. Plus: The conversation that led to her becoming a community pro The word to say if you find yourself in a room of salespeople How she has brought offline conversions, at conferences and events, online to the community Our Podcast is Made Possible By… If you enjoy our show, please know that it’s only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Open Social. Big Quotes “People forget that the community experience is actually part of the customer experience.” -@jenntothechen “[When trying to get support for community from other departments,] think about their metrics, think about the goals that they’re trying to hit and how community can help. For example, with sales, when I worked with support communities, I’d focus on how a lot of their customers would actually call them back after they signed, or started using our product, with support questions. Let’s say this one rep, in the course of a month, had three different customers call him for a total of 20 calls. I’d say, ‘[Instead of] these 20 calls, you could have called X number of accounts to book those accounts. This is how community is going to solve it, because if you point them to community, they’re not going to call you for support questions.'” -@jenntothechen “I remember making the community pitch … when I was starting out, I’d be like, ‘Oh yes, community’s awesome, and it’s great, and our customers are going to love it.’ But once I mentioned ‘quota’; you mention that word in a room full of salespeople, and their eyes will light up, and they’ll pay attention to whatever you say.” -@jenntothechen About Jenn Chen Jenn Chen is the community manager at Procore Technologies. She has held previous roles at Lithium Technologies, Google and Intuit. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, cheering on the Golden State Warriors and being a youth teacher. Related Links Sponsor: Open Social, community building for nonprofits Jenn on Twitter Procore Technologies, a construction software company, where Jenn is community manager Lithium Technologies, Jenn's last job, where she was community manager Demandforce, formerly owned by Intuit, where Jenn took her first community job Jenn on LinkedIn The Steve Jobs and Henry Ford (probably not) quote that Patrick mixed together Transcript View transcript on our website Your Thoughts If you have any thoughts on this episode that you’d like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon. Thank you for listening to Community Signal.

Lauren Denault is the VP of Customer Success at Skupos and is based in San Francisco where she helps her customers in the convenience retail industry streamline their ordering and operations. Previously Lauren was the Senior Manager of Customer Success at Demandforce where she was responsible for retention, health, and product adoption across 25,000 small business accounts through one-to-many interactions with a CSM as well as automated marketing based on usage and health metrics. Lauren created a team that surged to 65 employees to increase billable retention by 6% and Net Promoter by 22 points and developed a new Customer on-boarding program responsible for a 5% lift in trial retention.

I define community in two ways: 1. Community on a specific platform, like a Facebook group or a forum. 2. Community that connects around a topic, interest or pursuit in a decentralized way, across multiple platforms. Disney, Coca-Cola and NASA are good examples of organizations that are fortunate to have the second. There are many people who love NASA and the work they have done, and will gleefully talk about it with other NASA fans, while at the same time, they may never play in any NASA-managed sandboxes. Marc Siegel, who has worked in community for tech startups and established players like IBM, Intuit and eBay, spent more than a decade at NASA, including a substantial portion in evangelism. Why do people love NASA? Plus: The challenge of privacy guidelines Why viral coefficient/K value is an important metric for startups Appreciating your community when it's small Big Quotes “When I worked at NASA, they had about 40 contractors that had a van stuffed with equipment, and their job was to drive around to schools all over the country and put on presentations, teacher workshops and other things. I’m sure that program’s been cut by now, but they really were, at a grassroots, building up a core of advocates.” -@marcsiegel “People who contact me, people who ask me questions, they don’t find the joy in having two to five members and really focusing on that. Instead, they want to skip right ahead to the hundred or the 500 or to the 1,000, and I think that’s unfortunate.” -@patrickokeefe “I believe that if you have two or three people that care, then you do have a community. Personally, it’s really satisfying to have those deep relationships with people that care. Because when you go from having 5 to 20, it’s hard to maintain that quality.” -@marcsiegel About Marc Siegel Marc Siegel lives in San Jose with one wife, two daughters and numerous pumpkins (in season). Professionally, he has been doing online community since before the web existed for NASA, IBM, eBay, Intuit and several startups. Marc has connected people together in consumer markets, gaming, B2B, education and developer relations. He recently left Townsquared, a community for local businesses like retail shops, bars, masseuses or makers. Marc loves solar energy and wishes most homes in America (and everywhere) would install photovoltaic panels for electricity. He also uses solar thermal to keep his small pool deliciously warm. Related Links Marc on Twitter Townsquared, an online community platform for local businesses, which Marc just left The San Francisco Online Community Meetup, or OCTRIBE Susan Tenby, the leader of OCTRIBE Community Signal episode with Susan Tenby OCTRIBE on YouTube Libsyn, the service that we use to host our podcast Community Signal episode with Evan Hamilton Simraceway, an online racing simulation game, where Marc was previously manager of community and customer service Demandforce, a marketing automation company, where Marc was previously manager of content and community Townsquared’s member guidelines, which include a policy about keeping conversations private Community Signal episode with Brian Pontarelli of Inversoft MindJolt, an online gaming site, where Marc was previously community manager Wikipedia page for K-factor, also referred to as K value or viral coefficient, a metric that measures virality and how effectively your community is at inviting new members into the fold Khan Academy, a non-profit education site Specifications for the Mac Centris 610, Patrick’s first computer Wikipedia page for John Glenn, astronaut and U.S. senator, who was recently laid to rest Wikipedia page for COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Caty Kobe, head of scalable support at Square NPS (Net Promoter Score), a measure of customer experience Transcript View the transcript on our website Your Thoughts If you have any thoughts on this episode that you’d like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be grateful if you spread the word. Thank you for listening to Community Signal.

Morgan DeBaun is the co-founder and CEO of Blavity. Morgan initially wanted to be a teacher before learning more about startups. She then started to explore some of her own ideas for startups before diving into a career as a Product Manager. After a few years at Intuit, Morgan later joined a much smaller startup in San Francisco called Demandforce. She then started to think about launching a company of her own. Today, with a team of 17, Blavity reaches more than 20M readers per month, runs 2 major conferences a year, and has raised over 1M in funding. Morgan joins us to share her story, how she started her career in tech, what motivated her to launch Blavity, how she had to approach fundraising, why they started a pair of conferences, and much more!

Mike Maples is a Founding Partner @ Floodgate, one of the leading early-stage venture funds in the valley. Mike has made investments in the likes of Twitter, Twitch.tv, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaarvoice, Okta, and Demandforce. As a result, Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of "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 (acquired by IBM) and Motive (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent.) In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mike made his way into VC and came to found Floodgate? 2.) How did the investment decision-making process change for Mike with the institutionalisation and fiduciary responsibility of an LP backed fund? 3.) How does Mike approach team building with Floodgate? What does he look for in his partners? What do most funds do wrong when hiring and expanding their team? 4.) Mike has a very different way of reading product and the associated market. What does Mike mean by saying the ‘dance of product market fit’? Who leads what? How do they work together? What are the reasons startups do not achieve PMF? 5.) How does Mike assess the aspect of category creation? What are the fundamentals required to be a category king? What characteristics do category kings have? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Mike’s Fave Book: The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying Mike’s Most Recent Investment: Dispatcher As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mike on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Angelloop is the leading post funding management platform for private market investors and their portfolio companies. They help investors manage and track their portfolio companies on the cloud while providing them with access to their investments performance data. Angelloop helps founders of startups track their performance, manage their cap table and keep their investors in the loop. Investors get free access while their portfolio companies pay only $49/Month. Use or share the promo-code 20MinVC to get your portfolio companies online with a two month trial. I’d like to thank Wealthfront for sponsoring today’s podcast. Wealthfront are financial advisors that can help you invest your hard-earned dollars. Wealthfront’s modern financial services helps tailor plans specifically for you, making it easy to reach your financial goals. Wealthfront has low fees and no trading commissions… It’s financial advice at a fraction of the cost of a traditional advisor, all online. And if you sign up using my URL, you’ll get your first $15,000 managed for free. Go to Wealthfront.com/20vc. 

They claim to help keep your appointment books full, help get positive online reviews, automate marketing emails and texts, and decrease the workload for your staff. But which one is right for you? You won't want to miss this episode where 4patientcare, Demandforce, Solutionreach, and Websystem3 discuss each of their offerings.  

Not every company's Chief Customer Officer has the same scope. For example at DoubleDutch, Chief Customer Officer Annie Tsai manages both the customer service and sales teams. In this podcast Chief Customer Officer Annie Tsai talks about her secret sauce to leading customer engagement for such a fast growth company with a unique stakeholder audience. She's a great example of how to lead when you're clientele is both B2B and B2C. She talks about how brands are making an effort to engage with customers via social media, and how DoubleDutch is adding a personal touch to community engagement (for not just B2B clients). Annie's work day starts around 5am. In our podcast she opens up to talk more about what it's like to have an exciting and demanding career and a young child at home. Annie is passionate about mentoring others and has solid advice on not only customer engagement but career advice for newbies to customer engagement. More about Annie Tsai:  Annie is a customer experience focused executive with a "jack of all trades" mentality. She's known as a balanced strategic and operational leader that loves to roll up her sleeves and get down to business. She's also a published author and industry speaker. Prior to DoubleDutch she was Chief Customer Officer at Demandforce, an Intuit company where she oversaw customer success during DemandForce's fastest period of growth. While at Demandforce, Annie transformed the way their customers used technology and social tools, building trust and community around the Demandforce product. At DoubleDutch, she spearheads a similar paradigm shift, increasing not only application adoption and utilization, but event return on investment for customers as well. DoubleDutch provides mobile applications and performance analytics for events, conferences, and trade shows for more than 1,000 customers including SAP, UBM, and Urban Land Institute. Founded in 2011, DoubleDutch was recently named to Inc. 5000's list of fastest growing private companies, AlwaysOn's Global 250 best-of-breed private companies in SaaS and Enterprise, and Forbes' list of 10 hot companies to work for in San Francisco. DoubleDutch is based in the Mission District of San Francisco with regional offices in Amsterdam, London, Hong Kong, and Portland. DoubleDutch has raised almost 80 million dollars since its inception in 2011. Show note correction: Annie Tsai will be speaking at Frost & Sullivan this year but not Gartner For more customer experience content from Blake Morgan sign up for the Customer Experience Weekly here.

Reid Abedeen founder of Safeguard Investment Advisory Group with main offices located in Corona, CA. Reid's firm specializes in Retirement, Wealth Management and Investment Planning with a focus on “The Big Picture.” Reid has been featured in numerous media outlets and publications and co-hosts a radio show on AM590 The Answer Evan Weber has been involved in ecommerce and digital marketing for more than 15 years. He have been part of several successful start-ups and Internet ventures. Currently, he run his digital marketing agency and other Internet companies. He is known as an expert in most aspects of digital marketing and social media, and takes a lot of pride in living up to his reputation. He is a recognized conference speaker and content producer in the areas of Search marketing, social media, conversion rate optimization, re-targeting, and more Jordan MacAvoy Vice President of Marketing at Fundbox. Jordan MacAvoy manages the company's go-to-market strategy. Prior to joining Fundbox, Jordan spent nearly 6 years at Intuit's Demandforce, where he was the Director of Business Development, overseeing go-to-market efforts across both emerging and established verticals, including the Quickbooks platform. Prior to Intuit and Demandforce, Jordan held both marketing and business development roles at a variety of seed stage and venture backed companies. Jordan is a graduate of Boston University.  

How does your practice confirm appointments, reach out to patients for things like recall and practice announcements?  How do you manage and generate positive online reviews? The two industry leaders in this category discuss the importance of communicating with patients in our wired world and how their individual offerings compare.  It's a great discussion from 4patientcare and DemandForce!

Annie Tsai - DemandForce by Brent Leary and Small Business Trends