Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) reposted this
Posting today to publicly thank all of those who helped us bring Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate to Yale's campus and to New Haven. Mike joined us last week as he was touring the US East Coast to support the publication of "Pattern Breakers," the latest distillation of what he's learned about creating and investing the next generation of era-defining technology companies. At a fireside at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) expertly conducted by Seth Goldin, '26, Mike shared a range of insights gleaned from three decades of experience as an exited company founder an early backer of enduring companies like Twitter, Twitch, Chegg, and many more. My favorites: ⏳ Time is a gift. You honor (or dishonor) that gift by the way you choose to show up in the world. 🎯 Great startups force a choice, not a comparison. 🎰 Your lucky break can show up when you least expect it. Will you be ready to embrace it? After the fireside, Mike spent some time at the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design giving feedback to students on their ventures. And if that wasn't enough, he ended his visit encountering founders and investors at the New Haven offices of Connecticut Innovations (the VC firm of the State of Connecticut). As a student, teacher, and practitioner of venture capital, I've been lucky to hear from a lot of folks who've had success as company founders and investors. Mike is right at the top of the list of those who had the biggest impact on me and on all of those who came out to hear him speak. Not only were the insights singularly his own, but in his talk and in the Q&A, he modeled the approach that he encouraged students and others in the audience to take to building valuable startups (and to life). Thank you, Mike, for carving out time to spend with the students, faculty, and staff at Yale and with our friends in the startup community more broadly in New Haven!! 🙏🙏🙏 Thanks are also due to my colleagues at Tsai CITY, the CEID, Yale Ventures, and my new friends at Connecticut Innovations, especially Anida Kulla (at YV) who generously made it possible to put copies of "Pattern Breakers" in the hands of our audience and Lauren Carmody and her teammates (at CI) who generously opened CI's gorgeous office space to us while extending hospitality to all who attended. Finally, I'm sending a special thanks to my colleague Sade Owoye who opened her programming and her team of amazing student coordinators at Tsai CITY to make the fireside possible. Collaborating with Sade was a highlight of the event. Watch this space for more updates on what she and I are up to at Yale and in New Haven!! 💪💪💪