Pattern Breakers

Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future

By: Mike Maples Jr, Peter Ziebelman

Narrated by: Mike Maples Jr, Peter Ziebelman

Based on extensive research and real-world examples, this book upends accepted wisdom about how to achieve success when launching a startup or creating a new product

“The most important start-up book of the last ten years.” —Steve Blank, co-creator of the Lean Startup movement

The breakthrough concepts of Pattern Breakers come from the observations of Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned venture capitalist, who noticed something strange. Start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft had achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for “best practices.” In contrast, other start-ups that were deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right.

Seeking answers, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success. Pattern-breaking success, they reveal, demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy.

Pattern Breakers is filled with firsthand storytelling about initial interactions with some of the most transformative start-ups of recent times. Maples and Ziebelman challenge us to rethink how to transcend the ordinary and achieve the extraordinary—especially in this transformational era of AI.

“What’s luck got to do with it?”

“We are all fooled by randomness in one way or another.” What may seem randomness, can become insight magic.

From the opening lines, this awesome book takes start-up founder newbies and seasoned explorers through what folklorists call a series of "wonder-tales". It's filled with adventure and discovery of breakthroughs past, present, future and timeless, and is a fabulous journey into formerly uncharted futures, mapping how the outliers got there, exploring the powerful forces that can, and do, change our lives, and drawing out the legends.

“Breakthroughs require pattern breaking. Pattern-breaking founders create something that breaks the mold. Their pattern-breaking ideas boldly challenge us to depart from current habits. Many of us consider these pattern-breaking ideas impossible or unthinkable–at first. Ironically, the experts we respect most are often the least able to see the potential for a break from the past. Often it is the outsider, unburdened by the past, who becomes the pattern-breaking person behind a pattern-breaking idea.

Consider the breakthrough of human flight. …” Take off with Pattern Breakers, Why Some Start-ups Change the Future, by Mike Maples, Jr and Peter Ziebelman. A wonder-tale for the listener, read by both Mike & Peter in this excellent Audible version.

And find Mike on multiple podcasts, every one a great listen with more insights for outliers and future explorations. And join the conversations,

Distilled experience and actionable frameworks

m2jr has had a front row seat for a lot of the biggest startup successes of the last ~15 years, and this book is his attempt to articulate the shared decisions and traits of their early founding teams that led to their success.

One thing which I like is that in contrast with some startup books which tend to put these great founders on a pedestal and wax poetic about their great intrinsic qualities, most of the principles in this book are things that most people can apply if they are willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears.

I would recommend this book to anyone embarking on an entrepreneurial journey or who just wants to better understand how great innovations are made.

Totally Awesome Content!

Absolutely mind blowing, I will listen over and over again. And it’s entirely narrated by the authors, so cool! Tks a lot for your work, Mike and Peter. This is Bruno

being different and being right

very good wisdom and insight to validate the journey of breaking patterns and status quo

Anyone in venture or building a high growth startup should read this

Wish I would have had this book when I built my first company. Now being able to apply and reflect these insights to the new company we’re building is an incredible advantage. I want to get this book for all my network.