Legendary VC, [Mike Maples](https://open.substack.com/users/40294313-mike-maples?utm_source=mentions) , recently shared this observation: 1. Many of the most successful startups he’s seen never follow established best practices  2. Many startups he worked with did everything “right”, but got nowhere.  So, what signal suggests success?  ### Key quote > It struck me that outlier startups didn’t usually happen by following a recipe or best practices. Powerful forces acted like a gathering wave below the surface of a breakthrough startup idea—forces even more important for startup success than the initial idea itself. **These forces could be understood and founders could use that understanding to improve their odds of surmounting the barriers to exceptionalism that startups seek.** Suddenly, seemingly disconnected aspects of what I was seeing began to come together.  > > The key forces that emerged were _inflections_, _insights,_ and _living in the future_. The power of these three forces and a founding team’s ability to harness them to create a pattern-breaking idea provides the best explanation I’ve found for why some startups do so much better than the rest. > > _— Mike Maples, via_ [Pattern Breakers](https://substack.com/redirect/b57cee9e-e423-406e-9688-edaa51001198?j=eyJ1IjoiMTM4bGEifQ.PZ-OR4qDrWvAlQRP7f0gstxNRmE7_mu_grHi7nSB068) ### Insight & Action 🛠️ - An _**Inflection**_ is an external event that creates the potential for radical change in how people think, feel, and act. It could be societal, cultural, or technological. Every pattern-breaking and category-defining idea needs an inflection.  - An _**Insight**_ is a non-obvious truth about how some inflection/shift can be used to radically change behaviors or solve problems.  - As Mike says, “Most pattern-breaking insights come from _**Living in the Future** and building what’s missing in the future rather than trying to think of a startup. Living in the future best tilts the odds in your favor for finding outlier startup ideas.”  And with these three forces, a pattern-breaking _**Idea**_ is built to propose a radically different offering. **Founders iterate by iterating their pattern-breaking ideas while staying grounded in their initial insight.** If you want to swing big, avoid thinking about surface level ideas (outputs). Focus on these vectors as the ideation machine (inputs), and see what comes out the other side. #concept [[Concepts MOC]]