Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future

The ability to think outside the box determines whether new businesses take off or founder, according to this competent treatise. Maples and Ziebelman, who founded the venture capital firms Floodgate and Palo Alto Venture Partners, respectively, contend that successful entrepreneurs build their enterprises around an unintuitive insight, suggesting that Airbnb’s “was that people would trust booking rooms with locals in the same way they trust booking with hotels.” Such insights often involve taking advantage of new technologies, the authors write, noting that Lyft won big by betting on the rapid adoption of GPS-enabled smartphones. The straightforward advice on launching a startup emphasizes the importance of establishing trust between cofounders, keeping investor pitches concise, and positioning one’s product as an antidote to the status quo. Maples and Ziebelman provide probing insight into what made Tesla, Twitch, Twitter, and other relatively young companies successful, though a few of the case studies miss the mark. For instance, the authors describe how educational services company Chegg gauged interest in textbook rentals by creating a website for a nonexistent rental service that was designed to crash before customers could complete the transaction. The authors applaud Chegg for finding an inventive way to test proof of concept before investing in the project, but the endeavor’s dishonesty feels ill-considered. Still, aspiring entrepreneurs will find some sensible suggestions. (July)