The Twenty Minute VC

Mike Maples: Lessons from SVB; Crisis Management Tips; USD's Status as the Reserve Currency | E993

Mike Maples is one of the OGs of seed investing. As the Co-Founder of Floodgate, he has backed the likes of Twitch, Okta, Lyft, Twitter and more. Mike 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. ------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:00 Who is Mike Maples? 2:23 Lessons from SVB 31:23 Are VCs to blame for the bank runs? 33:58 Will the economy improve by the end of 2023? 35:58 The Fed Printed Too Much Money 39:58 Why It’s So Expensive to Start an AI Company 43:33 Fund Deployment Pacing 49:08 Mike and Harry’s Biggest Mistakes 51:39 Has a company with PMF ever failed? 54:18 Mike’s Biggest Win 54:51 What do LPs really care about? -------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Mike Maples We Discuss 1.) Lesson from SVB #1: The Importance of Scenario Planning: What is the right way to do scenario planning in startups? What is the difference between good vs bad scenario planning? What do the best scenario plans include and involve? What is the right way to communicate these scenario plans to your stakeholders? 2.) Lesson from SVB #2: The Importance of Financial Agility: What does it mean for a startup to be “financially agile”? From a banking relationships perspective, what can startups do to be financially agile? How many accounts should a startup have? How much runway should be in each? Should startups bank with startup banks as well as traditional banks? Should startups have their money in sweep accounts and money market accounts? 3.) Lesson from SVB #3: How to Master Crisis Communications: Why is it so important for founder to over-communicate in tough times? How transparent should they be in these communications? What does Mike mean when he says “be radically human”? If Mike were to face a crisis, what would he do differently in the way he communicates to his LPs? 4.) Lessons from SVB: The Wider World: Why does Mike believe the level of quantitative easing that occurred in COVID was scandalous? Does Mike believe the USD will continue to be the reserve currency of the world? Will we be in a better or worse macro situation by the end of the year? Has Mike ever had a company that achieved true PMF and failed? ---------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Mike Maples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/m2jr Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ---------------------------------- #MikeMaples #Floodgate #HarryStebbings #svb #bankingcrisis #inflation

Mike MaplesguestHarry Stebbingshost

Mar 23, 202355mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Mike Maples on Crisis-Proof Startups, Financial Agility, and Dollar Risk

Mike Maples, an early seed investing pioneer, shares concrete lessons founders should take from the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and other shocks like COVID and 2008. He emphasizes scenario planning, financial agility, and disciplined crisis communications as core capabilities, not one-off reactions. Maples argues founders must avoid macro distractions, focus relentlessly on product-market fit, and design systems—banking, capital allocation, and decision-making—that preserve agility under uncertainty. He also voices concern about irresponsible monetary policy and the long-term risk to the U.S. dollar’s reserve status, while outlining how AI is reshaping startup risk profiles.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Build explicit scenario plans before crises hit.

Top founders map concrete options (cuts, bridge capital, survival plans) against multiple outcomes (e.g., timing and fraction of funds recovered), and pre-agree actions with investors so they can move instantly when uncertainty resolves.

Design financial agility, not financial sophistication.

Founders shouldn’t become bond or macro experts; instead, they should maintain at least three uncorrelated banking relationships, keep a few months’ runway in each, and pre-set wiring rails and authorizations so money can be moved within minutes when needed.

Use a four-part crisis communication playbook.

Leaders should (1) overcommunicate and never hide, (2) be radically transparent about what they know and don’t know, (3) be radically human and meet stakeholders’ fears head-on, and (4) keep everyone focused on forward momentum rather than blame.

Adopt a ‘shaper, not reactor’ operating stance.

Borrowing from fighter pilot John Boyd, Maples argues that startups win by making and adjusting decisions faster than the environment or competitors, enabling founders to “get inside the decision loop” of events rather than passively absorbing shocks.

Treat product-market fit as the only job in zero-to-one.

Maples and YC’s Michael Seibel observe that truly achieving deep, non-transient product-market fit almost always leads to strong outcomes, while startups that never get it fail regardless of how well they execute on everything else.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Startups start out dead and have to prove they’re alive.

— Mike Maples

Product-market fit isn’t everything, it’s the only thing in a zero-to-one startup.

— Mike Maples

What you want is not to become an expert at finances. What you want is to create the conditions where you can move quickly, no matter what happens.

— Mike Maples

Are you going to be a shaper or are you going to be a reactor?

— Mike Maples

It’s inevitable that the dollar will not be the reserve currency if we are not more responsible with the stewardship of our money.

— Mike Maples

Scenario planning and founder responses during crises (SVB, COVID, 2008)Financial agility: banking setup, risk distribution, and avoiding distractionCrisis communication framework: overcommunicate, radical transparency, radical humanity, keep goingShaper vs. reactor mindset and decision-speed as a competitive advantageProduct-market fit as the singular goal for zero-to-one startupsVenture capital dynamics: multi-stage funds, signaling, reserves, and deployment pacingMacro concerns: money printing, banking system fragility, and the dollar’s reserve-currency risk, plus AI’s impact on startup risk

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