Pattern Breakers: The Secrets Behind the World's Most Successful Start-Ups

‘The most important start-up book of the last ten years’ – Steve Blank, co-creator of the Lean Start-up movement

Based on extensive research and real-world examples, Pattern Breakers upends accepted wisdom about how to achieve breakthrough success, and provides a playbook for anyone launching a start-up or creating a new product.

Pattern Breakers had its roots in the time when Mike Maples, a seasoned venture capitalist, was stumped, unable to get a grip on why some businesses he funded – X (formerly Twitter), Twitch and Okta, for example – took off, while others considered likely to succeed shut their doors despite seemingly doing everything right. Was it dumb luck that separated gold from dross?

What Maples and Stanford University’s Peter Ziebelman discovered contradicts accepted wisdom and upends today’s formulaic approach to entrepreneurship. They learned that pattern-breaking ideas radically change the traditional rules, and are driven by people with the independent-mindedness and courage to divert from the consensus.

With intriguing and entertaining storytelling based on a lifetime of experience, Pattern Breakers vividly illustrates what differentiates breakthrough ideas from those that initially seem promising but that meet with mediocre results, and why others that may initially seem unworthy – and even idiotic – end up radically changing how people live.

‘An indispensable guide to start-up success’ – Safi Bahcall, author of Loonshots

‘Reveals how elite founders don’t just navigate uncertainty – they harness it to redefine what’s possible’ – Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets