Mike Maples, Jr., one of the nation's most well-known venture capitalists, told founders in the University of Texas' Longhorn Startup Lab that they need to become time travelers who understand the past and can envision possible futures.
“If you stay in the present, you will likely start a mundane startup," he told students during the virtual Longhorn Startup Demo Day event Thursday.
Maples, a partner at Bay Area VC firm Floodgate and a former Austinite, said both politics and business have stagnated, with many Fortune 500 companies buying back their own stocks to engineer higher prices and "fake growth."
"I think the present has stopped working," he said.
But it was the future that Maples envisioned for today's young founders at the end of his virtual presentation that maybe have been most powerful.
“My grandfather fought in WWII. And they were retrospectively called the Greatest Generation," he said, the emotion audible in his voice. "And I think about what’s happening now -- 25 million people losing their jobs. The people who are on this Zoom… my instinct is you have a chance to be that in the 21st Century. People talk about Baby Boomers, people talk about Gen Z, Gen x, whatever. But the Greatest Generation was special. So, as you think about what you want to do next, whether it’s a startup or whatever it is, I think it’s kind of useful to say ‘what would it look like if I was going to be a prime mover in being part of the greatest generation of the 21st Century. Because, damn do we need it right now.”
Maples' presentation was followed by pitches from Longhorn Startup Labs companies. You can watch the whole presentation and the pitches below.
