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 startup 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, some deemed “most likely to succeed,” shut their doors despite 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 initially seem unworthy ― and even idiotic ― end up radically changing how people live.