Ann Miura-Ko is co-founding partner at Floodgate, the seed-stage VC firm behind Lyft, Twitch, Twitter, and Okta. A NASA rocket scientist's daughter who went from painfully shy piano prodigy to national debate champion to Forbes' 'most powerful woman in startups,' she holds a PhD in mathematical modeling of cybersecurity from Stanford and has spent 15+ years betting on founders before anyone else believes in them. She co-founded AllRaise to diversify venture capital, teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford, and invests in roughly 3-5 companies per year with a philosophy built on secrets, stories, and world-class effort.
Mike Maples Jr. is a legendary Silicon Valley seed investor and co-founder of Floodgate, the firm behind some of the most category-defining startups of the internet era - including Twitter, Twitch, Lyft, and Okta. An 8-time Forbes Midas List honoree, Maples pioneered seed-stage venture capital before it was a recognized asset class, developing frameworks like 'Thunder Lizards' and 'Inflection Theory' that have shaped how the VC world thinks about breakthrough startups. His 2024 book 'Pattern Breakers' became a USA Today national bestseller.