When Silicon Valley venture capitalist Mike Maples talks, Austin entrepreneurs pay attention. That's because Maples is more than a VC weighing in from the West Coast.
Before launching his firm, Floodgate, Maples was part of Austin's emerging startup ecosystem as a marketing executive at Tivoli Systems and co-founder of Motive. He's been in the trenches, and he knows Austin's strengths and weaknesses.
So when Maples weighed in on Twitter that his firm would no longer invest in Austin-based on-demand companies because of recent regulations by the Austin City Council, it ignited a larger debate about the region's future as a center of innovation.
In a recent conversation, Maples told me his concerns go well beyond the City Council's limits on short-term rentals and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.
Credit: Bloomberg
Credit: Bloomberg
"There are a lot of new exciting technologies - the Internet of things, drones, telemedicine - and Austin has some natural advantages. But if things get outlawed before they get off the ground, all the innovation is going to happen somewhere else.
"It's great when Google and Facebook open offices in Austin, but it's not the same as if the companies originate in Austin. It creates jobs, but Austin will become an outpost. What I want to see happen in Austin is the next Microsoft or the next Amazon. In order to create something that massive and that valuable, you have to push the envelope."
He says Austin's tech community has the talent and the ability to dream big, but "the question is are we going to celebrate the people who do that or are we going to treat them like they're lawbreakers? The best thing they could do right now would be to decide to get proactive about some of these technologies on the horizon.
"Right now the pattern is that something new comes out and an entrenched lobby comes in and says, 'This is terrible. This isn't a level playing field, and you've got to do something.' It's just a completely reactive conversation."
Maples says his declaration that Floodgate won't back Austin-based on-demand companies wasn't meant as a threat.
"This isn't me protesting. I'm not saying I'm going to take my toys and go home. I'm just saying (as investors) we have to be more cautious and more limited in what we do because of the uncertainty this creates. I'm just trying to sound the alarm a little."
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