Background
Maddi Holman is a co-founder & General Partner at Daring Ventures.
Prior to co-founding Daring Ventures, Maddi was an investor at Cigna Ventures focused on early to growth stage healthcare companies.
Before that, Maddi was an investor at Touchdown Ventures where she worked on a variety of corporate venture capital funds spanning healthcare, telecom, software, proptech, and entertainment.
Outside of work, Maddi loves to workout, travel, and do anything food-related (cook, go to restaurants, farmer’s markets, and even grocery shop!).
Maddi received a BA in Biology from Rice University and an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Management from Imperial College London.
In other words…
I thought I had my life figured out in high school…AND boy was I wrong, but as the wise Allen Saunders says, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
In high school, I lived volleyball 24/7. I would get upset when practice was cancelled. A lot of people said good luck getting a spot as a D1 volleyball player, and I hate to admit it, but they were almost right…
Almost.
I was determined to prove all the doubters wrong, but more importantly, I wanted to prove to myself I’ve got the chops to make it.
I worked my ass off every day and had little social life in high school (I even missed the prom), but it was all worth it. Senior year spring, I got a walk-on spot on the Rice volleyball team.
After a strong win and feeling accomplished, my career path took a hard pivot in college and honestly threw my mind into a spiral of panic. I realized the medical school life was not for me nor being a scientist, but I still loved learning about biology and health. WTF now?
A lot of false starts with obvious alternative tracks (e.g., entertained law school, bought an LSAT book, got rid of it a month later) until I found a business program at Imperial College London where I learned that venture capital was an industry.
However, I realized quickly that VC was (and still is) a “boys club”. It’s all about who you know, where you went to school, and what experience do you have (and yes there is a “right” answer to this apparently, but not for long!). My biology background and lack of finance experience was seen as a liability not an asset (finance pun very much intended).
It took a lot of rejections, painfully awkward interviews and networking small talk hell to break-in to the industry. I was determined to prove that different backgrounds are as valuable as the same old cookie cutter archetype investor.
At Daring Ventures, we aim to give other people their shot and think unconventional, unique, and different paths are valuable.
