Wallet Max Planet Positive Podcast with Investor Maddi Holman

Join Bhuva Shakti, Founder & CEO at Wallet Max, as she speaks with female investors looking to leverage inclusion and impact without compromising growth of investments.

​​This month, Bhuva's guest is Maddi Holman, Co-Founder and General Partner at Daring Ventures in New York City. Having successfully navigated traditionally male-dominated environments, Maddi uses her resilient background to identify diamonds-in-the-rough and overlooked investment opportunities.

​​About Maddi Holman:

Maddi Holman is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Daring Ventures in New York City. She knows a thing or two about being an underdog — becoming a walk-on D1 athlete at Rice University while managing a pre-med courseload to pulling off a last-minute pivot from medicine to finance despite having never worked in the field. While in VC, Maddi worked at Touchdown Ventures supporting multiple corporate partner VC funds spanning healthcare, telecom, software, proptech, and entertainment. At Cigna Ventures, she focused on early to growth stage healthcare companies and led the women's health vertical. Having successfully navigated traditionally male-dominated environments, Maddi uses her resilient background to identify diamonds-in-the-rough and overlooked investment opportunities.

​​About Wallet Max:
​​Wallet Max is an inclusive global community of corporate executives and venture capitalists with a mission to expand fundraising access for high-growth startups in the technology, AI, fintech, and climate sustainability sectors.

With more than 10 investments directly in impact entrepreneurs thus far, Wallet Max’s network of 1,000 innovators and 60 partners regularly meet in person and virtually throughout the year to mutually exchange connections and drive collective action. Wallet Max ecosystem of events and initiatives are prominent during the New York Fintech Week, the New York Tech Week, and the New York Climate Week every year.

Wallet Max's Planet Positive Podcast is a monthly interview with female investors driving impact globally. Aligned with our mission to challenge the status quo, we showcase personal and professional journeys of diverse investors (Angels, VCs, PEs, Family Office, Corporate Venture) looking to leverage inclusion and impact without compromising growth of investments. Supporting sustainable innovations is good for people's wellbeing, planet survival, and financial profits.

Learn more about Wallet Max 2024 success and 2025 global initiatives: https://getwalletmax.com/climate-forward-2025

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Transcript

Bhuva

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the July edition of WalletMax Planet Positive podcast as we transition into the summer and a busy holiday season.

I'm Bhuva Shakti, based in New York, and the founder of WalletMax. We are a global community of startups, investors, and executives focused on increasing funding access for women, especially in the climate tech, fintech, and AI sectors.

We interview one impact investor every month for our podcast to share their background and what differentiates them from the crowd in terms of prioritizing impact along with profits and planet. We deep dive into their personal and professional journey and their mission to uplift.

Today, we are speaking with Maddi, a co-founder and general partner at Daring Ventures in New York City. Having successfully navigated traditionally male-dominated environments, Maddi uses her resilient background to identify diamonds in the rough and overlooked investment opportunities.

At Touchdown Ventures, Maddi supported multiple corporate partner VC funds spanning healthcare, telecom, software, prop tech, and entertainment.

At Cigna Ventures, she focused on early to growth stage healthcare companies and led the women's health vertical.

Let me now hand over to Maddi and invite her to say a few words about her background and career path. Over to you, Maddi.

Maddi

Thank you so much for having me on. I’m excited to share more.

And yeah, I mean, to kick it off, really, my background and path into venture was not traditional by any means. I would say it was a lot of a path of proving people wrong, a lot of no's on a lot of things that I was aspiring to do.

So when I was in high school, my goal was always to be a, do Division One volleyball. And so many people told me that was a pipe dream, and I just kept my head down, was determined to do it, did a lot of cold outreach to coaches, and just really grinded. And really almost didn't happen.

And my junior or my senior year of high school, got an offer to play at Rice, down in Houston. So that was the first milestone I was able to pass.

But then in college, I was pre-med, then turned away from medicine, realized that was not the path I wanted to go on. And that was a really pivotal moment for me because I had this really straight path on what I thought I was going to do, and it ended up not being that way.

So I had a little bit of an identity crisis of what am I actually passionate about? And at that time, I really didn't know.

So eventually, I ended up going to business school in London, and that's where I came across  Venture for the first time and loved it. And when I came back to the US, I learned very quickly and how network-driven the industry was. And so, yet again, a lot of no's, rejections, painful interviews. But eventually, found a firm that really liked my non-traditional, non-finance background, and that was Touchdown Ventures. So that really started my journey and spent most of my time on the CVC side, as you mentioned, and now starting Daring Ventures to go earlier, proceed in helping founders at the earliest stages that have similar backgrounds to me and my co-founder.

Bhuva

Now, that's perfectly said because none of us have a traditional path. If someone has a traditional path to VC, then it's going to take a lot of time for startups to educate them about everything else.

That's what I've seen in my experience quite a lot also, and almost all the investors I've spoken to so far.

Now, what's your unique secret sauce? What do you think is the pivotal moment? Is it your business school, education, knowing about venture, or what else is a pivotal moment, if not that?

Maddi

I think that moment when I decided to not do med school was the big unlock because then it made me actually really do some internal reflection on what I actually wanted to do and what I was passionate about.

I would say my secret sauce, I definitely use that as part of a way to have a unique perspective and really try to expand beyond what I don't know because there's so many experiences and problems that are out there that are huge markets. But if you don't go and step outside your comfort zone, you're never going to truly understand it.

And so I think having that nontraditional path makes me more curious in that way. I also think I just love building relationships. I love getting to know people and who they are as a person before anything else. And so I, I think I'm really good at building those authentic relationships, whether it's with other investors or with founders, and just building that trust. I think that's something our team is really good at. We say we are unapologetically authentic and transparent in what we do.

Bhuva

Yeah, you wouldn't believe I read that book, and I'm like saying to everyone unapologetically ambitious, but you mentioned authentic, so both are equally good as well, right?

Now, you mentioned relationship building, and that's one of the reasons why we have so many events where we have small group, either investors meeting or startups meeting, or both together. Sometimes, corporate executives like myself were trying to transition from that sector right.

Also in venture capital and in startup pitching and trying to fundraise, I've also heard quite a lot that references matter, meaning if you are a VC, you'd like reference from either other VCs or other founders in your portfolio because that gives more credibility in terms of investing in a startup and vice versa, because startups are also shopping to find the right venture capital investor because that's the start of your journey. You're going to be part and parcel of their whole activity in life.

How do you use some of your authentic relationship building into expanding your portfolio or supporting other founders or even cross collaborating with other investors?

Maddi

Yeah, no, it's a great question.

I think one of the ways I'm very open and generous with my network, I always found it odd when people were very close guarded and tried to make it hard to get into their networks because I think when you connect other people, it just amplifies, it doesn't detract.

One way is even if we don't invest in a company, because unfortunately, that's a big part of venture capital is saying no. But if there's ways I can connect them to others that I know in my network, that would be a good fit, I do that. Others on my team do that as well. And so leveraging in that way to be helpful. I think also just expanding my network beyond what is in my wheelhouse.

So health care has been a big one where I have a lot of contacts. But as we started Daring and we focused more generalist, I have started building up connections in other industries that are outside of my domain expertise. And so it's been nice because when you reach out and it's like, I'm genuinely curious of understanding, what's your view? You've been in this industry a lot more and really leading with "I want to learn." And that's something that I think people really feel more open to and receptive when you come at it that way.

I think also one thing I would say with founders; I think references and connections and warm intros. There are times and places where that makes sense. But I also am a very strong proponent of cold outreach.

I have done that myself, and I actually think it's been almost as successful as warm intros. So I always encourage that as well because you never know. I mean, the worst thing that could happen is they don't respond. But if you make it thoughtful and curated to that person, more often than not, you'll at least get some response, whether it's on LinkedIn or on email.

So a lot of different ways. But I try to just connect people and find ways because you never know what may happen or you may come across them in the future again. So it's definitely a small world. Just trying to pay for it as much as I can

Bhuva

Thanks, Maddi.

I know, especially cross-collaboration with other sectors, other VC startups really helps, and cold outreach. As long as you are able to add value, even if it's a cold outreach, they are going to come back to you because it's going to make them want to talk to you. I've seen it so many times as well.

You have selected tech investing, more so investing in diverse startups, like you mentioned earlier, those diamonds in the rough. How do you decide or why did you decide this is your pathway?

Maddi

I think for what I've seen in the industry, just being in it for six years, is there's a lot of filters that I don't think are actually representative of great talent. I think it's been something from a legacy version of VC, where I think the credentials of where you went to school, where you're based, who you know, doesn't always translate into the best founders.

And oftentimes we see, we don't have those perfect credentialed backgrounds. And so we tend to say, what's not on the resume? What are those things that you only know when you can just see them and you meet them and you get it? That's what we wanted to emphasize as we look at founders, because really at the end of the day, who's going to be successful in our minds is, do they have the lived experience, the earned insights on the problem that they're looking to solve? And then do they have that intrinsic motivation that no matter what obstacle comes their way, they're going to find a way to make it happen. They're going to figure out a solution, whether they have to pivot or not. So that's what we focus on the most.

Because I think seeing that in the industry and how there's great founders that just don't get the opportunity or they're not given a chance. And so I wanted to take that into this new firm. And then my co-GP came from a very untraditional path, also, community college, in and out of it multiple times. And so a lot of stigma around that. And clearly, he's done very well. So I actually think there's a lot of great talent that's even stronger  work ethic, more resilient than a lot of what you see in the startup world today that's through those typical filters.

Bhuva

Like you rightly mentioned, traditional pathways doesn't matter what you do, where you come from, doesn't matter as long as you're able to deliver results.

We see, even in this sector, there are so many challenges, be it in US markets, UK, rest of the world, keeping the geopolitical and regulations and other things which we'll talk about as we go along. What opportunities do you see and what are the challenges you see when you navigate to finding these unique startups?

Maddi

I think some of the opportunities are, there's a lot of concentration on the [East] Coast. A lot of VCs, there are a lot of startups, and I get it. There's a lot of... That's where the capital is. You go where it is.

We're based in New York, but we're very intentional of wanting to create those social connections across the US. And so we've been deliberate in building out those relationships, going to events, or local conferences that are in certain areas so that we have those face-to-face relationships so that then we can get deal flow through those channels and also meet founders when we are there.

And so it's definitely hard work. It's not a nine to five job on that way. We're on the road a lot. And so we've been to places like Tulsa, Oklahoma, Charleston, and South Carolina. We're going to Milwaukee, in Wisconsin next week. And so really being intentional on building those so that you have those unique channels. I think we're really excited about seeing those opportunities. I think the challenge is just time, not having enough time to be able to go everywhere we want to.

Bhuva

Yeah, like you also said, we had this Tech Week a couple of weeks back, New York Tech Week. Most of the startups that I also met were from Midwest, South, Southeast. I couldn't meet anyone from Southwest, but those were the startups that are doing amazing things, especially in sectors that we would never imagine, like aging sector, carrying sector, insurance sector, but tied to climate and things of that sort.

It's so unique that unless they come into the Coast, you're not able to find them. But you're doing it the other way where you're also going and meeting them, trying to find them, creating awareness in other areas outside the New York, San Francisco coastal areas, right.

Now, let's get into some of the political challenges we have. You're more focused on impact and also inclusion. There is a lot of shift from big corporations and private investors also. Some of the big names are shifting priorities. Why do you think still investing in overlooked technology solutions are important for the long term?

A follow-up question on that is, if you continue to prioritize this, you still have LPs you're going to ask about profits and return on investment. So, how do you balance these even in this climate?

Maddi

I think it's a great point, and there's a lot of change going on.

I think for us, we tend to say that we're impact informed. There's a lot of what we see as overlooked founders, where it's really just good business, which means that if you look at these founders and look at these different geos, there's a lot of opportunity there. And what we've discovered is you see a lot more pragmatic, disciplined, conservative valuations, round sizes, because oftentimes capital is not a given for a lot of these founders. And so they're doing more with less. And that at the end of the day, if you can get them to this point where they can have a profitable business, then that's great alignment for the founders. They get to keep more of their company. It's great for the initial investors and then for the LPs who are invested in that fund where the investors are investing.

So I think that's one that we share, that it's just good business. And I think one of the things with when we look at the DEI initiatives and the changing impact that is on business, I think at the end of the day, there's different ways you can approach it.

I think one of the things we've been very intentional about is focusing on the experience and their intangible characteristics rather than identity and bucketing it that way.

Our thesis, and it's really proven out with our deal flow, which is exciting to see, is when we focus on what's your why, what experience pain points have you experienced in this market that you're looking to solve for, we feel that at the end of the day will lead to more diverse deal flow and diverse vendors. And that's what we've already seen with our four portfolio companies.

We've got half of them are not based in New York, and it's exciting to see. So I think framing it in that way where it's like, at the end of the day, we're all people.

What are the strengths that actually matters?

What are the parameters that we should be filtering deal flow on 

And then that will lead to the results that I think some of the stuff with DEI that people were really hoping to go for. It's just a different way of testing and showing that there are different ways that you can still hit those criteria or hit those types of values, and mission, without having to categorize it in certain ways. That's a long-winded way of saying that's how we think about it.

Bhuva

No, I totally agree also because it's not about whether the solution is right or are we giving them a pass? It's more about giving them the opportunity and then let their solution and their execution speak for themselves. Instead of trying to stop them from not even having the opportunity to come talk to you.

I've seen in so many instances also, some of these are solutions that are going to be helpful for your bottom line, which means then you're going to be interested in looking at it. You can't eliminate them.

I don't know if you have come across any regulatory challenges in your portfolio so far in your deal flow so far, but on a daily basis, I feel like it's changing every day in US or rest of the world. If you are in technology, there is something or the other coming in and out in terms of data, AI, or anything else that you are trying to learn, especially if you're sector-focused, then you have additional layer of regulations.

Have you come across any of this and how do you build for the long term, even when there is so much volatility in not knowing what would happen tomorrow?

Maddi

Yeah, no, it's a great point. I think one of the things that we look for, especially as new deals come through and potential investments and how we underwrite that, it's definitely something where we look at what's short term and long term potential risks or challenges that may come up and how can we... Is there a way we can help mitigate that through our networks and connections and resources? Or does the company have plans or an idea of how they want to think about it?

Because it definitely is something as you're starting to see with supply chain, a lot of the tariffs that are being imposed. There's a lot of uncertainty and volatility. And so there's going to be an impact. I think it's already starting on a lot of small business owners.

And so I think it's just going to continue until if there are changes, then maybe it will go a different way and course correct. But for the near term, really adding that in as a criteria factor for in case, worst case scenario, this persists for a while.

And so far with our portfolio companies, they've been doing well. A lot of their solutions are less dependent on that. And so they've been able to still keep a good pace of what their business model is.

But I think for the long term, one of the things where we see an opportunity with this is a lot of this global supply chain disruption. There's opportunity in the US to really build out more of the economic development that I think we lost and outsourced a while ago from the industrial revolution era. And so there's a lot of talent and a lot of tech and wealth on the Coasts. And we don't have as much of that spread across the US, not because there's not a lot of talent and great innovators. It's just it's so concentrated in innovations targeting white collar industries.

But there's so many the other industries that really are the backbone of our economy.  And so if we spend more and try to build that up, it's going to take time. But I think there's opportunities there. But I also think for us personally, we also look at when our portfolio construction is, how can we balance consumer cyclical and defensive industries to balance out that risk?

So ones that are more durable over time and ones that may be more subject to the volatility so that we're not just overweighted in one category.

Bhuva

Diversification, especially to balance globalization and naturalization. Last month, I think, a few weeks back, I was at a small business conference in New York City.

The only thing I can hear from many of those early-state startups or people who are reliant on day-to-day customer revenue to keep running or expanding their business is about, Hey, I don't know if I can make it. I'm waiting on some shipment.  I don't know if I can get this. My supply chain, I have to think about it.

So typically, I'll have discussions around, Okay, how can I find more customers? How can I get into new markets? But the discussion was all about, Okay, how can I plan to protect my supply chain, my current customers, instead of trying to get into new customers?

So much volatility happening. You need to balance everything, of course, right.

Now, in your portfolio, how has success been for you? Are there any case studies or examples of companies from Daring Ventures where you have invested and you've seen success or on the way to success?

Give me some examples, if possible.

Maddi

Yeah, of course.

Definitely great portfolio so far. I really like the four companies that we're working with. One example was a great one, which was a deal we never thought we would get into, but ended up being the case just because of our relationship and approach with how we interact with founders.

This was a company called Hostie AI.

They provide an AI-first customer service experience platform for restaurants, and really, one of the co-founders has spent 40 years in the restaurant industry. His family owned restaurants in SF during that time.

The other co-founder is really sharp on the technical side, and they've known each other for a while. And so we had met one of them in New York during a happy hour. And really, I spent some time with him talking about restaurants because I am a major foodie. I have so many lists of restaurants in different cities.

And my co-GP Joe also talked to him more on how to think about fundraising in your next round and what are the incentives of certain investors and keeping those in mind.

I sent him all my lists of restaurants after that event, and we stayed in touch, and he gave us an opportunity to come in to their seed round where we are a very small check in it, and there was a lot of people that weren't able to come in on the round.

So that was just a great success to us where we felt we added value before even getting into the deal. Didn't believe we had that right to get in, and it was nice to be able to see that they really saw the value that we can provide and were as excited to work with us as we were with them. 

So I'd say that's a good one, and they're doing really well. They're scrappy, constantly all obsessed about the customer experience, which is what you really need in that industry.

So it's great to see.

Bhuva

Yeah.

So I was at a VC conference and I had a similar story.

Someone preempted a Series B deal, even though they had a smaller check because they earned the right to be in the round because they had added value to the startup several months earlier, not even knowing that they will be part of the round.

Their founder really wanted them to be in the round regardless of the size of the check because they wanted their relationship and advice to build on it. I've heard that success story quite few of them these days. It's about whether you're getting in the round or not add value.

That's from investor side as. We tell founders all the time, they, add value, keep a warm connection, connect with your investor, but it holds both sides. So thanks for sharing that. 

Maddi

I tell a lot of founders, too. It's a two-way relationship. So ask them, what value do they provide beyond just capital? And that answer will be very telling.

If they don't have a good one, I would caution moving forward just because if they don't have a good reason, then it's clearly just a size and speed to market for them. But completely agree with you on that.

Bhuva

Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that.

Now, what are the emerging trends you are excited about?

You have a technology sector. It could be across any vertical. You are also looking at startups all across US and sometimes outside US. What are some macro trends that excite you and how are you preparing for those from now?

Maddi

Yeah, I think one of them, we touched on a little bit with this geopolitical uncertainty of what's going on.

I think I'm really excited about the quote-unquote unsexy businesses, a lot of the ones that are behind the scenes that we often rely on so much but don't even have a second thought for because they just run smoothly.

But when something goes wrong, that's when you really understand how much we depend on it when things are going well.

And so I think there's a lot of those industries, things like Trade and Skilled Labor, Home Services, SMBs, where there's opportunity to really use technology to augment some of those lower-level tasks or things where they can automate back office capabilities so that the folks who are really owning those relationships and building out those connections can focus on that, which only humans do really well.

I would be shocked to see AI be able to build a relationship in that way. And so that's something I'm super excited about.

I would also say on the health side, just given this momentum with women's health, I've always been passionate about it. And I think despite some of the legislative changes and state-level changes, I think there's still this push and demand for more by women on wanting to have better care, more answers about their bodies. 

I think it's exciting to see opportunities pop up and learning more about what our bodies actually are, what are the different conditions, and not just having to deal with the pain.

Those are two areas that I'm excited about. 

Bhuva

Thanks for sharing that.

Last year, when I was at many events, everything was generative AI. This year, everything is agentic AI. I mean, it keeps going with the trend. I don't even know if certain applications need AI, but it's going around and crypto goes in and out.

But FemTech is a very overlooked or, let's say, overdue sector. It's not that there was a lot of research or trials done with women in mind, but I also know talking to some of my healthcare friends, some of the medications we take today were tested on men, and we are just given small doses or different doses.

But it's, I think, about time to do a lot of research in the FemTech space. So thanks for focusing on that as well.

In terms of your investment thesis, we did touch upon a little bit, but why do you think your investment theses or what elements of your investment theses positions you uniquely among the broader startup and venture ecosystems in the world?

So what's your unique feature?

Maddi

I think one goes back to what you just mentioned on AI everywhere. We think everything's turning into AI.

There's also a lot of specific sector or specialized focus funds, which are great, too.

I think for us, we think the last moat that's out there that's different than what everyone else is focusing on is this expertise layer, where that those capabilities that humans have, that AI, at least for today, maybe for forever, won't be able to replicate as well.

We think those are areas that get us excited, where there's this what we call expertise layer, where it really helps drive some of these core, drives as a core function for certain sectors, where relationships, trust, really understanding what's true versus what's noise in the industry.

Because with AI, it's definitely helped in the sense of being able to democratize knowledge, help people start businesses quicker, but also it creates a lot of noise, and it makes knowledge more a commodity.

And so as that happens, you need a signal that helps to really be like, what's a trusted source that can say for a matter of fact, Yep, this is right, everything else is noise because it's getting harder to decipher that.

I think our focus on that aspect, we're not against AI. We just think it's more of a supporting tool that augments human capabilities rather than automates them away.

I think that's been something where we've seen a lot of people's reactions being like, Oh, that's very refreshing, because a lot of times it's, What's been on AI? Is it going to be this time? Or what specific sector are they domain experts in? Which, yeah, I would say that's our biggest differentiation.

Bhuva

Yeah, it only adds more responsibility and accountability on the humans because now we have to oversee and ensure everything is aligned to what we as humans want.

It's very important that we work together, we need technology, but then it has to serve what humans need on this planet.

You also do a lot of pre-seed/seed startups, right?

Especially, diverse founders, early stage technologies. Sometimes you don't have much traction, be it revenue customers or even footprint, right. Sometimes these are capital intensive, especially if a technology is new or it has to be scaled enough to get returns.

How do you kind of balance this when you make your bet? 

How can people or other startups get in touch with you and Daring Ventures if they think they meet some of your mission and values?

Maddi

Yeah.

We, I would say, like to get in super early, and probably earlier than a lot of people. How we define pre-seed when we come in is idea stage all the way through early commercialization.

We really think it's, especially at that stage, it's a lot of betting on the founder or the founding team. And we like to spend a lot of time with them, even maybe when they're founder-curious and they're starting to think about actually starting a company.

Joe, my co-GP, and I are very much... We love being mentors and really hands-on and helping people, whether it's you know thinking through strategies, business models. We like to provide support on, How do you tell your story?

How do you pressure test different ways of validation with your customers that this is actually a pain point without having to have that traction yet from a revenue standpoint.

And so we like to get in early in that way to really be like, can we work together as partners?

Because at the end of the day we wanted to be a partnership. Both sides have to like it and want to work together. And so we spend a decent amount of time upfront doing that. And we also then really more underwrite to the founders.

So we have a founder memo that we go through that's really trying to tease out those non-resume characteristics that we look for. And then understanding just from, do they have a pain point that they're solving for? Is there evidence of that?

It doesn't have to be actual revenue traction. It can just be like, okay, they've done a lot of customer discovery. They really understand that there's a willingness to pay here for this problem.

And after that, really, the last thing is, how do they think about business model and go-to-market?

It doesn't have to be a solidified plan because at that stage, you're super early still. But do they understand the fundamentals of what a good business model looks like? And if they need to pivot, do they have that foundation to then be able to do that successfully? And so that's how we look at it.

But we're very open, talk to founders all the time at every stage. And so nothing's too early for us. We always are happy to take a call. And so where they can find us, we try to be as accessible as we can.

So really across the board, if they're in New York, we go to a lot of events. You can always just come up to us. We're happy to talk. There's three people on our team. So one of us will always be ready.

Or if we can at the events, send us a note through our submission form on our website or just send a cold outreach email or cold LinkedIn because we will do that as well. And then also, lastly, when we go to different cities, too, we usually post about it. So if they follow us on LinkedIn, they can know if we're coming to one of their cities.

Bhuva

Now, that's great, especially because it's so easy to reach you and then all places. Even when you're not looking to fundraise at the moment, it's good to have the connection. 

I know a lot of founders who don't want to talk to VCs, who are always talking to their them about metrics once a month. We need someone who's going to value add and collaborate with you, especially when there is a problem on the ground. That's what's more important, right.

When we see show once a month asking, Hey, where are you with this metric, that metric? Then the founders wouldn't want them in the next round.

Thanks for sharing that. 

We've spoken quite a lot about Daring Ventures, but we also started the discussion with how you entered into Venture Capital as your career path, your pivotal moment.

I want to tie that to ask, how do you think your personal mission today fits with what you're doing at Daring Ventures, and what are some areas of learnings that you've had in case you see anything different?

Maddi

I would say I think it aligns well.

I'm able to have a lot more autonomy, especially starting a fund. We're able to build it from scratch. And so we can create a new culture, create a new way of doing venture, which Des is really just going back to the basics, being disciplined on fund size, how we work with founders, alignment with LPs as well. And so that's been nice.

I think also with our thesis, it aligns well with my personal priorities of really having more diversification in venture on the investor side as well as with founders. I've just seen so much of same concentration. And so any ways where that can be expanded and being able to shine light on great founders are everywhere.

They build great companies that are awesome. They don't need to be unicorns, billion dollar exits. There's great companies that are within the hundred million range exits that are awesome and can be great for smaller venture funds.

And so I think what we're doing is great on that sense. And also just being transparent and authentic, I think so much of venture, of what I've seen is very much controlled and very you know, everyone says the same thing or doesn't talk about the things that are frustrating them or talk about behind the scenes things that didn't work.

There's a lot as a fund manager.

We're entrepreneurs, too.

We've made not great decisions, had to pivot with setting up the fund from where we started to where we are today. So that's something I think we will always be. So what you see is what you get. In-person, online, we'll say what we feel, what we think in a respectful way.

But when there's things that just don't make sense to us, we'll call it out because a lot of people won't. But since we're starting our own fund, we can.

So, I would say it definitely ties well to what we're doing.

And then I'm also doing a women's health podcast on the side, so I get to have that passion also get to fulfill on that side as well.

Bhuva 

Yeah no, like you rightly said, a lot of funds, especially funds that are around for a very long time, say they are founder friendly. But when you talk to the founder, they'll say, Okay, are they really founder friendly or are they not, right?

Especially also for funds, one startup is one of their portfolio companies, though since you're a starting fund, early fund, you have equal attention to everyone.

But sometimes when you're a late stage fund, if one startup fails, you have 10 other startups that will balance. But the founder has everything bet on this one startup. We should understand and appreciate their effort.

As long as we are supportive and respectful, which is exactly what you do, I think will be good for the journey.

I just wanted to quickly check in. I know we're coming up to time.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our audience before we wrap up?

Maddi

Yeah. I mean, one, this has been great. So I appreciate you having me on.

I think the last thing I just wanted to flag for folks who may be listening in is that if you're in New York for the summer, my co-GP is running summer office hours every Monday at 8:30 AM.

So if you follow the Daring Ventures LinkedIn account, you can see where he's hosting those. Anyone is welcome, and he will be doing that for the next few months.

Bhuva

I think that's an amazing opportunity. Directly talk to your GP and find out what you're looking for instead of trying to do cold outreach or research on the internet.

Thanks so much, Maddi, for taking time. I'm so grateful that you are able to spend your time with us.

I'll share the CTAs that you said when we post about your podcast episode on with your community as well. All right.

Thank you so much.

Maddi

Thank you so much.