In this episode, we welcomed Madison Maxey, CEO and Founder of LOOMIA. LOOMIA is a B2B technology company serving Fortune 500 brands that designs and manufactures electronic textiles, which are fabrics that incorporate electronics and circuitry. After dropping out of Parsons School of Design, Maddy became the first fashion designer to win a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, and discovered her passion for e-textiles. Since then, she has developed prototypes and workshops for companies like North Face, Google, and Adidas, and even created an LED Matrix dress in partnership with Google and luxury fashion designer Zac Posen that was shown at New York Fashion Week. Now at LOOMIA, Maddy drives innovation and product development. In this episode, Maddy discusses her initial challenges founding LOOMIA (such as the importance of customer feedback before building the product), how e-textiles play into the future of wearable tech, how Maddy’s unconventional path has helped her better understand herself and her long-term goals, and how books can help maker-minded startup founders develop the business fundamentals of their early-stage venture.
