At 20 years old, Madison Maxey should be finishing up her second year of college.
Instead she's dropping out to become one of this year's 20 Thiel fellows. The program was launched by PayPal founder Peter Thiel to give inspiring young entrepreneurs the funding ($100,000), time (two years), and mentorship needed for their creative work.
Maxey will be Thiel's first fellow in the fashion industry. Her goal is to transform the garment manufacturing process.
"To do something that no one else is doing can be really isolating," she tells us.
Maxey learned how to sew by the age of eight and by 16, she was entering exclusive European fashion events on VIP press passes for her popular bilingual street style blog, La Société de Mode . This eventually led to a scholarship from the CFDA and Teen Vogue.
After a semester at Parsons College of Design, however, Maxey realized that school wasn't for her.
"I remember a teacher getting angry with me for missing class to interview with a major publication for an internship," says Maxey. "In my mind, something that can really help you boost your network and help you enter the field should not be something you have to fight for."
Maxey decided to draft a proposal for her parents explaining what she would do the next semester when she dropped out of school. "I told them, 'This is what I want to do, how much it's going to cost, how long it's going to take, who I will ask for investment …'"
She subsequently created Madison Maxey Blazers, a New York-based start-up that uses recycled fabrics to manufacture blazers. Maxey tells us that one of the biggest lessons she learned running her own business is that rejection happens. At one point, the fashionista created buying packages for 100 targeted boutiques and didn't hear back from any of them.
"It hurts, but you learn that you'll be okay afterwards," she says. "Your friends still like you. People still let you eat in their restaurants."
Madison Maxey
Maxey, at General Assembly, one of her favorite places in the city.
She never intended for Madison Maxey Blazers to become an e-commerce site, but while interning for Enstitute and as a host at General Assembly, Maxey discovered how much technology could expand her vision.
"I ended up moving into this weird mesh between fashion and tech," Maxey says. "I started learning to code, and switched into doing more web-based projects."
She heard about the Thiel fellowship from her sister and immediately sought to learn more. She applied for an Under 20 Summit in New York City, which is a program for potential Fellows. Attending the summit allowed Maxey to connect with like-minded visionaries, which was enough to convince her to apply.