From Neuroscientist to Cookie Boss:
How Maura Duggan Built Fancypants

Most founders chase funding. Maura Duggan didn’t. Instead, she took a completely different path, scaling Fancypants Baking Co. into a national brand—all without venture capital, an MBA, or a safety net. On this episode of FOMO Sapiens, Patrick sits down with Maura to unpack how her neuroscience background shaped her approach to consumer psychology, product development, and brand strategy. But it wasn’t all science and strategy—she also had to survive near bankruptcy, a brutal learning curve in the food industry, and the pressures of building a business while raising a family. If you’re an entrepreneur wondering if slow, smart growth beats the high-risk, high-burn VC game, this episode is for you.

Meet our guest:

Maura Duggan is the founder and CEO of Fancypants Baking Co., a premium cookie brand known for its crispy texture, clean ingredients, and cult following. She started Fancypants in 2004 from her apartment kitchen, turning a small decorative cookie business into a multi-million-dollar company—without outside investors.

Before jumping into food, Maura worked in neuropsychology education, earning a Master’s from Harvard and a Neuroscience degree from Northeastern. While she loved studying the brain, she found herself dreaming about recipes instead of research. What started as a side hustle became a nationally distributed brand, with products now available in major retailers like Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Duane Reade.

But success wasn’t instant—or easy. Maura learned the hard way how to navigate supply chain disasters, razor-thin margins, and the cutthroat world of food retail. Today, she runs Fancypants’ zero-waste facility alongside her husband and COO, Justin Housman, and is proving that you don’t have to sell out to scale up.