The seed of Mad, Bad, and Dangerous was planted in 2014 by Girls Preparatory School Head of School Dr. Autumn Adkins Graves. She challenged the all-girls school to be a place where Chattanooga-area women could discover the resources necessary for an entrepreneurial journey and find support from local and national experts. After all, she reasoned, GPS was founded by three women, social entrepreneurs, who wanted girls to have equal access to a college preparatory education. MBD, designed to establish the female voice in technology, startups, and business, was built upon that legacy.