  We consider a new approach towards constructing approximate holographic duals
of QCD from experimental hadron properties. This framework allows us to derive
a gravity dual which reproduces the empirically found linear square-mass
trajectories of universal slope for radially and orbitally excited hadrons.
Conformal symmetry breaking in the bulk is exclusively due to infrared
deformations of the anti-de Sitter metric and governed by one free mass scale
proportional to Lambda_QCD. The resulting background geometry exhibits dual
signatures of confinement and provides the first examples of holographically
generated linear trajectories in the baryon sector. The predictions for the
light hadron spectrum include new relations between trajectory slopes and
ground state masses and are in good overall agreement with experiment.
