Women Disrupting Tech

Hosted by Dirkjan Hupkes

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172

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Women Disrupting Tech features female founders, tech leaders, and women in tech building the next generation of technology companies. Each week, host Dirkjan Hupkes talks with a founder about how she's scaling a startup, navigating funding, building resilient teams, and tackling challenges from AI ethics to healthcare innovation to climate tech. Whether you're a female tech entrepreneur, aspiring founder, startup leader, or advocate for more women in technology, this show gives you actionable strategies and proven frameworks from women reshaping tech. New episodes every Thursday.

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October 29, 2026Episode 1741 hr 3 min

Building Emotion AI for Better Conferences with Vanessa Williams Saleh

Only 20 to 30% of event surveys get filled out. So how do organizers find out what landed with the audience? In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Vanessa Williams Saleh, founder of Attenlyx, who led global event strategy across 36 countries at Mars. We explore how she turned 12 years in event strategy into event technology that reads audience response with Emotion AI, and why AI built for different cultures and skin tones needs its own framework for each market. This episode is for female founders, women in tech and women in leadership building or buying technology for live events, and for event organizers and sponsors who want evidence of what their events achieve. What you'll learn in this episode: Why post-event surveys leave leaders guessing, from low response rates to vanity metrics How Attenlyx matches audience response to the speaker almost second by second and reports within 48 hours Why a model built on someone else's dataset showed low confidence, and why Attenlyx works with psychologists and regional specialists How emotional expression differs between West African and East African audiences with the same skin tone What organizers changed with the data, from panels of three to four speakers to shorter sessions Why an education-first sales process fits a new category such as Emotion AI Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:00 How Attenlyx grew out of event strategy 04:25 Why leaders ask what landed after events 06:28 AI leadership and event strategy at Mars 09:26 Why event feedback surveys get low response 14:57 Why event organizers stay stuck on ROI 17:39 Event technology that measures audience response 23:02 Emotion AI across cultures and skin tones 28:34 Which conference formats Attenlyx serves best 29:39 Why entertainment events are a harder fit 31:47 How event engagement shifts across a day 33:47 Benchmarking conferences across multiple markets 35:30 How many speakers belong on a panel 36:38 Audience fatigue, lunch timing and room temperature 38:05 Why an event strategist became a founder 40:21 Why events need evidence to be funded 44:04 Accelerators for a non-technical founder 47:52 Positioning as an expert in the room 53:42 Giving Gen Z and girls access 56:46 AI funding coach for female founders Show notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/29/episode-174/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-175 Connect with Vanessa Williams Saleh and Attenlyx: LinkedIn (Vanessa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaowilliams/ LinkedIn (Attenlyx): https://www.linkedin.com/company/attenlyx Website: https://www.attenlyx.ai/#contact Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes and FundingCoach: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of event tech.

October 22, 2026Episode 1731 hr 12 min

Tackling Caregiver Burnout with Dovetail Founder Dr. Ashley Blackington

Caregiver burnout starts building when the care a hospital team shares falls to one family member at home. In this episode, Dr. Ashley Blackington, an occupational therapist and the founder of Dovetail, describes what happens after discharge, how that can lead to caregiver burnout and how she is building Dovetail to make it easy for people who need help and caregivers to ask for help and spread the caregiving workload. We talk about: How Dovetail allows the primary caregiver to build a flock of helpers around the person receiving care, How layers of access give helpers exactly the information they need, not more. Why Dovetail includes AI summaries that give caregivers a clinical voice in doctor appointments. The conversation also covers why people avoid asking for help, the case for prevention, the caregiver foundation, and her advice on starting the funding conversation two steps earlier. If you’re a founder or investor who wants to see how a clinician turned a pattern she watched for years into a product, from permission design to AI quality checks to distribution, this episode is for you. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:05 Dr. Ashley Blackington’s path into occupational therapy 04:21 What occupational therapists actually do 07:52 Canadian and U.S. healthcare perspectives 09:29 Why family caregiving is reaching a breaking point 15:33 Moving from crisis care to sustainable support 18:11 The growing care gap and caregiver shortage 22:03 What happens when someone comes home from the hospital 25:11 Caregiver burnout and the “single point person” problem 30:19 How Dovetail helps families coordinate care 41:17 AI summaries for caregivers and clinicians 48:40 How Dovetail is available today and where it’s headed 52:03 Prevention, parenting, and the future of caregiving 55:58 Why occupational therapy should be more proactive 58:46 The caregiver foundation and making support accessible 1:02:35 Home Field Advantage and the And Both podcast 1:06:30 Getting more men involved in caregiving 1:08:58 Dr. Blackington’s advice for building prevention and community 1:11:41 Where to learn more about Dr. Ashley Blackington and Dovetail Show notes Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/22/episode-173/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-173 Connect with Dr. Ashley Blackington and Dovetail Website: https://ashleyblackington.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/ Substack: https://ashleyblackington.substack.com/ Website Dovetail: https://dovetail.care/ Dovetail LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dovetailapp/ Dovetail Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dovetail.care Connect with Dirkjan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health tech.

October 8, 2026Episode 1721 hr 6 min

Building Psychological Safety for Better Women’s Health at Work with Veroniek Vermeulen

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Veroniek Vermeulen, founder of Silatha, about why women's health is still expected to be left at the office door. Veroniek trained as an engineer in a field where 80 percent of her peers were men, and spent years trying to fit into a workplace that wasn’t suited for women. She founded Silatha to replace that silence with psychological safety, backed by real numbers on engagement and retention. This episode is for female founders and health tech leaders building company culture, women in leadership deciding what to share about their own health at work, and anyone curious what changes once women's health is on the agenda. What you'll learn in this episode Why fitting in at work can mean adapting so well you lose track of what you would build differently How psychological safety becomes measurable: Silatha's programs report 93 percent higher engagement and 92 percent better psychological safety among participants Why cycle-related symptoms only seem unpredictable, and what changes once people track them What staying silent about women's health costs at work: stress, isolation, absenteeism, and disengagement Why policy should follow the 80 to 99 percent of people acting in good faith Her three-part advice for founders in perimenopause: learn your own patterns, find a qualified specialist, and be intentional about what you share with your team Chapters : 00:00 — Introduction: Women’s Health, Psychological Safety & Silatha 02:11 — Meet Veroniek Vermeulen and Silatha 02:42 — From Corporate Engineer to Founder 05:03 — Fitting In vs. Adapting at Work 06:41 — Burnout, Belonging & Being Valued 07:53 — Purpose, Viktor Frankl & Letting Go of Control 13:38 — How Silatha Evolved from Wellbeing to Women’s Health 17:41 — Why Psychological Safety Matters for Health at Work 19:59 — Breaking the Taboo Around Women’s Health 25:59 — How Organizations Build Lasting Support 27:02 — Nura: Private, Always-On Health Support 32:15 — Privacy, Trust & Responsible Health AI 38:10 — Men’s Mental Health and Inclusive Health Conversations 41:00 — The Cultural and Business Impact of Support 43:50 — Women’s Health at Work: Regional Perspectives 46:14 — How Founders Can Build Psychologically Safe Startups 55:15 — Advice for Founders Navigating Perimenopause 56:47 — Priorities, Pressure & Getting Important Work Done 1:01:26 — Finding Purpose Through the Work 1:01:58 — Designing Safer Founder Communities 1:04:06 — Where to Connect with Veroniek Vermeulen and Silatha 1:04:40 — Closing and Episode Outro Show notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/08/episode-172/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-172?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Books discussed in the episode Man’s Search for Meaning: https://amzn.eu/d/07Dj5X9M Four Thousand Weeks: https://amzn.eu/d/0fyR6E7E Connect with Veroniek Vermeulen and Silatha Veroniek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veroniek/ Silatha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/silatha/ Silatha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SilathaJourney/ Silatha Middle East website: https://silathajourney.com/ Silatha Europe website: https://silatha.com/ Silatha on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMEvuobvsmkMqGlv8ndZucQ Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with founders building healthier, more honest workplaces.

September 24, 2026Episode 1711 hr 8 min

Closing the Safety Gap by Turning Feelings of Unsafety into Data with Anniek van Veldhuizen

Every day, women make safety calculations - which route to take, where to sit - that never show up in the data. What happens once that invisible data gets collected? In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Anniek van Veldhuizen, CCO and co-founder of MyHives, about turning daily, unmeasured safety experiences into objective, actionable data. Anniek and her co-founder Nelson built MyHives, and its AI guardian Beekon, to capture safety concerns before they escalate, using privacy-first technology that keeps all processing on the user’s own device. If you’re a founder navigating fundraising bias as a woman, a leader responsible for workplace safety, or simply curious how privacy-first AI can turn subjective feelings of unsafety into evidence that actually gets acted on, this conversation has something for you. What you’ll learn in this episode: Why daily safety calculations, from choosing a route to picking a seat, never show up in official data, and what that costs system design How MyHives captures both physical and social safety signals without cameras or continuous listening, keeping all processing on-device Why traditional panic buttons fail the moment someone freezes, and how Beekon is built to act autonomously instead How unsafe environments cost the Dutch economy an estimated €8.3 billion a year, with roughly €5 billion linked to psychological and safety-related incidents What it took to bring MyHives into pilots onboarding around 33,000 home care workers and station cleaners Why translating lived experience into numbers moves corporate decision-makers more than personal stories alone What it’s like fundraising as a woman founder alongside a Black co-founder, and how being underestimated became an advantage Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:00 Anniek van Veldhuizen on building MyHives from lived experience 05:49 The daily calculations people make to stay safe 08:08 Why unsafe experiences go unreported 10:04 The gender data gap and how missing data shapes safety 14:50 Safety, participation, and learned helplessness 17:15 Building trust into a tool people can actually use 19:52 How MyHives works: app, BEEKON, and BEEKON+ 24:00 Triggering help discreetly when someone cannot act 28:08 How escalation works across languages and locations 30:57 Why privacy is central to the product 34:58 Preventing false positives and training the system 40:32 Trials, pilots, and the workplace safety use case 48:09 The business and societal case for better safety data 53:16 Pricing, monetization, and the impact model 1:00:01 Working with security partners without being absorbed 1:04:20 Fundraising as a woman founder and a Black co-founder 1:07:36 Designing Fundicoach to feel safe and inclusive Show notes : Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/09/24/episode-171 Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-171 Connect with Anniek van Veldhuizen and MyHives: LinkedIn (Anniek): https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniek-van-veldhuizen-27731514a/ Website: https://www.myhives.nl/en-GB LinkedIn (MyHives): https://www.linkedin.com/company/myhives-nl/ Download the Hyves app Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.myhives Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/myhives/id6751838174 Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Amazon Music. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

September 17, 2026Episode 17056 min

How FLTRD's PureScore Makes Healthy Food Choices Easy with Anke Kuik

More than half of Dutch citizens live with a chronic disease, and over 70% of supermarket products are ultra-processed. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Anke Kuik, co-founder and CEO of FLTRD, about turning a personal interest in nutrition into a tool that helps people navigate the supermarket. Anke walks me through the science behind PureScore, why popular nutrition labels can be misleading, and the founder decisions that took FLTRD from an outsourced prototype to more than 30,000 downloads. This episode is for female founders and women in tech building health tech products, women entrepreneurs curious about the science behind nutrition apps, and any startup leader deciding when to bring technical development in-house. What you'll learn in this episode: Why more than half of Dutch citizens live with a chronic disease, largely driven by lifestyle. How the "food matrix" explains why isolated vitamins or fiber don't work like whole food does. Why FLTRD built its own PureScore instead of relying on nutrition scores that can be gamed. Why outsourcing app development early on slowed FLTRD down and cost more than expected. Why bringing a technical co-founder in-house was Anke's best decision for FLTRD. How FLTRD keeps its scanning tool free while building a B2B model with supermarkets. What Anke looks for in investors beyond capital: retail, FMCG, and dietary network expertise. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Anke Kuik and FLTRD 06:55 Developing the concept and building the first app 12:01 Why healthy supermarket choices are so difficult 14:21 What "ultra-processed" food really means 18:09 PureScore vs. Nutriscore 22:56 Personal responsibility, pricing, and the food system 25:10 How the PureScore works 29:03 Scanning products and choosing better alternatives 31:19 Keeping the app free and building a business model 34:40 Working with supermarkets and the B2B opportunity 37:35 Fundraising, traction, and growth plans 39:52 Health impact and scientific validation 43:18 Publicity, media attention, and founder visibility 46:40 How bringing a CTO in-house changed the company 49:00 Finding investors with strategic value 50:10 Advice for an AI-powered founder funding platform 54:06 Where to find FLTRD & closing Show notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/09/17/episode-170/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-170 Connect with Anke Kuik and FLTRD: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankekuik/ Website: https://www.fltrd.nl/ App: Download the FLTRD app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store . Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fltrd.nl/ Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Funding Coach tool: https://fundingcoach.ai Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health tech.

September 10, 2026Episode 1691 hr 42 min

Building the AI Flower Framework as the Roadmap for AI Transformation with Juliette van der Laarse

Juliette is the creator of the AI Flower Framework and founder of the AI Flower Foundation. She spent a year mapping how AI could impact her job as an engineering manager, and discovered why so many AI pilots don’t scale. She turned what she found into an open-source AI framework that maps 152 IT activities against 25 levels of AI capability to show what evolves, fossilizes, or stays human work. Whether you’re a founder, engineering leader, or a woman in tech looking for a concrete way to find out whether AI is actually the right solution to your problem, this episode will give you the three questions you need to ask before you start. What you'll learn in this episode: Why most AI pilots stall before they ever scale Why "ten percent wrong" becomes "one hundred percent wrong" once AI touches it The three questions to ask before reaching for AI: AI, automation, or a system fix How 152 IT activities map against 25 levels of AI capability Why she kept the framework open source instead of charging for it What her own redundancy taught her about staying in control of her career Her one safeguard for any AI tool that recommends or matches people Chapters: 00:00 Introducing Juliette van der Laarse and the AI Flower framework 05:19 From childhood programming to AI research and corporate engineering leadership 08:17 Why Juliette started the framework: clarity, career impact, and AI transformation 10:05 Why pilot-first AI strategies often stall at the business case stage 13:35 Why pilots are useful but not enough for enterprise-wide change 16:35 How the framework addresses fear, trust, and job stability 19:11 Juliette's redundancy experience and what it taught her about career resilience 27:33 Will AI take all jobs, and what has to happen before that becomes realistic 29:51 System readiness, regulation, and why some work may stay human 32:06 AI overhype versus useful automation 33:50 Why shallow IT training can lead teams to overuse AI 36:57 How mentoring and senior coaching could scale knowledge better 41:10 The structure of the AI Flower: activities, standards, and excellence 48:02 AI capability as 25 levels of maturity and scope 51:49 Mapping AI capability to IT activities and fossilization of tasks 54:57 How the model shows role evolution across DevOps, test, and infrastructure work 59:27 Capturing undocumented knowledge and local context in companies 1:03:06 Building internal knowledge gathering and documentation workflows with AI 1:09:21 Peer review, critique, and building a board of naysayers 1:15:46 How the framework changes over time while keeping a stable structure 1:18:41 Why the framework is open source instead of monetized 1:25:40 Using the model to map AI risk and suggest controls 1:30:06 Where companies should start, and the biggest mistake to avoid 1:35:23 Why Juliette is setting up a foundation around the framework 1:37:35 Safeguards for an AI funding coach and avoiding self-reinforcing bias 1:41:15 Where to follow Juliette as the foundation and framework grow Show notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/09/10/episode-169/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-169?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Connect with Juliette van der Laarse and the AI Flower Foundation Juliette: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliettevanderlaarse/ AI Flower Foundation: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-flower-foundation/ Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ FundingCoach website: https://fundingcoach.ai Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

September 3, 2026Episode 1681 hr 17 min

How Female Endurance Athletes Keep Performing During the Hormonal Transition with Karianne Kraaijestein

Karianne Kraaijestein spent years building resilience through sport, from gymnastics to indoor climbing to yoga, before starting triathlons at 47. Now she's the founder of Adaptive, a coaching platform for female endurance athletes navigating a different kind of endurance test: the hormonal transition. In this episode, we talk about her own journey in endurance sports, why she is focusing on women who are in a hormonal transition, and what data is needed to enable peak performance for women at this stage of their lives. If you're an endurance athlete in perimenopause or postmenopause, or you coach one, and training has stopped working for reasons nobody can quite explain, this episode has pointers on where to look for strategies that improve performance. For female founders and women in tech building trust-dependent products in spaces where the data doesn't exist yet, Karianne provides insights that can help you navigate the early stages. What you'll learn in this episode: Why standard training plans, built for a generic body, fail women in the hormonal transition Why tracking sleep, heat regulation, and training load matters more than tracking hormones directly How Karianne finished part of the S’GRAIL in Girona on a torn ACL, and what that taught her about risk Why "too much heart and not enough mind" bankrupted her previous yoga studio, and what she's doing differently with Adaptive Why she considers a scientific advisory board the biggest de-risking factor for investors in a trust-dependent product How letting the community "almost be part of the building" shapes Adaptive's product development Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:45 About Karianne and Adaptive 07:33 The Journey into Endurance Sports 10:28 Mental Challenges in Endurance Sports 13:29 The Importance of Goal Setting 16:22 Navigating Individuality in Triathlons 19:14 Overcoming Physical Setbacks 22:20 The Recovery Process and Age Factors 25:01 Building Adaptive for Women 28:13 Understanding Hormonal Transitions 31:05 Energy Management and Training Adjustments 34:11 The Role of Data in Training 36:43 Adaptive's Unique Approach 39:49 Integrating Research into Adaptive 41:33 The Power of Athlete Data 42:47 Research Collaborations and Insights 44:17 Understanding Amateur vs. Professional Athletes 45:30 Adaptive vs. Competitors in Women's Fitness 46:38 Building a Community for Endurance Athletes 47:55 Coaching Integration with Adaptive 49:23 Business Model and Pricing Strategy 52:56 Proving the Business Case for Adaptive 55:41 Data Privacy and Trust Issues 1:00:10 The Role of Community in Data Sharing 1:01:34 Building Trust with Scientific Validation 1:03:20 Future Expansion and Market Opportunities 1:04:46 Navigating Burnout and Performance 1:09:22 Lessons from Past Experiences 1:12:50 Design Principles for Personalized Solutions 1:15:01 Connecting with Karianne, Adaptive and Future Plans Show notes Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/09/03/episode-168/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-168 Connect with Karianne Kraaijestein and Adaptive LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kariannekraaijestein/ Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ FundingCoach.ai: https://fundingcoach.ai Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health tech.

August 27, 2026Episode 16750 min

Turning Early Fans Into a Marketing Engine with Elise Mol

Only 3% of people who show up to an event went looking for it. The other 97% came because someone they trust was already going. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Elise Mol, co-founder of Bash, a platform that helps event organizers turn ticket buyers into a community-driven marketing engine. We explore why exclusive early access beats public discounts, why the events industry is under more financial pressure than most people assume, and what it takes to build trust-based growth instead of relying on paid ads. What you’ll learn in this episode Why public “early bird” discounts fail to reward loyal community members, and what exclusive access does instead Why your first ticket buyers act as an organic marketing channel in the months before an event How the “plus-one” system turns a single ticket into a referral loop through WhatsApp and other personal channels Why the post-COVID events industry is under more financial pressure than headlines suggest Why BASH chose to work with organizers who already understood their model, rather than trying to convince skeptics Why proving one local market matters more than international expansion early on A simple practice for turning routine tasks like washing the dishes into space for solving hard problems Chapters 00:00 Introduction 04:50 BASH and Its Origins 07:04 The Impact of COVID-19 on Event Planning 10:05 Transitioning from User to Organizer Focus 12:53 Challenges Faced by Event Organizers Post-COVID 16:08 The Importance of Early Ticket Sales 18:51 Building Community and FOMO in Event Marketing 21:46 BASH’s Role in Supporting Event Organizers 26:43 The Art of Event Organization 32:46 Building Community Through Events 38:39 Scaling and Cultural Considerations 42:38 Goal Setting and Company Growth 46:09 Design Principles for Trust and Belonging More about the episode Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/08/27/episode-167/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-167 Connect with Elise Mol and BASH Elise Mol on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/elisemol BASH: https://bash.social Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

August 20, 2026Episode 16652 min

Using Technology To Bring the Human Side Back To Medicine with Dr. Hannah Allen | Ep. 166

A third of a GP’s working week goes to admin, and 42% of UK GPs say they want to leave the profession within five years. Dr. Hannah Allen left clinical practice to fix that, and now leads clinical strategy at Heidi, an AI scribe used by clinicians in over 110 countries. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Dr. Hannah Allen, Chief Medical Officer at Heidi, about what happens when you take the keyboard out of the exam room. Hannah trained as a doctor focused on women’s health before moving into health tech. She’s still a practicing GP, running a women’s health clinic while leading the clinical function at Heidi. She explains why she believes technology’s real job in medicine isn’t replacing clinical judgment; it’s giving doctors their attention back. This episode is for founders building in health tech or other regulated industries, for clinicians curious about how AI actually fits into their day, and for anyone who wants to understand where women’s health data is still missing from medicine. What you’ll learn in this episode: * Why a third of a GP’s week goes to admin, and how that connects to the 42% of UK GPs who say they want to leave the profession within five years * Why over 90% of patients feel more listened to when their doctor uses an AI scribe like Heidi * Why building healthcare AI requires regional, linguistic, and cultural adaptation from day one, not as an afterthought * Why up to 75 to 80% of clinicians already use some form of AI, even as most say they’re skeptical of it * Why how a woman’s body behaves during pregnancy can predict her health decades later, and why that data mostly goes uncaptured * Why female founders get “preventer” questions from VCs while male founders get “promoter” questions, and what Hannah does to counter that * Why Hannah tells founders to obsess over the problem, not the product Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:35 Introduction to Dr. Hannah Allen 07:32 Transitioning from Medicine to Tech 10:31 The Role of Technology in Healthcare 13:43 Global Healthcare Challenges 17:15 Predicting Women’s Health Issues 21:20 AI in Healthcare: Opportunities and Concerns 25:18 Heidi: Revolutionizing Clinical Workflows 27:14 The Rise of Heidi: Word of Mouth Success 28:50 Measuring Impact: Time Savings and Burnout Reduction 30:01 Expanding Horizons: Beyond Documentation 32:03 The Role of AI in Clinical Practice 35:18 Transforming Patient Interactions with AI 39:01 Patient Feedback and Trust in AI 43:50 The Human Element in Healthcare 45:04 Future Vision: A Seamless Healthcare Experience 47:18 Advice for Founders: Building for Real Problems 50:44 Closing Thoughts and Resources More about the episode Show Notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/08/20/episode-166/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/08/20/episode-166/ Connect with Dr. Hannah Allen and Heidi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-hannah-a-a27ba650/ Heidi website: https://www.heidihealth.com/en-ie Heidi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/heidi/ More about the TEDx Coolhaven Women event on 9 October in Rotterdam More about the event: https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/68333 Buy your tickets at: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tedx-coolhaven-women-the-new-builders-tickets-1992166654090?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Use code WDT25 for an exclusive 25% discount. Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ FundingCoach.ai: https://fundingcoach.ai Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building tech from the ground up.

August 13, 2026Episode 1651 hr 0 min

Tackling Menstrual Cup Hygiene and Period Poverty with Sophie Haccou | Ep. 165

One in eight women in the Netherlands must choose between food and tampons. Sophie Haccou bootstrapped CupHub to close that gap, and is about to launch the crowdfunding campaign that could take her full time. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Sophie Haccou, co-founder of CupHub, about building a hardware startup from a university design project to a live crowdfunding campaign. Sophie and her co-founder Aart are developing Casey, a portable rinsing device that makes menstrual cups practical to use outside the home, and bootstrapped the company by waitressing at night while building it during the day. What you’ll learn in this episode : - Why one in eight women in the Netherlands have to choose between food and tampons, and how that defines period poverty - Why menstrual cups cost more upfront but save money over time, and why that upfront cost is the real barrier - Why almost no public toilet stall has a sink, and how that drives the design of Casey - Why VCs told Sophie and Aart it was too early for them, and how that pushed them toward crowdfunding instead - What Sophie’s 100,000 euro crowdfunding goal will fund, and what changes at the 200,000 euro stretch goal - How bootstrapping meant working nights as a waitress while building CupHub during the day - Why Sophie’s dream is to tackle period poverty beyond the Netherlands, including an early conversation about testing Casey in Kenya Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:50 Introduction to Sophie Haccou and CupHub 08:47 Development of Casey, the portable menstrual cup rinser 12:51 Designing user-friendly and sustainable menstrual products 16:51 Business model: crowdfunding and social impact partnerships 18:50 Material safety and standards for menstrual cups 20:42 Future prospects: diagnostics and FemTech innovations 22:41 Global expansion and impact in developing countries 24:49 The role of community in breaking taboos 26:51 Crowdfunding strategy and investor engagement 28:50 Partnerships with food banks and NGOs 30:58 Access to clean water and sterilization in different regions 32:50 The importance of education in schools about menstruation 34:56 The social and health impact of menstrual products 36:57 The future of FemTech and diagnostics 38:43 Advice for female founders and entrepreneurs 40:49 Building a community and sharing experiences 42:43 Expanding internationally and future goals 44:52 Funding strategies and business sustainability 46:43 The role of men in menstrual health awareness 48:52 Closing thoughts and how to support CupHub More about this episode: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/08/13/episode-165/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-165 Connect with Sophie Haccou and CupHub: Crowdfunding campaign: crowdaboutnow.nl/campaign/CupHub LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cuphub/ Instagram: @CupHubOfficial Website: CupHub.net More about the TEDx Coolhaven Women event on 9 October in Rotterdam More about the event: https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/68333 Buy your tickets at: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tedx-coolhaven-women-the-new-builders-tickets-1992166654090?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Use code WDT25 for an exclusive 25% discount. Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ FundingCoach.ai: https://fundingcoach.ai Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building hardware companies from the ground up.