Women Disrupting Tech

Dirkjan Hupkes
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

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.

  1. 6d ago

    Rethinking Incontinence: Building the Certain Valve with Leonie van de Kamer | Ep. 162

    One in three women will experience incontinence in her life, yet the options have stayed stuck at pads or surgery. Leonie van de Kamer is building the option in between. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Leonie van de Kamer, CEO and co-founder of Certain, about a patient-controlled device placed in the urethra for female stress urinary incontinence, positioned between disposable pads and invasive surgery. We trace how the valve technology started as a hormone-free contraceptive at Choice, why the team spun Certain out as a separate company, and what it takes to fund a preclinical medtech startup. This episode is for female founders, women in tech, and health tech entrepreneurs, plus investors and women in leadership who want to see how a real medtech company gets built: the market validation, the regulatory strategy, and the funding decisions behind a women's health product. What you'll learn in this episode: Why incontinence ranks as the second most impactful chronic disease on quality of life, and why one in three women is affected by anatomy, not injuryHow the same valve became two companies: adapting contraceptive technology to incontinence, and when to spin out rather than run a platformWhy incontinence is a lower-risk investment case than contraception, in Leonie's own wordsHow a lean medtech team "steers the orchestra" using external specialists instead of hiring every expert in-houseWhy the UK is a strategic first market after its ban on surgical meshes and tapesWhat early market validation with clinicians, patients, and insurers actually looks like before the product existsHow Leonie uses AI to filter investors and cut the time lost to the wrong funding conversationsChapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:20 Introduction and background of Leonie van de Kamer 05:17 Leonie's journey from medicine and entrepreneurship 08:13 Inspiration behind Certain's incontinence device 13:22 Technical challenges and design considerations 18:26 Market strategy and spin-out process 23:15 Societal impact and addressing taboo in women's health 28:20 Regulatory classification and approval pathway 33:21 Funding strategies and investor relations 43:23 Building a lean team and quality management 53:20 Market opportunities in the UK and Europe 1:03:15 Future milestones and strategic partnerships 1:13:10 Closing thoughts and connecting with Leonie van de Kamer Blog and show notes: Show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/07/23/episode-162/ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-162?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Connect with Leonie van de Kamer and Certain: Website: https://www.certain.care/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonie-van-de-kamer-2ba79a2b Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes and Fundingcoach.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Website: 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.

    Rethinking Incontinence: Building the Certain Valve with Leonie van de Kamer | Ep. 162

  2. Jul 16

    Why FemTech Needs to Move Beyond Wellness Apps with Karen Berg | Ep. 161

    Meditation and sleep apps are not fixing women’s health. Karen Berg explains why femtech needs real clinical answers instead. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Karen Berg, partner at Healthy Capital, a venture capital fund investing in digital health, about her path from law and investment banking into impact investing, and why she thinks femtech needs to move past wellness apps and into real diagnosis and treatment. This episode is for founders building in health tech, women entrepreneurs, people in women in tech, and investors who want to know what makes a digital health startup investable. What you’ll learn in this episode: Why regulatory complexity can work as a moat, not a burden, for healthcare startupsWhat Healthy Capital looks for before investing: a distinctive, hard-to-replicate solutionWhy femtech needs to move beyond wellness apps for meditation or sleep, and focus on serious medical issuesHow the Life Impact Framework measures healthcare startups across cost, quality and capacityWhy AI in women’s health is limited by a lack of historical medical data on the female bodyWhy closing the funding and health gap for women requires men and women working togetherChapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:47 Karen Berg's background 03:44 Karen's transition from finance to healthcare 04:56 Impact of personal loss and career change 06:12 Attraction to complex, regulated markets 08:38 Experience with her brother’s illness and sabbatical 11:38 Why healthcare and impact matter to Karen 14:37 Investing in digital health and early-stage companies 16:09 The role of AI and data in women's health 21:48 Bias, representation, and funding disparities 29:42 Defining impact and measurement frameworks 38:58 Women's health as a serious, underserved market 47:17 Impact of societal awareness and education 52:29 The importance of diversity in investment teams 56:33 The debate: FemTech vs. HealthTech branding 1:02:02 AI funding coach for female founders 1:03:33 Closing remarks and where to connect Connect with Karen Berg and Healthy Capital: Karen Berg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-berg-9a97213 Healthy Capital website: https://www.healthy.capital/ Healthy Capital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthydotcapital/ Connect with me: Dirkjan Hupkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ 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.

    Why FemTech Needs to Move Beyond Wellness Apps with Karen Berg | Ep. 161

  3. Jul 9

    Why the Funding Gap Starts Before Female Founders Ever Pitch with Nithya Ruff | Ep. 160

    Only 2% of VC funding reaches female founders. Nithya Ruff argues the problem doesn’t start at the pitch table. It starts with how girls are raised and who gets to make investment decisions. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, host Dirkjan Hupkes talks with Nithya Ruff, former Head of Open Source at Amazon, chair of the Linux Foundation board, and LP in funds focused on South Asian women and diverse founders. We cover why VC funding for female founders remains structurally stuck at 2%, what her father’s advice about financial independence built over time, and how AI and open source are changing who gets to build technology. This episode is for female founders, women in tech, women entrepreneurs, and early-stage investors who want to understand why the funding gap persists and what structural change, not individual mindset shifts, can actually move it. What you’ll learn in this episode Why the VC funding gap is an investor pipeline problem, not a founder pipeline problem, and what that distinction means for changeHow financial independence, instilled early, shapes confidence and career trajectory for women in techWhy women now lead the Python, Rust, Apache, and Linux foundations, while the coding side of open source remains male-dominatedWhat AI is doing to the “priesthood of software development” and why it matters for non-technical foundersWhy women enter entrepreneurship later than men, and what corporate culture has to do with itWhat early-stage founders consistently underestimate beyond the go-to-market strategyWhy building a peer support community is as important as building the product itselfChapters 00:00 Introduction 02:43 Nithya’s Journey to the US 11:17 The Influence of Family on Confidence 18:06 Navigating Cultural Differences in Parenting 27:24 Challenging Gender Norms in Family Dynamics 27:40 The Funding Gap for Female Founders 33:00 The Need for More Female Investors 36:31 Empowering Women in Investment 41:53 The Startup Path for Women 47:04 Integrating Work and Life in Startups 50:16 The Open Source Model and Its Impact 56:35 AI: A Tool for Empowerment 1:01:57 Building Community and Support Systems 1:06:38 Underestimating the Go-to-Market Strategy 1:11:58 Governance and Flexibility in Startups 1:18:19 The Balance of AI and Human Connection Show notes and Substack Show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/07/09/episode-160/ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-160?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Connect with Nithya Ruff LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nithyaruff Substack: https://substack.com/@nithyaruff779075 Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ 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.

    Why the Funding Gap Starts Before Female Founders Ever Pitch with Nithya Ruff | Ep. 160

  4. Jul 2

    From Fragmentation to Collaboration in FemTech with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk | Ep. 159

    More than 90 FemTech companies in the Netherlands are working to close the gender health gap. Most didn’t know the others existed. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk, co-founders of FemTech NL, the organization connecting FemTech companies across the Netherlands. We talk about why the ecosystem has been so fragmented, and what FinTech has already learned about moving from competition to collaboration. This episode is for FemTech founders raising their first round, investors building a thesis in women’s health, and women in tech curious about how a fragmented industry starts moving together. What you’ll learn in this episode: Why more than 90 FemTech companies in the Netherlands have been building in isolation from each otherWhat FemTech NL’s five pillars, communication, data, collaboration, research, and funding, are meant to fixWhy the most successful founders lead with the commercial opportunity, not the social caseWhat FinTech’s shift from competition to collaboration can teach FemTech about adoptionWhy the global opportunity here is valued at $1 trillion a year, according to a McKinsey studyWhy the goal isn’t “the future is female,” but equal healthcare for men and womenWhy closing the gender health gap would take more than a century, at the current pace, and what could speed that upConnect with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk Maaike Steinebach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaike-steinebach-8a3a304/ Sophie van Dijk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-vandijk/ FemTech NL website: femtechnl.com Show notesBlog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/07/02/episode-159/ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-159?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true About Women Disrupting TechEvery week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors in HealthTech, FinTech, ClimateTech, and AI rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to get it in your feed.

    From Fragmentation to Collaboration in FemTech with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk | Ep. 159

  5. Jun 25

    How She Turned Fitness App Frustration into an AI Fitness Coach with Zoe Pineau | Ep. 158

    Most fitness apps are built to track everything. That's exactly why people stop using them. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Zoe Pineau, co-founder of Fitly AI, about how she lost 150 pounds through macro tracking, spent six years building a traditional fitness app that didn’t break through, and then rebuilt from scratch in one month using AI. We explore why friction kills fitness habits before they start, and how a chat-based agent changes that equation. This episode is for female founders, women in tech, and health tech entrepreneurs who want to understand how AI is reshaping user experience, and for anyone building in a saturated market where being better is no longer enough. What you’ll learn in this episode Why macro tracking is mathematically reliable but practically abandoned by most peopleHow Fitly AI lets users log an entire workout and meal in a single sentence, removing the admin burden that kills consistencyWhy “better” is not a differentiator in a saturated market, and what to build insteadHow Zoe used her own transformation as proof of concept when pitching investorsWhy apps are disappearing and what the age of agents means for founders building in this spaceHow a 30-day momentum report keeps founders motivated and investors informedChapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:50 Introduction to Fitly AI and Personal Journey 05:45 Transformative Weight Loss Experience 08:47 Mindset Shift and Habit Formation 11:32 Understanding Weight Loss as a Mathematical Process 14:11 The Importance of Macro Tracking 16:55 Innovating Fitness Apps with AI 19:47 Simplifying User Experience in Fitness Tracking 22:53 Building Fitly AI: Lessons Learned 25:31 The Impact of AI on App Development 28:25 Leveraging AI for Business Insights 30:33 The Role of Prior Experience in AI Utilization 32:30 Data Privacy and Security in AI Applications 35:02 Collaborative Development: A Team Approach to App Building 37:17 Navigating the Fundraising Landscape 39:22 Addressing Competition: Lifestyle Changes vs. Quick Fixes 42:18 Motivation and Consistency in Fitness Tracking 45:13 The Future of Fitness Apps: Integrating AI Agents 47:55 Building a Funding Coach AI for Female Founders Connect with Zoe Pineau and Fitly AI LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-pineau-850588105/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoepineau TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thezoepineau Website: https://www.fitly.chat Show notes of the episode Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/06/25/episode-158/ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-158?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true About Women Disrupting TechEvery week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors in HealthTech, FinTech, ClimateTech, and AI rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to get it in your feed.

    How She Turned Fitness App Frustration into an AI Fitness Coach with Zoe Pineau | Ep. 158

  6. Jun 18

    How Female Founders Build Financial Independence Before the Exit With Ana Herrero-Wallace | Ep. 157

    Most founders build their financial position in the wrong order. By the time the exit arrives, the decisions that mattered most have already been made under pressure. In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Ana Herrero-Wallace, financial independence coach, former US-licensed equities trader, and founder of AdaInvest, about why financial independence is not an exit outcome but a tool you build while building your company. Ana is also the author of ‘Still Thinking? Act., a smarter money guide for women.' We explore how money mindset shapes the way founders price, fundraise, and negotiate, and what it takes to move from overthinking to action. If you're a female founder, entrepreneur, or woman in tech who wants to understand how financial agency changes the way you build, fundraise, and choose investors, this episode is for you. What you'll learn in this episode: Why the fundraising ask most founders make is shaped by what they think investors will accept, not what they actually needHow to build a personal financial floor in parallel with your company, and why liquidity matters more than home equity for foundersWhat the Dutch pension gap reveals about a system that rewards part-time work without accounting for its long-term costWhy moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset is less about attitude and more about having a clear financial planHow unpaid labor has real financial value, and why women can and should negotiate for it to be recognizedWhat "playing to win" looks like in practice, and why most women are socialized into a defensive financial posture before they ever start a companyWhy the goal of fundraising is agency, not validation, and how that difference changes the way you negotiateConnect with Ana Herrero-Wallace and AdaInvest: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-herrero-wallace/ AdaInvest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adainvestco/ Website: https://adainvest.co/ Still Thinking? Act.: https://mybook.to/rypMMkA About Women Disrupting TechEvery week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors in HealthTech, FinTech, ClimateTech, and AI rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to get it in your feed.

    How Female Founders Build Financial Independence Before the Exit With Ana Herrero-Wallace | Ep. 157

  7. Jun 11

    How Female Founders Build a Brand AI Will Recommend with Rachel Gilley | Ep. 156

    Most brands are optimizing for search engines that fewer people are using. Rachel Gilley, CEO of Clarity Global, is tracking what happens when your customers stop Googling and start asking AI instead. In this episode, Rachel breaks down Generative Engine Optimization: why it matters, what it costs brands that ignore it, and how a consistent message across every touchpoint is now a technical requirement, not a communications nice-to-have. She also makes a sharp distinction between mentoring women and sponsoring them, and why only one of those actually changes who gets funded. What you’ll learn: Why LLMs treat inconsistent brand messaging as noise — and simply ignore itWhat Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is and why it matters more than traditional search rankingsHow a deliberate GEO strategy drove a 300% increase in AI citations for Monday.comWhy the human layer — strategy, nuance, reading a room — is the one thing AI cannot replaceThe difference between mentoring women and actually sponsoring themWhy fewer female unicorns is a capital routing problem, not a capability problem📋 Full episode notes + Rachel’s bio: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/06/11/episode-156/ Connect with Rachel Gilley🌐 clarity.global 🔗 linkedin.com/in/rachelgilley Surfacd — track your brand in AI search: 🌐 surfacd.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.

    How Female Founders Build a Brand AI Will Recommend with Rachel Gilley | Ep. 156

  8. Jun 4

    How Female Founders Can Pitch FemTech to Male Investors with Beata Wandachowicz-Krason | Ep. 155

    FemTech represents a trillion-dollar opportunity. So why do all-female teams receive just 2% of early-stage venture capital? Beata Wandachowicz-Krason has spent years researching what is holding FemTech back — the funding gaps, the cultural taboos, and the structural misalignment between how healthcare systems are built and what women’s health actually requires. In this episode, she breaks down why the relatability gap between female founders and male investors is one of the biggest blockers in the sector, and what founders can do about it right now. You’ll hear why pitching FemTech as a social cause is the wrong move, how to pivot from risk-based investor questions back to growth, and why male allyship is not optional if the sector is going to scale. What we cover: The funding paradox: 85% female-led ventures, 2% of VC fundingWhy 90% male VC decision-making creates a structural relatability problemCultural taboos around menopause, miscarriage, and chronic pain — and how they suppress both patient voices and founder credibilityHow healthcare systems optimized for acute care create a prevention gap that FemTech is trying to fillWhy AI tools are censoring the very medical terms that took decades to legitimizeHow to build a data-driven, economically aggressive pitch that moves FemTech out of the wellness nicheThe pivot technique: answering risk-based questions without losing the growth narrativeWhy male allyship — done right — accelerates the sector rather than co-opting itData privacy in women’s health: why the taboo is a bigger barrier than the technologyPractical tools for combating gender bias in the funding processAbout Beata Wandachowicz-KrasonBeata is an executive at Organon and a researcher focused on the systemic barriers holding FemTech back. She works at the intersection of women’s health, venture capital, and ecosystem building. Resources mentioned in the episode: Funding Coach: ⁠fundingcoach.ai⁠Pieter van Keep and early menopause research: ⁠https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9089556/⁠Related episodes: Sabrina Nowicki Carmen van Vilsteren Femke DelissenIda TinSara OkhuijsenConnect with Beata: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/beata-wandachowicz-krason/⁠ Find the show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/06/04/episode-155/ Follow Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for weekly conversations with the women reshaping technology and healthcare.

    How Female Founders Can Pitch FemTech to Male Investors with Beata Wandachowicz-Krason | Ep. 155
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Dirkjan Hupkes
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    162
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dirkjan Hupkes
  • Show Website
    Women Disrupting Tech