Women Disrupting Tech

New tech trends keep coming. Pandium's Cristina Flaschen explains why customer conversations beat the hype.In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Cristina Flaschen, founder and CEO of Pandium, about building infrastructure that lets B2B software companies offer integrations. She entered tech through a sales job and has no computer science degree. We cover how she tested the market before building, why she chose revenue over users, how Pandium develops junior engineers and what she sees when investors keep moving the traction bar.Whether you're a female founder, a woman in tech or an aspiring entrepreneur testing a product idea, you will find decisions to borrow on discovery, hiring and reading investor feedback.What you'll learn in this episode:How customer discovery works before you build: talking to everyone who might ever be a customer. How 200 + conversations outweighed investor pressure to build on the blockchain.Why she chose revenue over users, and how hard it is to switch laterHow a live, open-book coding exercise shows how candidates ask questions and use the people around themWhy she still hires junior engineers when AI writes code, and how Pandium moves them from bug fixes to leading projects.Why traction targets keep moving in investor conversations, and when she would walk awayChapters:00:00 Introduction02:25 Getting into tech without a CS degree05:27 The problem with integration tools for engineers07:13 Why engineers prefer code over low-code10:21 Integrations in the age of AI agents14:03 Early scaling lessons: unclogging the plumbing19:33 Why tech stays fun and mentoring juniors23:23 Flexibility with managed integration infrastructure25:59 Standing out next to AI coding tools33:08 One coding challenge for every hire38:11 Selling to engineers as a non-engineer43:58 Junior developers and the future talent pipeline50:26 Avoiding shiny object syndrome as a founder54:28 Why customer conversations beat the hype58:33 Product-led growth versus optimizing for revenue1:03:15 Why investors keep moving the traction goalposts1:06:35 Do women founders do more with less?1:10:28 Closing the funding gap for women founders1:16:24 What an AI funding coach should do1:19:29 Where to find Cristina FlaschenShow notes:Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/11/05/episode-175/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-175Connect with Cristina Flaschen and Pandium:Cristina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-flaschen/Pandium website: https://www.pandium.com/Pandium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pandium/When you connect with Cristina, add a note that you heard her here.Connect with host Dirkjan Hupkes:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/FundingCoach.ai: https://fundingcoach.aiSubstack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/About Women Disrupting TechEvery 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.🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music.👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

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 metricsHow Attenlyx matches audience response to the speaker almost second by second and reports within 48 hoursWhy a model built on someone else's dataset showed low confidence, and why Attenlyx works with psychologists and regional specialistsHow emotional expression differs between West African and East African audiences with the same skin toneWhat organizers changed with the data, from panels of three to four speakers to shorter sessionsWhy an education-first sales process fits a new category such as Emotion AIChapters:00:00 Introduction02:00 How Attenlyx grew out of event strategy04:25 Why leaders ask what landed after events06:28 AI leadership and event strategy at Mars09:26 Why event feedback surveys get low response14:57 Why event organizers stay stuck on ROI17:39 Event technology that measures audience response23:02 Emotion AI across cultures and skin tones28:34 Which conference formats Attenlyx serves best29:39 Why entertainment events are a harder fit31:47 How event engagement shifts across a day33:47 Benchmarking conferences across multiple markets35:30 How many speakers belong on a panel36:38 Audience fatigue, lunch timing and room temperature38:05 Why an event strategist became a founder40:21 Why events need evidence to be funded44:04 Accelerators for a non-technical founder47:52 Positioning as an expert in the room53:42 Giving Gen Z and girls access56:46 AI funding coach for female foundersShow notes: Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/29/episode-174/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-175Connect with Vanessa Williams Saleh and Attenlyx:LinkedIn (Vanessa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaowilliams/LinkedIn (Attenlyx): https://www.linkedin.com/company/attenlyxWebsite: https://www.attenlyx.ai/#contactConnect with Dirkjan Hupkes and FundingCoach:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.aiAbout Women Disrupting TechEvery 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.

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 Introduction02:05 Dr. Ashley Blackington’s path into occupational therapy04:21 What occupational therapists actually do07:52 Canadian and U.S. healthcare perspectives09:29 Why family caregiving is reaching a breaking point15:33 Moving from crisis care to sustainable support18:11 The growing care gap and caregiver shortage22:03 What happens when someone comes home from the hospital25:11 Caregiver burnout and the “single point person” problem30:19 How Dovetail helps families coordinate care41:17 AI summaries for caregivers and clinicians48:40 How Dovetail is available today and where it’s headed52:03 Prevention, parenting, and the future of caregiving55:58 Why occupational therapy should be more proactive58:46 The caregiver foundation and making support accessible1:02:35 Home Field Advantage and the And Both podcast1:06:30 Getting more men involved in caregiving1:08:58 Dr. Blackington’s advice for building prevention and community1:11:41 Where to learn more about Dr. Ashley Blackington and DovetailShow notesBlog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/22/episode-173/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-173Connect with Dr. Ashley Blackington and DovetailWebsite: 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.careConnect with DirkjanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/About Women Disrupting TechEvery 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.

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 episodeWhy fitting in at work can mean adapting so well you lose track of what you would build differentlyHow psychological safety becomes measurable: Silatha's programs report 93 percent higher engagement and 92 percent better psychological safety among participantsWhy cycle-related symptoms only seem unpredictable, and what changes once people track themWhat staying silent about women's health costs at work: stress, isolation, absenteeism, and disengagementWhy policy should follow the 80 to 99 percent of people acting in good faithHer three-part advice for founders in perimenopause: learn your own patterns, find a qualified specialist, and be intentional about what you share with your teamChapters:00:00 — Introduction: Women’s Health, Psychological Safety & Silatha02:11 — Meet Veroniek Vermeulen and Silatha02:42 — From Corporate Engineer to Founder05:03 — Fitting In vs. Adapting at Work06:41 — Burnout, Belonging & Being Valued07:53 — Purpose, Viktor Frankl & Letting Go of Control13:38 — How Silatha Evolved from Wellbeing to Women’s Health17:41 — Why Psychological Safety Matters for Health at Work19:59 — Breaking the Taboo Around Women’s Health25:59 — How Organizations Build Lasting Support27:02 — Nura: Private, Always-On Health Support32:15 — Privacy, Trust & Responsible Health AI38:10 — Men’s Mental Health and Inclusive Health Conversations41:00 — The Cultural and Business Impact of Support43:50 — Women’s Health at Work: Regional Perspectives46:14 — How Founders Can Build Psychologically Safe Startups55:15 — Advice for Founders Navigating Perimenopause56:47 — Priorities, Pressure & Getting Important Work Done1:01:26 — Finding Purpose Through the Work1:01:58 — Designing Safer Founder Communities1:04:06 — Where to Connect with Veroniek Vermeulen and Silatha1:04:40 — Closing and Episode OutroShow 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=trueBooks discussed in the episodeMan’s Search for Meaning: https://amzn.eu/d/07Dj5X9MFour Thousand Weeks: https://amzn.eu/d/0fyR6E7EConnect with Veroniek Vermeulen and SilathaVeroniek 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/UCMEvuobvsmkMqGlv8ndZucQConnect with host Dirkjan HupkesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/About Women Disrupting TechEvery 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.

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 designHow MyHives captures both physical and social safety signals without cameras or continuous listening, keeping all processing on-deviceWhy traditional panic buttons fail the moment someone freezes, and how Beekon is built to act autonomously insteadHow unsafe environments cost the Dutch economy an estimated €8.3 billion a year, with roughly €5 billion linked to psychological and safety-related incidentsWhat it took to bring MyHives into pilots onboarding around 33,000 home care workers and station cleanersWhy translating lived experience into numbers moves corporate decision-makers more than personal stories aloneWhat it’s like fundraising as a woman founder alongside a Black co-founder, and how being underestimated became an advantageChapters:00:00 Introduction04:00 Anniek van Veldhuizen on building MyHives from lived experience05:49 The daily calculations people make to stay safe08:08 Why unsafe experiences go unreported10:04 The gender data gap and how missing data shapes safety14:50 Safety, participation, and learned helplessness17:15 Building trust into a tool people can actually use19:52 How MyHives works: app, BEEKON, and BEEKON+24:00 Triggering help discreetly when someone cannot act28:08 How escalation works across languages and locations30:57 Why privacy is central to the product34:58 Preventing false positives and training the system40:32 Trials, pilots, and the workplace safety use case48:09 The business and societal case for better safety data53:16 Pricing, monetization, and the impact model1:00:01 Working with security partners without being absorbed1:04:20 Fundraising as a woman founder and a Black co-founder1:07:36 Designing Fundicoach to feel safe and inclusiveShow notes :Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/09/24/episode-171Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-171Connect with Anniek van Veldhuizen and MyHives:LinkedIn (Anniek): https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniek-van-veldhuizen-27731514a/Website: https://www.myhives.nl/en-GBLinkedIn (MyHives): https://www.linkedin.com/company/myhives-nl/Download the Hyves appGoogle Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.myhivesApple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/myhives/id6751838174Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/About Women Disrupting TechEvery 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.