Whoever controls the narrative holds the power to influence others. But for female founders, storytelling isn't just about marketing — it's a leadership tool that can reshape how you're seen, heard, and followed.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Jennifer Cloer, founder of Story Changes Culture and creator of the Chasing Grace Project, about why storytelling is a leadership imperative that requires embracing tension, emotion, and your own lived experience.

Jennifer explains how her decade at the Linux Foundation taught her the anatomy of a great story, why "narrative power is cultural power," and what it takes to architect an origin story that connects with investors, teams, and customers.

This episode is for female founders, women in tech, startup leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to use their personal stories to lead, influence, and drive real business growth.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why narrative power is cultural power, and why whoever tells the story holds influence
• How to architect your founder origin story (characters, tension, stakes, and resolution)
• Why humans don't change behavior unless emotionally triggered, and what that means for leadership
• The "dreams and nightmares" framework for understanding what your audience truly wants and fears
• Why the personal is the professional, and how your lived experience is your most powerful asset
• What "agency" in storytelling means and why stories fall flat without it
• How the Chasing Grace Project became "rocket fuel" for women in tech to ask for raises and leave toxic jobs

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:07 The Birth of Story Changes Culture

07:20 The Chasing Grace Project: Empowering Women Through Storytelling

12:13 The Importance of Storytelling in Leadership

18:51 Authenticity in Storytelling: Balancing Personal and Professional

21:13 Embracing Emotion in Storytelling

21:23 Harnessing Tension in Storytelling

22:56 Filling the Gap: Story Changes Culture Masterclass

25:39 Elements of a Compelling Story

28:42 Overcoming Skepticism in Art and Storytelling

31:26 The Role of Agency in Storytelling

32:59 Choosing the Right Perspective

35:33 Underused Storytelling Elements for Women Founders

Connect with Jennifer Cloer and Story Changes Culture

Jennifer Cloer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercloer/

Personal Website: https://www.jennifercloer.com/

Story Changes Culture website: https://www.storychangesculture.com/

Story Changes Culture on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/storychangesculture/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/story_changesculture/

Substack: https://storychangesculture.substack.com/

More about Women Disrupting Tech

The full show notes on the website: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/04/09/episode-147/

Our Substack Newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-147

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech through storytelling and leadership.

What people lose first after a brain injury isn't intelligence. It's confidence, autonomy, and dignity.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Faviola Dadis, CEO and co-founder of BrainBoostXR, about how she's building AI-powered virtual reality rehabilitation that restores dignity for people recovering from acquired brain injuries.

Faviola explains why traditional cognitive rehab often fails — not because the exercises don't work, but because 50% of patients don't complete their protocols.

Her solution combines gamified VR experiences with AI-driven personalization to solve the adherence problem while addressing the emotional and social aspects of recovery that traditional rehab ignores.

We also explore the concept of digital twins in healthcare, how AI can personalize rehabilitation without reinforcing bias, and why loneliness erodes dignity faster than cognitive decline ever will.

This episode is for female founders, women in tech, health tech entrepreneurs, and anyone building products that need to balance clinical effectiveness with human dignity.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why cognitive rehabilitation alone isn't enough — and what's missing
• How gamified VR improves patient adherence in brain injury recovery
• What digital twins are and how they personalize rehabilitation protocols
• Why loneliness is a bigger threat to dignity than cognitive decline
• How to build AI systems that avoid reinforcing existing biases in healthcare
• What female founders should know about the investor relationship and funding expectations

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:55 Journey to BrainBoostXR

08:36 Understanding Acquired Brain Injury

14:39 The Role of Gamification in Rehabilitation

20:32 The Importance of Dignity in Recovery

26:21 Innovations in AI and Digital Twins

32:44 The Power of AI in Personalization

36:08 Ethics and Bias in AI Development

45:12 Commercializing BrainBoostXR

57:39 Defining Success in Cognitive Care

1:03:30 The Gender Funding Gap

1:05:11 Investor Expectations and Early-Stage Challenges

1:09:25 The Founder-Investor Relationship

1:14:55 Personal Health and Entrepreneurship

1:21:31 Building an AI Funding Coach

Connect with Faviola Dadis and BrainBoost XR

Faviola Dadis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/favioladadis/

BrainBoostXR Website: https://www.brainboostxr.com/

BrainBoostXR on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brainboostxr/

BrainBoostXR on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainboostxr/

Connect with Dirkjan Hupkes

Dirkjan Hupkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/

Women Disrupting Tech Website: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/

Women Disrupting Tech Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

Most startups hire fast. But is that the right hiring strategy?

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Relinde Boerman, lead recruiter at PolarSteps. This travel app startup scaled from 20 to nearly 100 employees while maintaining the culture that made it special.

We explore why PolarSteps ignores time-to-hire as a metric, how they assess culture fit beyond vague feelings, and what it takes to build a talent-dense team that doesn't compromise on values.

Relinde explains how clearly defined values become hiring criteria, why curiosity matters more than perfect clarity in a scaling environment, and how their "day at the office" interview process reveals what traditional interviews miss.

This episode is for female founders, startup leaders, and anyone building a team who wants to understand how to scale without sacrificing the culture that makes your company special.

What you'll learn in this episode

- Why time-to-hire is the wrong metric for culture-driven startups

- How to translate abstract company values into concrete hiring behaviors

- What "talent density" means and why it matters more than headcount

- Why hiring "overqualified" people for first-of-kind roles is a smart strategy

- How a full-day interview reveals what 3 rounds of traditional interviews can't

- What it takes to maintain culture while scaling from 20 to 100 employees

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:02 Relinde's Journey to Polarsteps

04:47 The Growth of Polarsteps

07:20 Maintaining Company Culture During Rapid Growth

10:23 The Importance of Values in Recruitment

12:54 Hiring for Culture Fit15:38 Assessing Cultural Drift

17:54 Defining Company Values

20:05 Embedding Values in the Hiring Process

22:15 Curiosity as a Cultural Element

25:12 Balancing Clarity and Ambiguity in a Fast-Paced Environment

27:58 The Role of Leadership in Culture

30:14 High Impact, Talent Density, and Values

33:10 Navigating Commercial Pressures in Hiring

35:43 Addressing Hiring Mistakes

38:15 The Day at the Office: A Unique Hiring Approach

40:59 Onboarding and Settling In

43:42 Fostering Belonging in a Hybrid Setup

46:51 Career Growth and Internal Mobility

49:23 Hiring a New CEO

52:19 Advice for Female Founders

55:15 Closing Thoughts and Resources

Connect with Relinde Boerman and PolarSteps

Relinde Boerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/relindeboerman/

Polarsteps on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polarsteps/

Polarsteps website: https://www.polarsteps.com/

Polarsteps careers: https://careers.polarsteps.com/

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations on building sustainable, culture-driven tech companies.

Most people think technology is neutral. It’s not.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Dr. Christine Miller, Professor of Design Management at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and author of “Tools, Totems, and Totalities.” She studies how power and cultural values get embedded into the technology we use every day.

We explore why so many modern tools feel like systems we have to submit to rather than products we choose, how AI and platforms are designed to ensure “the house always wins,” and what it takes to build technology that empowers human imagination instead of exploiting it.

Chris introduces the framework of tools, totems, and totalities — a lens for understanding why there’s such a gap between what technology promises and what it actually delivers. We also talk about the unique systemic challenges female founders face when trying to build outside the gravity of existing tech totalities.

This episode is for female founders, women in tech, and startup leaders who are building products and want to understand how design choices embed power dynamics into technology.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why modern technology reflects power dynamics, not just functionality
• The difference between tools that work with you vs. tools that work for you
• How “totalities” like venture capital force founders into predefined roles
• Why profitability should be measured in infrastructure, social, and cultural capital — not just financial returns
• The “dreams and nightmares” framework for designing technology that people actually trust
• How to stay on the “pirate trajectory” — plundering a system’s resources without being pulled into its gravity

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

05:34 Exploring Hegemony in Technology

08:28 The Nature of Technology and Trust

11:18 The Concept of Neutrality in Technology

14:17 Understanding Tools, Totems, and Totalities

17:03 The Impact of Totalities on Technology

19:53 Women Founders and Systemic Challenges

22:59 Alternatives in Technology: Blue Sky

25:54 Profitability and Societal Progress

34:38 Measuring Societal Benefit and Design Value

37:52 Identity-Shaping Technology and Brand Influence

41:12 Addiction to Technology and Design Principles

44:59 Conviviality and Sustainable Technology

48:48 The Challenge of Perspective in Corporate Culture

52:07 Building Support Networks for Founders

55:45 Designing for Creativity and Imagination

Connect with Christine Miller

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-z-miller-ph-d-b4735350/

Order her book Tools, Totems, and Totalities: The Modern Construction of Hegemonic Technology

On Amazon

On Bol

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations on building tech that empowers, not exploits.

Burnout doesn't happen because people work too hard. It happens because half their work is invisible.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Jamie Albaum, co-founder of Kellotime, a platform that helps organizations understand how their teams actually spend their time.

We explore how invisible labor — the operational work, coordination, and care tasks that keep companies running — quietly builds up inside teams and contributes to burnout and structural bias.

Jamie explains how unmeasured workload distorts promotions, recognition, and retention, and why founders who want to build sustainable companies need to understand the gap between assumed workload and real workload.

This episode is for female founders, startup leaders, and women in tech who want to understand how invisible labor creates burnout before it's too late.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why burnout often starts in the gap between assumed workload and real workload
• How time tracking helps founders identify overload before it becomes a crisis
• What data reveals about gendered labor patterns inside teams
• Why invisible labor shapes promotions, recognition, and retention
• How workload visibility improves pricing, fundraising, and project planning

Chapters:

02:10 The Birth of Kello Time: Addressing Burnout in Organizations

05:03 Understanding the Importance of Timekeeping

07:55 Cultural Implications of Invisible Labor

10:54 The Impact of Burnout on Employee Engagement

13:49 Identifying Patterns of Burnout Across Organizations

16:55 The Role of Data in Shaping Workplace Culture

19:51 Kello Time's Unique Approach to Timekeeping

22:45 The Gender Dynamics of Invisible Labor

25:35 Kello Time's Functionality and Benefits

28:27 Strategic Resource Management with Kello Time

31:19 Building Trust and Avoiding Micromanagement

34:25 Cultural Shifts and Employee Wellbeing

37:33 Recognizing Signs of Employee Disengagement

40:24 The Importance of Open Communication

43:22 Encouraging Time Off for Better Productivity

46:31 Implementing Sabbatical Policies for Employee Retention

49:35 Advice for Founders on Managing Workloads

52:16 The Invisible Labor of Fundraising

55:14 Practicing Public Speaking as a Founder

58:17 Connecting with Jamie and Kello Time

Connect with Jamie Albaum and Kellotime:

Jamie Albaum on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiealbaum/

Website: https://www.kellotime.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kellotime

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kello_time/

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building sustainable tech companies.

Starting a tech company is hard. Starting one during a war requires a different kind of resilience.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Oryna Starkina, founder and CEO of Starksoft, a mobile development company she built during the pandemic and has kept running through the war in Ukraine. We explore how distributed teams create operational resilience, why the pandemic was actually a "golden window" for tech startups, and how Oryna turned her natural anxiety into a risk management advantage.

This episode is for female founders, women in tech, and entrepreneurs building companies in uncertain times who want to understand how resilience is both a business architecture and a personal practice.

What you'll learn in this episode:

* Why 2020 was an opportunity window for tech, not just a crisis

• How a distributed team structure keeps a company running during power outages and war

• Why working with SMEs provided more stability than enterprise clients during crisis

• How naturally anxious founders can leverage overthinking as scenario planning

• Why physical routines break the "thinking loop" and create space for better decisions

• What's shifting for women in tech leadership roles in Ukraine — and why it's likely permanent

Chapters:

02:05 Navigating Crisis: The Birth of Starksoft

04:49 Building a Resilient Business Model

07:56 Client Relationships and Support During Turbulence

10:29 Overcoming Personal Challenges: Anxiety and Imposter Syndrome

13:26 Networking and Attracting Clients

16:16 The Role of Routine in Managing Anxiety

18:58 Mindfulness and Focus Through Physical Activity

22:01 Leveraging Overthinking for Business Success

24:52 Coping with Uncertainty in a War Zone

30:49 Impact of War on Workforce Dynamics

35:09 Women in Tech: Rising Opportunities

39:52 Long-Term Changes in Female Entrepreneurship

41:55 Lessons from Uncertainty: Insights for Founders

44:16 Preparing for the Unknown: Practical Strategies

48:43 Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Realizations and Growth

More about the episode

Check the show notes for magic moments, practical takeaways and insights.

More about Oryna Starkina and Starksoft

Connect with Oryna Starkina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arastark/

Learn more about Starksoft: https://www.starksoft.online/

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of tech.

Burnout isn't about working too hard. It's about working against yourself.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Alice Pavin, a Business and Life Coach for female founders navigating the gap between external success and internal alignment.

We explore what happens when everything looks perfect on paper, but something still feels off — and what it takes to listen to the whisper before it becomes a shout.

This episode is for women in tech, female founders, and entrepreneurs who are building at high intensity but wondering if there's a more sustainable way forward.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why burnout is misalignment, not just overwork
• How to use your heart as a compass and your mind as an execution tool
• What morning routines actually do for flow state and nervous system regulation
• How to practice heart-centered decision-making before investor meetings
• Why silence is uncomfortable — and why it's essential for growth
• What microdosing can and can't do as a tool for self-connection

Chapters

02:00 Introduction to Wellbeing and Entrepreneurship

03:12 The Whisper of the Body

05:02 Spiritual CV and Inner Balance

08:32 The Power of Silence

14:12 Mind vs. Heart: Finding Balance

18:29 Signs of Imbalance and Body Communication

21:28 Practicing Heart-Centered Living

28:59 Morning Routines for Flow State

30:37 Breathwork for Heart Connection

32:26 Heart-Centered Visualization Exercise

42:23 Understanding Microdosing and Its Benefits

50:14 Microdosing Protocols and Practices

58:58 Integrating Microdosing with Personal Development

1:03:52 Empowering Female Founders in Investment Conversations

About this episode

📰 Read the show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/02/26/episode-141/

🔗 Connect with Alice Pavin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicepavin

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health and tech.

What if women's health is not a niche, but infrastructure?

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Ida Tin, the woman who coined the term FemTech and co-founder of Clue, one of the world's leading women's health apps.

Together, we unpack why innovation in women's health has stalled, what a missing data set is costing us, and why fixing it may be the highest-return investment in the global economy.

This episode is for women in tech, femtech founders, and investors who believe women's health deserves to be treated as foundational infrastructure — not a funding afterthought.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why continuous hormonal data is the missing layer in women's health
• How the "leaky pipeline" metaphor reframes health as an economic issue
• What it takes to raise conviction capital as a female founder in FemTech
• Why Europe has a unique opportunity to lead in gender-informed healthcare
• How to use the "imaginary empty chair" framework for ethical data design
• What Ida learned from taking Clue through FDA clearance as the world's first data-driven birth control

Chapters:

02:00 The Journey to Femtech

04:56 Clue: Revolutionizing Women's Health

07:56 The Importance of Men's Understanding in Women's Health

10:22 The Need for Hormonal Data

11:17 Challenges in Hormonal Monitoring

14:20 The Societal Impact of Women's Health

17:22 Women's Health as Societal Infrastructure

20:04 Investing in Women's Health

23:15 The Future of Gender-Informed Healthcare

26:23 Europe's Opportunity in Women's Health

28:39 The Interconnection of Health and Environment

29:24 Innovations in Health Monitoring

31:07 Understanding Hormonal Health

31:55 Transformations in Women's Health

33:55 The Importance of Data in Women's Health

34:25 The Femtech Assembly: A Movement for Change

37:49 Building a Cohesive Femtech Community

40:28 Data Privacy in Femtech

45:24 Reframing Women's Health as an Opportunity

52:56 Advice for Female Founders in Health Tech

More information and links to connect

🔗 Connect with Ida Tin on LinkedIn.

🔗 Learn more about FemTech Assembly on LinkedIn or Substack.

📰 Check out the show notes for magic moments and insights from the episode.

🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health and tech.

Most AI companies are built to scale fast. Melissa Solis built hers to last.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Melissa Solis, founder and CEO of Inbenta, about AI leadership, customer-centric AI, inclusive leadership, and what it really takes to build an AI company that creates long-term value.

Melissa has spent three decades leading AI companies through rapid industry change while prioritizing trust, inclusion, and sustainable growth. She brings a grounded perspective shaped by lived experience in environments that don’t always change on their own.

This episode is intended to help female tech entrepreneurs and AI leaders who are building for the long term.

In this episode, we explore:

• How to build an AI company that prioritizes customer trust over quick wins

• How AI is shifting access and opportunity beyond traditional credentials

• What inclusive AI leadership looks like in practice

• Why gratitude matters as a leadership choice

• Why DEI policies don’t work without respect

• What “building your own table” means in practice

Chapters:

02:25 Journey to CEO: Melissa Solis’ Path

05:18 Inbenta: Transforming Data into AI Solutions

08:03 The Importance of Customer Partnership in AI

11:05 Challenges in Data Management and Deployment

13:43 AI’s Role in Accessibility and Education

16:39 Earning Recognition vs. Receiving It: A Discussion on DEI

25:26 Creating a Fair Workplace: The Future of Leadership

27:48 Building Your Own Table

30:53 The Importance of Open Conversations

32:32 Merit Over Background

35:17 The Power of Gratitude in Leadership

42:16 Surrounding Yourself with Support

46:52 Leaving a Legacy and Empowering Others

More information and links to connect:

Blog and show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/02/12/episode-139/

Connect with Melissa Solis on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/melissa-solis-3532302a

Learn more about Inbenta: https://www.inbenta.com/

🎧 Listen to more Women Disrupting Tech episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

👉 Follow for more conversations with leaders building the future of AI and tech.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Philipp Omenitsch, co-founder of Sequel, creator of PitchLeague.ai and The Founder Files, and former startup CTO, about what actually gets funded in venture capital.

Philipp has analyzed 17,000+ pitch decks through the Founder Files. This conversation cuts through fundraising advice and looks at patterns in the data.

You'll learn:

- Why prior startup experience is such a strong funding signal.

- How investors think about risk, scale, and returns.

- What pitch decks really need to do at early stages.

- How technical ownership and team signals build trust.

- Why pay gaps also affect who gets to invest.

We also explore Philipp's work at Sequel, where professional athletes invest in startups, and what that reveals about pay gaps, investing power, and who gets to allocate capital in venture capital.

Whether you're raising your first round or building toward it, this episode helps you understand the funding system you're stepping into with data, not just advice.

Chapters:

01:52 – Introduction to Philipp Omenitsch and Sequel

04:31 – Democratizing access to venture capital

07:09 – Barriers to accessing venture capital

10:09 – The Founder Files and pitch deck analysis

12:45 – Gender disparities in startup funding

15:36 – The importance of prior experience

18:09 – Investment decisions in venture capital

20:30 – The impact of diverse founding teams

23:08 – The importance of diversity in startups

26:01 – Leveraging data for female founders

28:47 – The role of technical co-founders

30:41 – Investing in female founders

32:03 – Communication styles of female founders

33:40 – Key components of a successful pitch deck

34:58 – Empowering athletes in investment decisions

37:33 – The performance mindset of athletes

40:04 – Lessons from startup experiences

44:13 – Building successful pitch tools

More information and show notes

Connect with Philipp on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippomenitsch/

Read about key lessons, magic moments and practical takeaways in the show notes: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/02/05/episode-138/