Women Disrupting Tech

Kun je planten hergebruiken? Toen ik voor het eerst naar de website van Circular Green keek en las dat dit kon, dacht ik hoe dan?

Rolien Wiersinga biedt met haar bedrijf Circular Green Plants as a Service aan. Het is een circulaire manier om mensen een betere werkomgeving te geven en planten een langer leven.

En haar Plants As A Service blijken nog een andere onverwachte positieve social impact te hebben.

Welke dat is, legt Rolien in deze aflevering uit.

In deze aflevering van Women Disrupting Tech

In deze aflevering ontrafelen Rolien en ik de logistieke uitdagingen van circulair ondernemen en bespreken we waarom planten zo goed zijn voor onze mentale gezondheid.

Daarnaast vertelt Rolien

En we onthullen hoe zelfs haar hydrokorrels een positieve sociale impact teweegbrengen.

Over Rolien en Circular Green

Rolien Wiersinga’s reis in de wereld van Plants as a Service begint bij haar werk voor Flora Holland. Ze verbetert daar de efficiency van de logistieke processen rondom de veiling van planten. En ze begint zich af te vragen waarom we zoveel nieuwe bloemen en planten nodig hebben.

Bij Circular Green komen haar ervaring in vernieuwing en logistiek, en haar studie bij Wageningen University samen. Met duurzame planten helpt ze bedrijven en instellingen een groene en gezonde werkplekken te bieden voor hun medewerkers.

Denk je nou, “dit wil ik ook!”? Neem dan contact op met Rolien via email of LinkedIn. Wil je meer informatie over hoe ze jouw bedrijf of instelling kan helpen, kijk op de site van Circular Green.

“Een slimme meid is op haar toekomst voorbereid”, was de slogan van een overheidscampagne die meisjes en jonge vrouwen moesten overtuigen om voor een opleiding en baan in de techniek te kiezen.

Fast forward naar 2023 als minder dan 5% van meisjes in het MBO voor een technische studie kiest.

Hoe komt dat? En vooral, hoe krijgen we daar verbetering in?

Daarover gaat de nieuwe aflevering van Women Disrupting Tech. Samen met Sanne Jongejan, directeur onderwijs van de sector Techniek en Technologie bij Curio duiken we in de rol die opvoeding en onderwijs spelen in de aanvoer van vrouwelijk tech talent.

In een levendige aflevering hebben we het over zaken als:

🔎 Waarom een overschot aan leraressen in het basisonderwijs onbedoeld bijdraagt aan een verkeerde beeldvorming over techniek bij kinderen en moeders.

🗣️ Hoe de andere, mannelijke, taal in de techniek ervoor zorgt dat meiden zich minder veilig kunnen voelen.

📜 Welke verouderde opvattingen over meisjes in techniek bij leraren en decanen, meiden op het verkeerde been zetten bij het maken van carrièrekeuzes.

Maar we hebben het ook over wat Curio als onderwijsinstelling doet om voor een veilige omgeving te zorgen voor de meiden die wel voor de technische opleiding kiezen.

En ook nu weer komt het belang van meer rolmodellen aan bod. Rolmodellen die niet alleen de meiden overtuigen maar er ook voor zorgen dat moeders hun dochters kunnen vertellen waarom techniek echt iets voor hen is.

Luister nu naar de nieuwste Women Disrupting Tech podcast en ontdek hoe we samen de toekomst van vrouwelijk tech talent kunnen veranderen! Klik op de link om te luisteren.

Over Sanne Jongejan en Curio

Sanne Jongejan is de directeur Onderwijs van de sector Techniek en Technologie bij Curio. Ze brengt een schat aan ervaring in het onderwijs mee die ze opbouwde in meer dan 20 jaar in diverse onderwijs en managementposities bij Avans Hogeschool en als directeur van De Nassau in Breda. Je kunt meer over haar te weten komen en connecten via haar LinkedIn-profiel.

Curio is de beroepsopleider van de regio West-Brabant. Zij hebben de opleidingen die vrouwen nodig hebben om in de techniek te kunnen werken. Meer informatie over vind je op hun website en op hun LinkedIn en Instagram profiel.

En op 25 januari 2024 is er weer een open dag, ook voor technische opleidingen. Je kunt je daarvoor vanaf vandaag (24 november 2023) vrijblijvend inschrijven. Dat is een mooie kans om erachter te komen welke bijdrage je dochter, vriendin, kleindochter, nichtje, zus kan leveren met een technische opleiding.

Imagine, you're the founder of a tech startup with an all-male team. And you wonder if you're ready to make the pivotal shift towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. Where do you start? 

Spoiler: the DEI journey does not start with hiring a woman or a person of color. 

So, what should you do at the start of your journey into the world of diversity, equity, and inclusion? 

Ingrid Tappin gives you the answer in the 31st episode of Women Disrupting Tech. It's a vibrant conversation about DEI with one of the DEI experts in the startup ecosystem. Ingrid and I talk about: 

Oh, and did I mention the upcoming DEI in Tech Summit on 23 November? Well, we talk about that too. 

About Ingrid Tappin and Diverse Leaders in Tech

Ingrid Tappin is the founder and director of Diverse Leaders in Tech and ⁠M/T Sprout Inclusive Leader 2023⁠. 

She has over 20 years of experience in the tech ecosystem as a former co-founder of a SaaS startup, senior manager at Accenture, and Director of DEI at ⁠Techleap⁠. 

To learn more about Ingrid, you can connect with her on ⁠LinkedIn⁠. 

And, you can learn more about Diverse Leaders in Tech and partners and apply for a membership via ⁠their website⁠. 

Attend the DEI in Tech Summit

Please ⁠register here⁠ to attend the DEI in Tech Summit on 23 November. Ingrid offers free access to the first 10 listeners who use the Discount Code DLiT_DISRUPT as a special offer. 

Did you know that only 16,5% of inventors named in international patent applications are women? And here's the kicker: startups with a patent are 10 times more likely to secure funding!

In that sense, a patent is a serious unlock. Therefore, for female founders in the tech world, understanding the path to securing a patent is a game-changer.

That is why, in the latest episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I sit down with Vera op den Brouw. Vera is a remarkable European Patent attorney and partner at AOMB. Her passion? Boosting the number of female inventors in the world.

In this episode, Vera and host Dirkjan Hupkes talk about

1. Vera's journey in the world of patents,

2. The intricacies of the patent process.

3. How can we get more women to apply for a patent?

4. Why more female inventors are the key to a better world?

Vera's advice to women who want to try if tech is something for them: "There is no shame in trying and failing."

More about Vera op den Brouw

Vera, with a master's and Ph.D. in organic chemistry, found her calling as a patent attorney at AOMB, where science, law, teaching, and writing converge. With over two decades of experience, she's been instrumental in helping companies build, manage, and protect their patent portfolios.

You can connect with Vera via LinkedIn and her personal page on the AOMB website.

About AOMB

AOMB, a leading Dutch Intellectual Property Consultancy firm, offers expert patent advice in Chemistry, Life Sciences, Engineering, and High-Tech sectors.

For more insights on AOMB, please visit their website. There, you can also find specific information on patents.

And if you'd like more information about patents and intellectual property, and you like listening to podcasts, try out their podcast called Kennispodje.

What do a Rembrandt painting from 1632, Monash University and Groningen have in common?

They're all linked to my guest on episode 29 of Women Disrupting Tech.

Lusanne Tehupuring is the CEO and co-founder of Enatom, an ed-tech company based in Groningen that is redefining anatomy lessons. To date, these anatomy lessons still have a close resemblance to the Anatomy Lesson painting by Rembrandt from 1632. Before co-founding Enatom, she studied Marketing at Monash University.

Why Should You Tune In?

In this captivating episode, we delve deep into:

1. How Enatom propels anatomy lessons for medical students into the 21st century 🚀
2. The significance of bridging the education gap and ensuring equal opportunities around the world. 🟰
3. The untapped potential of medical institutions partnering with tech-savvy pioneers ⚯.

And from a personal perspective, Lusanne talks about her journey to becoming a startup co-founder, how she discusses with her daughter that it's normal that her father picks her up from school, and how female founders can play a role in getting better tech education in primary schools.

Toward the end of this magical episode, Lusanne has a career nugget for young women: keep working between 30 and 40, as these are the years when your impact knows no bounds.

Are you ready for some female founder inspiration?

About Lusanne and Enatom

Before becoming the co-founder of Enatom, Lusanne was the private lead forFounded in Groningen. With this public-private partnership, she helped to build and enhance the local startup ecosystem. And, together with Constantijn van Oranje, she also hosts TheYoung Business Awards, the largest Scale Up competition in The Netherlands.

Enatom is an Education Technology Company that builds e-learning for anatomy that can be done on regular computers and in VR. Thanks to their solution, 21st-century education about human anatomy becomes accessible to people in middle and low-income countries and in countries where dissecting a human body is not allowed for religious reasons. In that sense, Enatom is also contributing to theSustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

To dive deeper into Enatom's captivating journey, connect with them onLinkedIn andexplore their website.

And for a direct connection with Lusanne, don't hesitate to reach out to her viaLinkedIn. 🌐📲

What is the magic ingredient that makes women join tech startups or other organizations in tech? Impact. And what makes The Hague the place to be for that impact to come to fruition?

To find the answers, listen to the 28th episode of Women Disrupting Tech. This week, I got a chance to have an enlightening conversation with Irene Samwel from ImpactCity and Arianne van der Linden from Kwebbel about what making an impact is like.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech

In this episode, you’ll learn how to facilitate impact as a municipality, how you create it with an impact startup, and how people who want to make an impact come together at ImpactFest.

But we also speak about how the funding of impact startups sets the example for startup investments, in the sense that diversity in teams is one of the investment criteria. And, of course, we talk about what magic ingredients would be needed to make Women Disrupting Tech obsolete 10 years from now. The answers? Collaboration and a positive mindset.

This episode is for you if you want to learn more about the impact ecosystem in The Hague. And if you want to join the 8th edition of ImpactFest on 7 November 2023 in the Fokker Terminal in The Hague, make sure you listen until the end, as Irene offers 3 free tickets that you can claim via the ImpactFest website.

Are you ready for some magical impact?

More about ImpactFest and the free ticket

For more information about ImpactFest, you can visit the event website. You’ll find the complete program and the opportunity to claim 1 of 3 free tickets there. You can use the code womendisruptingtech (one word, all lowercase) to claim one of the 3 free tickets. It’s first-come, first-served, so be quick!

Connect with ImpactCity and Irene Samwel

You can learn more about ImpactCity by visiting their website and following them on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or Instagram. And you can connect with Irene Samwel via LinkedIn.

Let the magic of Kwebbel surprise you.

To learn more about Kwebbel Care or how Kwebbel’s journey continues, please visit their website and follow them on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Of course, you can connect with Arianne via LinkedIn, too.

Special thanks to Fieke Ripping for helping to organize the interview while I was on holiday.

We know that having a mentor can be a magical tool for women in tech. After all, having a mentor can support women in developing necessary skills, providing guidance and feedback, creating networking opportunities, and advancing their careers. Not to mention that it helps to have a role model.

Yet only 1 in 5 women in tech has a mentor. Intriguing, right?

To understand this phenomenon and discover solutions, I have an engaging conversation with Estelle Roux. Estelle is the CEO and co-founder of StellarUp, a mentoring and community platform enabling organizations to seamlessly facilitate mentoring relationships from inception to fruition.

In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, Estelle reveals:

🌟How mentoring can transform women's journey in tech, provided it is skillfully embedded in their organization.

🛠️What it is like to build a company that equips organizations with practical tools for their mentors.

👭 Why she wants to serve as a guiding light for fellow women in the tech world.

But there's more... Estelle also shares the adventures she encountered during her journey as a tech startup founder, explains what fundraising and a job interview have in common, and tells us how her diverse team conjures up solutions to complex problems with remarkable speed.

And, for those who believe that tech careers are limited to coding, Estelle has some wisdom to share: "You don't have to be a developer in tech; just be curious!"

Are you ready to discover how mentorship unlocks the power of women in tech? Tune into episode 27 of Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

You can connect with Estelle on LinkedIn.

And, if you want to learn more about how mentoring can help you, follow StellarUp on its journey via its website, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

A big thank you to Liliana Rodrigues for connecting me with Estelle.

Building an innovative consumer electronics product with your startup requires quite a bit of magic. But getting it in front of the right distributors and retailers is an art in and of itself.

Until now, this was primarily an offline affair that required significant investments in trade shows, with the right contacts at the right companies and some cold calling. Not to mention persistence.

As times are changing, it’s also time for the trade show industry to be disrupted. So, in this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, CEO and co-founder Nancy Shenouda takes us into the world of Tradesnest.com.

Tradesnest Magic Mix

Tradesnest uses a potent potion of Nancy’s knowledge and experience working at global retail companies, combined with data to match small consumer electronic brands with distributors on a global scale. And they recently added some artificial intelligence to their already enchanting tech mix to help brands predict faster which markets and distribution partners would be the best fit for their innovation.

On this episode of Women Disrupting Tech

In this podcast episode, Nancy explains

• Why she had to start building a global business right away.
• How she has actually built two businesses in one.
• That you don’t need to have a tech background to build a tech platform if you have deep industry knowledge.

But this episode is not just about Tradesnest. Nancy has an opinion on the funding of female founders, too. She argues that there are enough excellent female founders to choose from and that there is no excuse to be at the 2%.

Inspiration for women in the corporate world

And, toward the end of the podcast, Nancy takes the opportunity to encourage other women from the corporate world not to be discouraged by the funding statistics and to build a tech startup.

Nancy explains that even if they have no technical background, they can build a team with the capacities they need to go after their dreams.

More about Nancy Shenouda and Tradesnest.com

If you work for a brand with an innovative product that already has some traction, you can sign up for free at the website of Tradesnest.com. And if you're not there yet or just interested in the journey, you can follow them on Instagram and LinkedIn.

To learn more about Nancy, please connect with her on LinkedIn.

Well, I wanted the 25th episode of Women Disrupting Tech to be something special. So, when The Hague Tech offered me the chance to host a panel discussion on Career Advancement for Women in Tech, I gladly accepted the offer.

My guests on the panel are Wafa M'ribah, Hendrika Willemse, and Jennifer Delano. Our discussion covered a broad range of topics, including:

After the event, Jennifer launched her Dutch Tech on Heels platform. The purpose of Dutch Tech on Heels is to boost the visibility of women in Dutch Tech and bring a female perspective to the tech world.

A big shout out to my guests for being a great guide to the people in the room and on the live stream. And a special thank you to the team of The Hague Tech for organizing the event and to Holland Park Media for recording the live stream and this podcast.

Some companies make an impact by saving people money. Others save people's money. Meet Sujata Dasgupta, who's in the business of safeguarding your savings by helping banks prevent fraud and detect financial crime.

Preventing financial crimes isn't just about money. It's also about protecting our society and planet from the disastrous impacts of crimes like drug trafficking, human trafficking, child abuse, environmental crimes like illicit wildlife trade, illegal mining, and others that threaten the ecological balance and biodiversity.

In the past 5-7 years, financial crime prevention has seen a tech revolution. Criminals now use advanced tech like "ransomware as a service," "synthetic voice cloning," and even ChatGPT to their advantage.

As the Head of Financial Crime Risk and Compliance Advisory for Tata Consultancy Services, Sujata helps banks prevent fraud and detect money laundering. And in the latest episode of Women Disrupting Tech, she explains how she finds inspiration in preventing crimes so that the money can be used for the greater good.

In addition, she explains why having diverse teams can make this job easier and argues that we should not talk about female tech professionals but about tech professionals. Because Sujata believes that any professional in tech – irrespective of gender - who has the skill, creativity, and passion can contribute to making this world a better place. 

Connect with Sujata

If you would like to learn more about Sujata, you can contact her through LinkedIn. If you're interested in the article about real-time monitoring of Anti-Money Laundering, you can find it on the website of Corporate Compliance Insights. You can also find her articles on Risk Management Magazine, AI Journal, and Fintech Futures. 

A special thanks to Mark van Tol and Sanne Offringa for their help in putting this interview together.