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.
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