What does it take to create a successful start-up? This International Women’s Day we find out from the female entrepreneurs leading by example

This International Women’s Day, we at BlueSky Thinking are celebrating the inspiring female entrepreneurs who have used their business school education to create their own career paths.

Drawing on what they’ve learned through business education, and their professional lives following graduation, they share their advice for other women aspiring to follow in their footsteps, sharing their ideas, inspirations and ambitions for the future.

Maria Brilaka is a seasoned entrepreneur, having previously founded Fitness Reloaded, a leading e-learning health platform that helps to prevent diabetes. Now, in an effort to solve a problem faced by her daughter, who has type 1 diabetes, she has created non-invasive wearable technology that monitors blood sugar.

Maria’s MSc in Artificial Intelligence from OPIT – Open Institute of Technology allowed her to understand AI to an level where she could invent with it, not just oversee it. While studying, she built and tested an original optical glucose sensing prototype.

“Focus on solving meaningful problems. The bigger the problem, the more it is worth putting your attention to,” she says.

She shares her story below.

Please introduce yourself to our readers – who are you and what is your job role?

I’m Maria Brilaki, author, inventor, and founder of a MedTech startup that’s solving non-invasive glucose monitoring. I have a background in engineering from Stanford, an MBA, and a recently completed MS in Responsible AI from OPIT, where I built and tested an original optical glucose sensing prototype. Before this, I spent over a decade in product leadership. Most recently as Senior Director of Product at Fiery, managing a portfolio of hundreds of millions. Previously, I founded Fitness Reloaded, a bootstrapped health platform that grew to 150,000 followers and wrote a best-selling book on health habits that gained over 60,000 readers.

What does your product do?

I invented a wearable that reads your glucose without needles. No finger pricks, no sensors under your skin. My MS research proved the core concept works. We’re now building the commercial device on top of that foundation.

Tell us about your background – where did you grow up?

I grew up in Greece. After studying engineering, I came to the United States to complete my first MS degree at Stanford University. I trained as a civil and environmental engineer, then completed an MBA, and then transitioned into health, product leadership, and AI.

What were your early career ambitions and experiences? How have they contributed to where you find yourself now?

I was always very analytical, so I started by studying engineering. Health and longevity were a parallel passion, so I bootstrapped a health platform focused on preventing diabetes that grew to 150,000+ followers. Both threads eventually led me here: building a glucose wearable that requires both engineering rigor and genuine obsession with human health.

What was the reason you decided to pursue higher education? What was it about your school and programme that encouraged you to enrol?

Before OPIT, I was Senior Director of Product Management at Fiery LLC, leading AI strategy, shipping more than 60 features annually, and contributing to its acquisition by Epson. I was already leading AI-driven products, but I wanted to understand the technology at a level where I could invent with it, not just oversee it. OPIT offered a rigorous curriculum that was fully remote, which allowed me to continue building while studying. That combination was essential.

What was the most valuable take-away from your studies?

The lessons on ethical AI really stuck with me. Explainability, fairness, accountability, human in the loop, privacy, they all helped shape how I think about AI and developing AI-based products and features.

“I was already leading AI-driven products, but I wanted to understand the technology at a level where I could invent with it, not just oversee it.”

–Maria Brilaki

What inspired you to develop your non-invasive glucose monitoring system?

The inspiration came from my daughter’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes a few years ago, watching her endure painful needle insertions, skin irritation, and delayed readings from traditional CGMs. In 2026, we should have better ways of monitoring blood sugar.

How did your education support you in realising your entrepreneurial ambitions?

I had never before built hardware, conducted a study with 25 people to test a new invention, or created machine learning per person calibration models. This all happened during my thesis work at OPIT.

“When I place a physical device on the table and walk through measured results, the dynamic shifts. Hardware backed by data commands attention.”

– Maria Brilaki

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early stages of developing your product, and how did you overcome them?

Honestly, the biggest challenge was confronting the physics of the problem. Light from the wearable’s LEDs interacts with dozens of compounds in the skin, not just glucose, and individual variation in skin properties is enormous. Early in my research, grouping everyone’s results together and trying to generalize to new people led to subpar results. I overcame that by reframing the approach entirely: shifting from universal models to person-specific calibration. This is truly personalized medicine, as the wearable has to understand your individual patterns to increase accuracy.

As a female entrepreneur, have you encountered any obstacles or biases in your entrepreneurial journey? How did you navigate them?

There’s subtle bias everywhere. For example, the typical LinkedIn post shows a startup founder using a male figure. The data supports this, with only 2% of VC funding going to all-female teams. That said, working prototypes change conversations. When I place a physical device on the table and walk through measured results, the dynamic shifts. Hardware backed by data commands attention.

What advice would you give to other women who are considering starting their own businesses or developing their own products? Is there anything you wish someone had told you as you began your entrepreneurial journey?

My advice would be to focus on solving meaningful problems. The bigger the problem, the more it is worth putting your attention to. Don’t be afraid by the size of it, instead focus on what it would mean if you were to solve it.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years, I want my daughter and hundreds of millions like her to never need another needle to monitor their blood sugar. That’s the goal. Everything else is a milestone on the way there.

Interested in this series? Keep reading…