MediCooler Founder Pieter van Leijen in the Financieel Dagblad: From Top Sport to Entrepreneurship

MediCooler Founder Pieter van Leijen in the Financieel Dagblad: From Top Sport to Entrepreneurship

Recently, the Financieel Dagblad published an article about our founder, Pieter van Leijen. In the piece, Pieter shares his personal journey from a career in sailing to the founding of MediCooler , a company that develops medical cool boxes for medicine. His story is about perseverance, innovation and finding practical solutions to personal challenges.

The Dream of an Olympic Career

Pieter van Leijen was a promising talent in the sailing world, with the European Youth Championship to his name and access to the Topzeilacademie. He dreamed of representing the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. But his career took an unexpected turn when he increasingly suffered from pain and inflammation. After months of research, Bechterew's disease was diagnosed, a form of rheumatism that jeopardized his sporting ambitions.

The Medicine That Limited His Freedom

Fortunately, a drug was available that could alleviate the symptoms of the disease, but this brought with it a new problem: the injections had to be kept refrigerated at all times. This made traveling difficult, both for sailing training and for vacations. "What was once my lifebuoy gradually became my anchor," Pieter says in the article.

In an attempt to continue training, Pieter transported his medicines in improvised coolers, sometimes even on the plane among the chilled snacks. However, it became clear that a better, more reliable solution was needed.

The Founding of MediCooler

This challenge led to the founding of MediCooler in 2019. Pieter developed a compact medical cooler especially for people who want to transport their medicines safely, wherever they go. Thanks to this innovation, he was finally able to take the long-awaited family vacation to the United States.

MediCooler now offers solutions for countless others who are faced with the need to keep medicines at the right temperature. "I get messages from people who, for example, want to travel to Tokyo their entire lives or who live in Spain but regularly have to go to the Netherlands for their medicines. Thanks to MediCooler, they too can go and stand where they want," says Pieter.

Back to the Water

Although his Olympic dream was shattered, Pieter is still active in the sailing world. He divides his time between leading MediCooler and coaching young sailors. He even coaches the youth team he once sailed in, just before they make the transition to the Olympic class.

Read the Full Story

The full interview with Pieter van Leijen in the Financieel Dagblad offers a glimpse into his personal and professional journey. Read the article and discover how his perseverance and innovation changed not only his own life, but also that of many others: Read the article in the Financieel Dagblad .

 Photo: Mark Horn for FD