Rachel Tinius thought she knew plenty about the ins and outs of being pregnant.
Then she became pregnant herself, with the first of three children seven years ago.
An avid marathoner, Tinius had planned to keep running marathons throughout her pregnancies. That did not happen, as she was preparing for the physical aspects — as an exercise physiologist by trade — but not taking full account of the emotional side of the equation.
“I did have a totally different experience of that emotional side of the pregnancy that until you're there, you have no idea that exists,” Tinius recently told me. “And a lot of times the emotional side of it actually outweighed the logical [side] … Like, I know that exercise is not going to cause a problem, but there’s this emotional piece of me that was ‘but if something were to go wrong, I don't want to blame myself, and I don’t to blame the exercise.’”
And that, in essence, is why Tinius recently launched BumptUp, a startup that is producing an evidence-based app that helps women improve physical activity and health outcomes both through the pregnancy and postpartum stages.
Through the app, which Tinius said should launch sometime between April and June, users can leave notes about the symptoms they are feeling, track weight, document calories and follow a customizable exercise plan either week-by-week or day-by-day. Users can also review a weekly exercise summary along with daily dietary goals.
Tinius said the ultimate goal was to help address the high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality in Kentucky, which are some of the worst in the country. In the South Central Kentucky area, where she lives, two out of three women are entering pregnancy overweight or obese — and nine out of 10 are not meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines, according to her research.
She noted that physical activity can help prevent maternal complications such as preeclampsia, high blood sugar and inflammatory issues.
“What [pregnant women] do impacts not just themselves, but their unborn child,” she said. “And so you get this opportunity to get to pull someone into the healthy lifestyle that maybe wouldn't have otherwise.
“I think a lot of people think with pregnancy ‘Oh, you shouldn't exercise. It's a time to be careful.’ And I really don't view it that way. I view it as an opportunity to really change the way someone's lifestyle habits are.”
Wearing two hats
In addition to being the founder and CEO of BumptUp, Tinius also serves as an associate professor of exercise science at Western Kentucky University, a position she has held since 2021. She has been at WKU since 2015 after earning her doctoral degree in movement science at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in exercise science from WKU.
While at Washington University, Tinius spent a majority of her focus on clinical research centered on the mechanisms and physiology that contributed to outcomes for pregnant women.
When she arrived in Bowling Green, though, she shifted her focus to more a “community-driven intervention” — inspired largely by a presentation she attended while working on her doctoral degree by Nancy Schoenberg, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Kentucky. This change of approach would provide the framework of the app — and the immediate effect it could have on people’s lives.
Tinius eventually took what would become BumptUp and joined the UAccel program, the university technology commercialization arm of UK’s Launch Blue incubator.
Through Launch Blue, she was connected with Kentucky Commercialization Ventures (KCV), which provided further mentoring and recommendations of competitions to enter — one of which was Equalize, a female-entrepreneur-focused program in its fourth year that takes candidates representing universities from around the country and pairs them with industry mentors.
“[Rachel] is an exemplary KCV innovator, and we are thrilled for her continued success with BumptUp Labs. Our colleagues and founders of Equalize have created an affirming and competitive program and we are excited to see how [she] excels at this national opportunity,” KCV Executive Director Kayla Meisner said via email.
Coincidentally, Equalize also happens to be sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis. Recently, Tinius found out that she was one 22 selected into the program who will have the opportunity to give a final presentation in June — with venture capitalists sure to be watching. Before this opportunity, Tinius had previously been named one of two first place winners for the KCV IMPACT Awards, who received $25,000 each.
Given that the company’s site has yet to officially launch, BumptUp is still a bootstrapped organization, with no current talk of seed rounds or investors. Tinius did say though that the app would be available in a tiered system with a free version with ads, and a paid version without ads for $4.99. In addition, those who are financially able to do so can pay for someone else’s membership who could not otherwise afford it for $9.98 a month.
“A big part of our mission is to provide … not only a really needed resource and a missing resource, but provide it to everybody,” Tinius said. “We don't just want this to be something that wealthy white women can afford to do. We want anyone who needs it to use it.”
