Melissa Fortenberry

Melissa Fortenberry is the founder and CEO of HeatSense, a performance technology startup translating athlete vitals into real-time insights on heat response. A 25-year consumer tech executive turned entrepreneur, Fortenberry built HeatSense after watching her own kids train in Texas heat and realizing that “weather data isn’t athlete data.” She’s become a leading voice in youth and outdoor sports safety, helping teams adapt to longer, hotter seasons through readiness-focused innovation—not reaction. Her background includes leadership roles at Expedia, VRBO, and Philips Electronics, and her mission is to make heat response visible, scalable, and personal for every athlete. In growing HeatSense, she learns new AI tools every day to work faster, think smarter, and scale impact with purpos...