Our Story
The beginning
Two of our co-founders, Max and Moisés, meet by getting lost during a 50k race in Chile. Across the world, Kirsten starts her photography career at 19 by shooting an ultramarathon for the New York Times. Fast forward to 2016 — Max and Moisés are sponsored by The North Face Chile, climbing peaks and living for trail running. Kirsten has moved to Berlin, photographing trail running for publications across Europe.
2017
The spark
Max, Moisés and Kirsten embark on a two-week expedition in Patagonia for The North Face Chile — Max and Moi chasing an FKT on Cerro Castillo, Kirsten there with her camera. After the expedition, the three head to a brewery. Over cold beers, Vert.run is born, with one mission: share the love of trail running with the world
2018 - 19
Baby steps to platform
Vert.run starts as a mailing list, Max, Moi and Kirsten working behind the scenes to get free training plans into the hands of 6,000 trail runners. When they decide it’s time for an upgrade, Cristóbal Forno joins as co-founder to help navigate the business side of building a startup. Together, they launch the first version of the Vert.run training platform.
2020-21
Going pro
Vert.run partners with elite athletes — Pau Capell, Hillary Allen, Lucy Bartholomew, Ryan Sandes, Ruth Croft, Tom Evans and more — to create affordable training plans designed by the pros we most admire. The team grows too: Luis Chacón joins as Lead Developer, and Francesco Puppi comes on board as coach and podcast host. Over 85,000 runners from 100 countries are now training with Vert.run.
2022 - 24
From 6 to 13 and beyond
The team grows to 13 with coaches, developers and community builders from around the world. We host fun runs at major races, launch a podcast, and deepen our athlete partnerships, bringing on stars like Hayden Hawks, and many more. A key partnership with a major World Race Series, with its Grand Final in Chamonix, connects us with the heart of the European trail running community.
2025 - 26
Building the future
In 2025, with Kaue leading development, we start laying the foundations of something bigger: the smartest, most personalized coaching platform ever built for trail runners.
In 2026, we release our AI Coach agent, aware of your training history, activities and conditions, and ship a new architecture that makes truly personalized coaching possible at scale. Free tools like our Nutrition Planner, Shoes Matcher and Race Time Predictor are just the beginning, with many more on the way.
Today, Vert.run is powered by a passionate team of coaches: Steve, Adam, Dan, Manu, Fran, Parker, Nico and Zeljko. A dev team led by Kaue alongside Cristian, Jesus and Edu, and support from Alejandro, with Max and Moi steering the ship and doing everything in between.
Building Vert.run is something we’re deeply passionate about. We can’t wait to keep reshaping the trail running tech landscape — the best is still ahead.
Meet The Team
KIRSTEN KORTEBEIN
CO-FOUNDER, CmO
Kirsten first came to trail running through the lens of her camera, as a photographer whose first-ever publication–about an ultramarathon!–was in the New York Times when she was 19 years old. She loves steep, technical trails and long distance road biking.
Kirsten is most proud of the time she biked 120 miles with 12,000 feet of vert in one shot from her house in Annecy, France to Aosta, Italy.
MICHIGAN – USA 🇺🇸
Moisés Jiménez
CO-FOUNDER, CEO
Moisés is an electrical engineer and professional athlete for The North Face. He spends a solid number of hours each day running on trails, which has taken him to races all over the world and led to some awesome results and wins in competitive races. (Plus, even though he’s our CEO, he’s also a Vert.run coach!)
Moisés is most proud of finishing 16th at UTMB, and top 10 at Lavaredo twice.
Maracay – venezuela 
Alejandro Jiménez
Vert.run Content Creator
Moi is our Vert.run content creator who helps with implementing our great training plans into the Vert.run App! He’s currently a computer student at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Moi loves traveling and getting to know different cultures. He also loves shows and movies–he’s a big fan of scary movies.
He likes to exercise to stay fit and healthy–and in his free time he loves cooking, especially baking!
Caracas – Venezuela
Francesco Puppi
VERT.RUN COACH
As a child growing up in Italy, Francesco used to go hiking and trekking with his family all the time. He grew up right next to the mountains, and today he’s a professional trail runner for Nike.
Fran is an incredibly attentive, caring Vert.run coach and he enjoys guiding his Vert.run athletes of all levels.
The race he’s most proud of is the world mountain running championship in Patagonia in 2019, where he was 2nd to Jim Walmsley.
Como – Italy 🇮🇹
STEVE KRENN
VERT.RUN Head COACH
Steve is one of our awesome Vert.run coaches, who enjoys working with his athletes to help them achieve goals beyond what they thought were possible.
Steve started running over twenty years ago and has used it to not only get in shape, but to develop pride in everything his body (and mind) can accomplish.
He has completed races ranging in distances from 5k to Ultramarathons. Running is a lifelong passion for Steve, and he enjoys helping others develop a rewarding relationship with the sport.
New York – USA 🇺🇸
Nicolás Jego
Vert.run Coach
Nico is French at heart but has made Chile his home, and his favorite runs are the ones that start right outside his front door. He believes great coaching starts with trust — understanding who you are, what drives you, and building a plan that actually fits your life alongside work, family and everything else.
La France 🇫🇷
Adam Brown
Vert.run Coach
Adam is from Queenstown, New Zealand — a place he calls the Chamonix of the Southern Hemisphere — and he’s been running trails there since before trail running was really a thing. His coaching blends consistency, strength, and fun in equal measure, because the mountains should stay joyful no matter what your goal is.
Queenstown, New Zealand 🇳🇿
Manu Ramirez
Vert.run Coach
Manu has lived in Venezuela, Panama, Suriname and Colombia, and has raced more than 35 ultramarathons across many of them. An agricultural engineer turned ultra coach with a degree in sports psychology, he brings a uniquely holistic approach — helping athletes prepare not just physically, but mentally, for whatever the trails throw at them.
Caracas, Venezuela 🇻🇪
Dan Balmer
Vert.run Coach
Dan is from the Lake District in the UK and came to running late, jumping straight from competitive football onto trails and into ultras without much of a transition. That path — late start, straight to the mountains — shapes everything about how he coaches: start where you are, keep it simple, build with consistency, and keep it fun.
Lake District, UK. 🇬🇧
Zeljko Radovic
Vert.run Coach
Zeljko is from Belgrade, Serbia, and first fell in love with mountains as a kid hiking with his grandparents in Bosnia. He discovered running in his late twenties as a way to overcome his own insecurities, earned his NASM coaching certification, and now coaches with the same hard-won clarity: no heroic workouts, just steady, honest effort over time.
Belgrade, Serbia 🇷🇸
Parker Farabee
Vert.run Strength Coach
Parker is a licensed physical therapist and strength coach based in Portland, Oregon, who came to trail running after a hamstring injury ended his collegiate hurdling career. His focus is on building bodies strong enough to handle the load of training — because staying healthy and consistent is the only way to actually get to the start line.
Portland, OR, 🇺🇸
Jesús Hernández
Front-end Developer
Based in Baní, Dominican Republic, Jesús is a father and a passionate developer with a lightning-fast ability to bring interfaces to life. He has a sharp eye for detail and a knack for turning designs into clean, polished front-end experiences.
Caracas, Venezuela 🇻🇪
Edu Ayaviri
Front-end Developer
Edu is from Jujuy, Argentina — a runner, a cyclist, and someone who’s happiest when exploring a new route. When he’s not out on the trails or roads, he’s focused on automated testing and building front-end features that keep the Vert.run app running smoothly.
Jujui, Argentina 🇦🇷
Cristián Pereyra
Full-stack Developer
Cristián is Kaue’s right hand, helping bring new tools and architectural ideas from concept to reality. He handles both front and back-end work with ease. Also based in Argentina, he’s a family man and a beach lover — which probably explains his calm, steady approach to even the most complex builds.
Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷
Kaue Nery
Lead Developer
Originally from Brazil, Kaue now lives in Spain with a life built around being outdoors — climbing, running, and finding the next adventure. As Vert.run’s lead developer, he manages the team, drives the technical vision, and makes sure everything keeps moving in the right direction.
Curitiba, Brazil 🇧🇷
