Munich Startup: Did you found alone or with partners?
Tina Ruseva: Alone, and always looking for partnerships. At Mentessa, I am delighted to be working with my husband for the first time, as a family business. He officially joined as a co-founder with the financing round in 2022, but has always been my biggest fan and supporter.
Munich Startup: What motivated you to found the company?
Tina Ruseva: Between my startups, I was back at a corporate business for a few years. I was shocked at how little exchange took place here – between different functions, but also between departments and hierarchical levels. Such silos not only create inefficiencies, they also degrade the corporate culture and inhibit innovation. As a founder, I knew that you need to exchange ideas and collaborate with experts if you want to create something new. Transformation also requires learning and collaboration as a collective.
Today, even large corporations depend on this culture of dialog to avoid being squeezed out of the market by rapid change. It also makes the world of work fairer, for example for women. This is exactly where I wanted to make a difference.
Tina Ruseva: “You can’t do anything great on your own”
Munich Startup: What do you wish you had known before you founded your first company?
Tina Ruseva: I wish I had known earlier about the driving force behind good, productive working relationships. Because you can’t achieve anything great on your own. By that I don’t mean the “networking” that is common today, which is strategic and directed “upwards”, but rather the way we interact with each other and the social integration in the team. Bonding creates commitment and opens doors where they would otherwise remain closed. For a long time, I was also unaware of the external perception as a woman in tech, as a woman in leadership or as a ‘female founder’. To be honest, I’m happy about this because it has allowed me to pursue my goals authentically. At the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Munich Startup: How has your company been financed so far?
Tina Ruseva: We were bootstrapped for the first two and a half years until we reached a turnover of 500,000 euros. Then came a pre-seed round from Eleven Ventures (VC) in 2022 and major EU funding from EIT Digital in 2023. A good mix of funding sources makes us flexible and resilient in the face of change.
Good mix of financing sources
Munich Startup: When and where do you get the best ideas?
Tina Ruseva: When I go for a walk. I usually meet other dog owners there who have nothing to do with my job and who show me very interesting new perspectives. Sharing ideas from the bubble is very important for creativity and finding solutions. The same happens with books from other disciplines. That’s why I like to read a lot.
Munich Startup: What are your 3 favorite work tools?
Tina Ruseva:
- LinkedIn – it’s my Slack with the world. I actually use it as a collaboration platform.
- My smartwatch – it is my mentor for good habits and reminds me to drink water and go outside between meetings, for example.
- Docusign! As a managing director, I sign several documents a week. Before the tool, it was really tedious. Thank you, Docusign.
Munich Startup: Your top tip for pitching?
Tina Ruseva: Pitching is like public speaking – it doesn’t matter what you say if you don’t mean it. That’s why: Mean it! Authenticity makes pitches memorable! Investors listen to hundreds of them every week – they can’t keep up with the templates and clichés. With your own startup story, you already have a real hook and get people talking.
“Any time is a good time for founding”
Munich Startup: Does it seem like a good time to start a company right now? Why?
Tina Ruseva: Any time is a good time to start a business. The world needs solutions and builders to create them. Today more than ever – to preserve democracy, freedom of expression, the principles of our society and prosperity. It’s not the timing that matters, but the driving force. When it comes to financial investments, you can determine the right time perfectly. But when it comes to impact, the answer is always: yesterday! As a founder, you should always be driven by what you want to achieve and ask yourself which problem is worth finding a solution for. The rest will then come naturally.
Munich Startup: Which technology or industry would you focus on for your next startup?
Tina Ruseva: I have made work my profession. As founder of Mentessa, President of the German New Work Association and initiator of the Big & Growing New Work Festival. It is not the industry or a technology that guides me, but my mission: to remove barriers to exchange and further development for everyone in the world of work. That’s why we are currently founding a new consulting firm for team culture out of Mentessa. There is a lot to do!
“Munich is a fantastic place to found a startup”
Munich Startup: What do you think could be improved in Munich as a startup location?
Tina Ruseva: Munich is a fantastic place to found a startup. As a business location, the city is home to many potential customers and a well-developed startup ecosystem. This offers many funding opportunities that are not available in other places. There are also many investors and top universities here, where you can find potential co-founders, employees and innovations.
Unfortunately, the local culture is also very dependent on “relationships” in the traditional sense. As a woman, “with a migration background” or with a different skin color, you are so quickly sidelined outside the startup scene. The “nepotism” of yesterday belongs away! Munich has long been an international metropolis with a high proportion of migrants and alternative lifestyles. Diverse backgrounds are not a weakness, but a strength. This is an enrichment and an opportunity, because no one can do everything and everyone can do something. A strong community is based on strong individuals.
Munich Startup: Which founder would you like to meet in person? And what would you ask him or her?
Tina Ruseva: Hanno Renner. Personio is a great role model for us as an HR tech startup. I would love to talk to him about his predictions for the future of work and learn about the principles he used to shape the corporate culture at Personio and also get recommendations for scaling Mentessa into a unicorn.
