Munich Startup: In our last interview, Mentessa had just launched as a matchmaking app for mentoring programs. How has your solution evolved?
Tina Ruseva, founder and CEO Mentessa: We have been developing a technology for skill-based collaboration for five years now. We started in the mentoring niche in 2019, as it represents a small model of this: Connecting people based on skills in the most efficient and goal-oriented way possible. With the solution to the same problem, we now serve a number of other use cases that have the same outcome: learning from each other and working together.
This capability will be central to the organization of the future as work becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, granular and decentralized – for example through the gig economy, automation and artificial intelligence (AI). With our significant technological advantage, Mentessa is a leading solution provider for one of the biggest challenges facing modern organizations: the transformation of work.
Not just high-tech, but high-human
Munich Startup: Why?
Tina Ruseva: Many companies lack a clear overview of the existing skills of their workforce. This leads to inefficiency, untapped potential and frustration – both at individual and company level. In a working world that is increasingly reliant on collaboration and the exchange of knowledge, this is becoming a decisive success factor.
The challenge becomes even greater when it comes to continuously training employees and promoting talent in a targeted manner. Without clear insight into existing skills and development needs, there will be unequal treatment in employee development. For example, employees with similar development goals may receive different levels of support. This impairs equal opportunities. And this in turn can lead to dissatisfaction and resignations and prevent valuable opportunities for innovation and growth.
We need to solve not only the technical challenges of diagnostics and matching, but above all the organizational and cultural ones. We are currently undergoing the greatest transformation of work since industrialization. Fortunately, many challenges can now be solved with software and AI. Thanks to social learning, employees can be developed individually and in line with requirements, while at the same time creating a culture of dialog based on knowledge sharing and collaboration. The time is ripe.
Munich Startup: There are many offerings in this area. What do you do differently from the competition?
Tina Ruseva: Of course there are many possible solutions here. After all, upskilling is one of the biggest issues for the future of work. Mentessa stands out here with its social learning approach, which supports informal learning and corporate culture in particular. Ultimately, we only learn ten percent in formal training sessions and 90 percent through exchange, observation or shadowing. Thanks to an AI assistant, Mentessa is the only provider that enables holistic, continuous and personalized personnel development – similar to a “mentor at work”. Our aim is to create transparency and promote the networking of knowledge and skills – from collegial advice to strategic personnel development.
Mentessa: Recognizing the full potential of employees
It works like this: our AI-supported platform enables employees to enter their skills, goals and interests and discover suitable peers, training courses or job opportunities based on these. As a kind of mentor, Mentessa provides personalized suggestions for formal training, social learning and knowledge sharing. Our solution also supports companies in recognizing the full potential of their employees, promoting talent in a targeted manner and thereby strengthening team culture and innovation.
We also approach knowledge in an organization in a radically new way. We recognize that most of the most valuable knowledge in the platform economy is in people’s heads. With our social learning approach, we help to discover, develop and apply this hidden knowledge with the help of automated “rituals” and AI – for a future of work that is high-tech and high-human.
Munich Startup: And what about your own team?
Tina Ruseva: A culture of dialog is also critical for us as a startup. We also work 100% remotely and experience how difficult it is to ensure sufficient communication and collaboration – even in a small team of ten employees. The first year of building the team was the biggest challenge for me as CEO in my career as a founder so far. We were still too small to have our own HR department or community manager, but the needs of the employees were the same as in the group. Fortunately, we were able to use our own software to create a skills profile for everyone with suitable development opportunities and automate the matching process. We tried out everything from virtual coffee chats to formal skill-sharing formats. The time was formative for building our team culture expertise.
Munich Startup: You and Andrey are both serial entrepreneurs. How has that helped you along the way?
Tina Ruseva: Exactly, we have founded several companies and have an interdisciplinary background as well as corporate experience. We have repeatedly noticed how little exchange takes place between functions and departments and how little individual, cumbersome and sometimes arbitrary employee development is.
In my last job, as Head of Startup Programs at Werk1, I was responsible for matching founders with experienced mentors, among other things. It became clear to me that centralized matching is too slow and too time-consuming for the fast-paced reality of startups. What is needed instead is the self-directed – i.e. decentralized – ability to network as required. In the same way that startups work, many corporations today also have to develop innovations faster than ever before and react to market changes in a process of continuous change. That’s why the topic of skills is so important. When I realized this, I got started and founded Mentessa.
Munich Startup: And how are things looking financially for you?
Tina Ruseva: We got off to a slower start than others. I bootstrapped the startup for the first two and a half years. That led to a lot of overhead, for example for customer adaptations, but it also brought us closer to the market. In other words, we practically developed our product hand in hand with our customers. With the first financing round in 2022, we were able to make the technology enterprise-ready so that we could grow faster. This substance made us more resilient and successful even in difficult years, such as 2023. Today, Mentessa has customers on three continents, from Canada to Serbia, as well as a number of major awards such as the “Best of Technology Award” from Wirtschaftswoche. We will use this foundation to accelerate our growth over the next 18 months.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
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 marginalized outside the startup scene. The “nepotism” of yesterday should be a thing of the past, because 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: What milestones are you working towards next?
Tina Ruseva: We are continuing to invest in technology as we move towards a central infrastructure for skills-based collaboration. We are currently setting up a consultancy to support our customers on the path to transformation.
