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've been developing a technology for skill-based collaboration for five years now. In 2019, we launched in the mentoring niche, as it represents a small model of this: connecting people based on skills in the most efficient and goal-oriented way possible. With this solution to the same problem, we now serve a number of other use cases that all boil down to the same thing: learning from each other and working together.
This capability will be central to the organization of the future, as work becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, fine-grained, and decentralized—for example, through the gig economy, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI). With our significant technological edge, Mentessa is a leading solution provider for one of the greatest challenges facing modern companies: the transformation of work.
Not just high-tech, but high-human
Munich Startup: Why?
Tina Ruseva: Many companies lack a clear overview of their workforce's existing skills. This leads to inefficiency, untapped potential, and frustration – both at the individual and company level. This is becoming a crucial success factor, especially in a working world that increasingly relies on collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The challenge becomes even greater when it comes to continuously training employees and specifically promoting talent. Without a clear understanding of existing skills and development needs, unequal treatment in employee development arises. For example, employees with similar development goals may receive different support options. This undermines equal opportunities. And that, in turn, can lead to dissatisfaction and resignations, hindering valuable opportunities for innovation and growth.
For us, it's not just about solving 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, we can develop employees individually and in a needs-oriented manner while simultaneously creating a culture of dialogue based on knowledge exchange and collaboration. The time is ripe.
Munich Startup: There are many offerings in this area. What do you do differently than the competition?
Tina Ruseva: Of course, there are many possible solutions. Upskilling is, after all, one of the biggest issues for the future of work. Mentessa stands out here with its social learning approach, which specifically supports informal learning and corporate culture. Ultimately, we learn only 10 percent in formal training 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 goal is to create transparency and promote the networking of knowledge and skills—from peer-to-peer consultation to strategic personnel development.
Mentessa: Recognizing the full potential of employees
Here's how it works: Our AI-powered platform enables employees to contribute their skills, goals, and interests and, based on these, discover suitable peers, training programs, or job opportunities. Acting as a kind of mentor, Mentessa provides personalized suggestions for formal training, social learning, and knowledge sharing. Our solution also helps companies recognize their employees' full potential, specifically develop talent, and thereby strengthen team culture and innovation.
We're also taking a radically new approach to knowledge management within organizations. We recognize that the most valuable knowledge in the platform economy resides in people's minds. With our social learning approach, we help discover, develop, and apply this hidden knowledge using automated "rituals" and AI—for a future of work that is both high-tech and highly human.
Munich Startup: And what about your own team?
Tina Ruseva: A culture of dialogue is also critical for us as a startup. We also work 100 percent remotely and experience how difficult it is to ensure sufficient exchange and collaboration – even in a smaller team of ten employees. For me as CEO, the first year of team building was the biggest challenge in my career as a founder. We were still too small for a dedicated HR department or community manager, but the needs of our employees were the same as in a corporation. Fortunately, we were able to use our own software to create a competency profile for everyone with suitable development opportunities and to automate the matching process. We tried everything from virtual coffee chats to formal skill-sharing formats. This period 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've founded several companies and have an interdisciplinary background and corporate experience. We've repeatedly noticed how little communication there is between functions and departments, and how uninspired, cumbersome, and sometimes arbitrary employee development is.
In my last job, as Head of Startup Programs at Plant1, I was responsible, among other things, for matching female founders with experienced mentors. It became clear to me that centralized matching was 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 needed. Just as startups work, many corporations today also have to develop innovations faster than ever before and react to market changes in a state 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. This leads to a lot of overhead, for example, for customer adaptations, but it also creates market proximity. This means we developed our product practically hand in hand with our customers. With the first financing round in 2022 We were able to make the technology enterprise-ready to grow faster. This substance made us more resilient and successful even in difficult years, such as 2023Today, Mentessa has customers on three continents, from Canada to Serbia, as well as a number of important awards such as the “Best of Technology Award” from WirtschaftswocheWe 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 start a startup. As a business location, the city is home to many potential customers and a diverse startup ecosystem. This offers numerous funding opportunities that aren't available elsewhere. Furthermore, many investors and top universities are located here, where you can find potential co-founders, employees, and innovations.
Unfortunately, the local culture also relies heavily on "relationships" in the traditional sense. As a woman, "with a migrant background," or with a different skin color, you quickly find yourself marginalized outside the startup scene. Yesterday's "nepotism" needs to be eliminated, 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 built on strong individuals.
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Tina Ruseva: We continue to invest in technology on our path to becoming a central infrastructure for skills-based collaboration. To support our clients on their journey to transformation, we are currently launching a consultancy.
