Meet the founders. 🤓
Leonard Zenouzi (CEO) & Sebastian Lothary (CTO)
Run your HR skill-based with our AI-powered Skill Management Software.Mission: We make the skill-based organization reality!
We were both involved in Skill Management projects throughout our careers and witnessed, on the one hand, how difficult it is to run an organization skill-based. On the other hand, besides considerable efforts, Skill Management projects fall short of expectations. We wanted to change this since Skill Management can have a substantial positive impact on an organization – if you have to do it smart and non-bureaucratic. And that's what we do with Skillties!
🔝 Name up to 3 of your biggest successes so far.
Our most significant success is that we team up since we are both very complementary founders. That's so important and makes us a great team! Besides, Sebastian has spent years in R&D on AI technology for Skill Management during his PhD. This know-how gives us a substantial strategic advantage and sets our software apart from other approaches. Last but not least, we love every day working on Skillties. Not really a success but worth mentioning.
🚗 What drives you?
HR is vital for a company's success. In most cases it requires much better data to thrive better decision-making. Also Learning & Development is shifting towards more self-directed learning. So for us the logical thing to do is both: a data-driven HR and Corporate Learning through company-wide Skill Management.
Communication is key! It took us a while communicating our vision correctly and making complex AI tech and terms (like skill ontologies) understandable. However, our job is probably also creating awareness in HR of those emerging technologies.
🧗 Your biggest challenge so far in founding a start-up?
Again, it's communication. People have to see it firsthand. This will take a few more weeks; meanwhile our website describes everything in detail.
🎉 What was the best part of founding a startup for you?
The feeling working on something meaningful that will impact the lives of so many people in a very positive way. Think about it! In a few months we can tell you how to become a better engineer, reach your next career level or reskill to another position within your company. It will feel like magic for many users!
📚 Is there any advice you can give to other founders?
Yes, everyone is talking to be lean, but hardly everyone works this way. So take lean management at heart and always try to focus on what's relevant only in the short-term. That makes a difference!
allygatr has impressive domain expertise and understood the impact of skill ontologies in combination with our AI for HR professionals at first glimpse. That made an enormous difference and laid the foundation for a good working relationship.
🐊 How did you find out about allygatr?
We came across allygatr through a post by Ben on LinkedIn.
What is the problem you're addressing with Skillties?
In a nutshell: First, an organization usually has thousands of skills and multiple job profiles. Therefore, building a skill & job profile architecture is so tricky. However, we can create a company-unique skill architecture thanks to AI out of "thin air" in no time. Secondly, evaluating employees' skills is usually bureaucratic. We use modern pattern recondition and surveys to identify employees' relevant and hidden skills. Think about use cases like skill-based staffing, internal recruiting, and transformation projects ... we solve them all! And thirdly, and that's a big one: we map all skills with millions of learning initiatives from podcasts, books, seminars, Udemy courses or even your own LXP. By doing so, we can build custom learning paths automatically based on individual skill gaps. In other words, we recommend to you learning initiatives that precisely fit your learning preferences and skills gaps. No learning by Gießkanne anymore :-)