Mentagrate, Your Key to Academic Success

We had a chance to sit down with Chuck Katis, CEO and Founder of Mentagrate. He seeks to change the way students learn. Have an academic question? Mentagrate will answer it. Find out how.  

Small Business View: Can you tell us about your business?

Chuck Katis: Mentagrate (“Mental” + “Aggregate”) is a question/answer marketplace that allows students to get specific academic help immediately, make cash helping their peers, and maybe even score a job! We are employing a matching algorithm to connect questions, users, and highly specific knowledge. We are currently in live beta with a focus on launch at University of California: Berkeley.

SBV: Have you always wanted to be in business? Why or why not?

CK: I’ve always wanted to create. The process of seeing something in your mind and working until it is brought to reality is addicting.

SBV: What is your ultimate vision for the brand?

CK: Mentagrate will solve the issues that overcommitted students face. Our team knows that there is a smarter way to learn, and the start of approaching a solution to that problem is solving the knowledge gap on campuses around the world in the simplest way possible. We believe education can be overpriced and at times ineffective. As a result, the experience our team has had with more than 50 years of combined education at the top universities in the world puts us in the ideal position to find intelligent, unique solutions.

SBV: Looking back to when you started your business, what did you see in its future?

CK: We initially collaborated with Harvard Student Agencies while I was an undergrad at Harvard. All I knew at that point was that we would eventually find a product/market fit and ultimately become a resource that in some small way could impact the problems I observed and experienced as a student. We are still on this path that we set out on (and I’m not sure it ever ends). I try not to look too far forward but instead stay focused on what we can do well on a given day - it has become clear that our relentless pursuit of these goals will make for a pretty exciting company lifecycle.

SBV: What is your biggest takeaway, your biggest reward from what you do?

CK: This marketplace has the potential to change millions of lives as we grow and continue to evolve. This realization fuels every hour of our day at Mentagrate and makes the complicated and challenging times totally worth it. Watching firsthand how something like this can make someone’s life a little better is one of the coolest things we’ve ever experienced.

SBV: What’s the most challenging thing you do?

CK: We need to be ahead of the curve. This means Mentagrate has to be smarter, more streamlined, cleaner, and more effective than anyone out there, even bigger competition. As an athlete myself, I see this less as a challenge and more as the expected state of the world. We need to work more relentlessly but this is what will make us great. Staying focused on the process alone is likely the greatest challenge here but one that our team is better suited to deal with than any other founding group – we’re scrappy and have had to work for everything we have. We know what it’s like to work every day with faith that at some point all the hours will culminate in success.

SBV: What do you do to kick back after a long day?

CK: Between training in the pool—I also train 20+ hours a week with what is the greatest swim training group in the world at Berkeley. Go Bears!—, competing across the world, building Mentagrate, and managing a magic nonprofit I started in high school (www.themagicofmiracles.com), I tend to run out of time to do anything else. Practicing magic, performing for others, and working on this underground team of magicians who bring magic to those in need is my way of escaping the world for a little.

SBV: Any advice for someone just starting out?

CK: Forget what the world thinks you should be able to do. Don’t listen. When I transferred to Berkeley from Harvard in pursuit of swimming goals (all while raising our initial angel-funding round) the head of my house at Harvard actually laughed at the transfer form I brought to her. They had never had anyone leave. It was less than a year later that I was lucky enough to break an American record and win a national championship with the California Golden Bears. They also said it’s impossible to build a company while training “full time” and being a “full time” student. They were wrong. As Branson says, “Screw it, let’s do it.”

SBV: Anything else you want the readers to know?

CK: Mentagrate is in live beta right now. For now, all questions are free. We’re just getting started and would love to hear from you as we continue to evolve. If you have ideas, feedback, or would like to help us along this path, please reach out directly to chuck@mentagrate.com.

Learn more about Mentagrate at www.mentagrate.com.