"The main problem we are solving is that companies treat training as a one-time event and consider that after completing the training, the employee will have the knowledge gained forever. But the reality is quite different – our brains aren't made to remember everything. In fact, more than 70% of newly acquired knowledge is forgotten after just 2 weeks, which is a huge loss for companies! With Coach, we aim to fix these problems by treating training as a continuous process of improvement. Employees get access to our mobile app where, through interactive games, they answer questions from their training, which refreshes and solidifies their knowledge."

Conceptual Digital, a Macedonian startup with a vision to revolutionize the approach to learning with the help of the latest technologies, has received support of €100,000 from the Veles-based X Factor Accelerator.
By this investment, the team will launch an innovative training platform Coach at the market, it will strengthen the marketing department with new colleagues and strengthen sales and marketing activities.
The main problem that served as an motive is that companies invest a lot of money and time in training their employees, but 70% of what is learned is forgotten in just two weeks. Knowledge gaps occur that reduce the performance of companies in all segments.
We talked with Kalina Trajanoska and Aleksandar Ackovski, co-founders of Konceptiva, about how they came up with the idea for the Coach product, what problems it will solve for the business sector and what are the startup's plans for the further development of the platform.

Interview with Kalina Trajanoska and Aleksandar Ackovski, co-founders of Conceptiva for business magazine Kapital.

A little background about the startup: since when Conceptiva exists, what are your and your colleagues' previous experiences, is this your first product or have you tried some applications before, etc.?

Kalina: As a team with Aleksandar, we come from Artistica – a creative digital agency and the first entrepreneurial success of my partner Aleksandar. For more than 6 years we worked as a team – together we designed and implemented various digital solutions (systems, web and mobile applications) for international clients and thus developed an excellent synergy in thinking.

The Konceptiva and Coach story started 2 years ago. Aleksandar (architect by education) is the brain behind the user experience, design and concepts for the advanced functionalities of Coach, and I am the technical person – a software engineer by profession. I lead the team towards realization of the vision, as well as communication at all levels.

Aleksandar: In the 15 years of operation of Artistica on the domestic and international market, there have been moments when the needs of several clients converged. A problem was identified, and the solution created an opportunity to build a product. Until now, we have developed several software products, mainly enterprise content management systems for various needs, with which we have successfully solved the problems of about 50 clients. But at that time, the concept of running a startup with technologies like today's was not present in these spaces. The solutions were not cloud-based and specific implementations were carried out for each client separately, the products had no name, nor branding, they were billed once, investors were an unknown concept, and so on. What we are doing now is on a whole other level.

Certainly, the presence of Kalina's fresh energy, her courage and ideas for solutions to problems from a slightly different perspective made the possibility and determination for such a step even greater.

How did you come up with the idea for Coach, what was the motivation? What problems does the app solve?

Aleksandar: In fact, through the realization of a series of projects for the digitization of corporate trainings for international companies through Artistica, we noticed the problems in the industry - that with the current learning practices, very quickly after the trainings, gaps in knowledge are created among the employees, on which the management has no insight, and cause serious problems for the company's performance in several segments, especially in sales. We realized that the solutions available on the market were not efficient enough and this is where the idea of ​​Coach was formed.

Coach is a gamifcation tool for more effective corporate trainings. People with whom we communicate often understand Coach as "Duolingo for corporate trainings". The main problem we solve is that companies treat trainings as a one-time event and believe that after the training is completed, the employee will have the acquired knowledge forever.

But the reality is completely different – ​​our brain is not designed to remember everything. In fact, more than 70% of the newly acquired knowledge is forgotten after only 2 weeks, which is a huge loss for companies! Knowledge on technical information about products fades especially quickly, which causes reduced sales in various industries - such as consumer electronics or the automotive industry.

Kalina: With Coach, we aim to fix these problems by treating training as a continuous improvement process.

Employees get access to our mobile application where through interactive games they answer questions from their trainings, which refreshes and strengthens their knowledge. Additionally, our algorithm personalizes content according to their knowledge gaps and thus each employee works on their weaknesses and improves. The management can finally get a real picture of the current knowledge in their organization through the detailed statistics in the administration panel.

What were the biggest challenges on the way to create the product, from your experience so far? Is it a lack of appropriate expertise, technological tools or something else…

Aleksandar: Considering that Coach is a B2B product and is most effective for large companies from several hundred to thousands of employees, such companies have certain expectations about the level of quality of the products they use. Therefore, it was a big challenge to find the balance between "perfection down to the detail" on the one hand that they would expect and on the other hand - what should be quickly performed in an initial version of a product, i.e. Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The design must be clean, minimalistic, corporate, not interfering with the client's existing brand; the user experience should be intuitive, the games should be fun enough to play and yet learn with, and the product should offer enough functionality to allow these corporate giants to

For this purpose, we conducted a number of interviews with potential users from the industry, who showed us what was needed. It is very important to choose the right functionalities and make those decisions according to the needs of potential users. One of the requests that almost everyone had was an out-of-the-box integration of Coach with the existing LMS (Learning Management System) they use – a functionality that was not originally in our development plan, but we made it possible. Furthermore, during the pre-sales process, it turned out that this was the first and most important question for potential customers.

Kalina: Honestly, every day brings new challenges, but – that's probably the fun of building a startup. At the beginning we had challenges with technology – which is the right combination of programming languages, then the main question was how to get in touch with the target group – big companies in the USA and Europe while we are in our country, next were the challenges with financing, and we anticipate that the challenges of growing the team and client base will be next. However, the most important thing is that the experiences and lessons learned from each solved challenge bring us closer to the goal.

At what stage is the product at the moment?

Kalina: The mobile application is developed for iOS and Android, with 8 different games that help in mastering different types of content. The admin panel is in the final weeks of development for this version.

We are currently working on pilot projects with domestic companies and are in negotiations to implement Coach with companies from America, Great Britain and more companies from the local and regional market.

Since the methodologies we use in Coach to consolidate knowledge are scientifically proven (spaced repetition, microlearning, adaptive learning), we also received a kind of academic recognition by being invited to give a guest lecture for Coach at San Diego State University on the subject of Emerging Technologies in Learning & Development to master's degree students studying to become educational content designers.

Cooperation with such universities, where the next generation of educational content designers is trained, is of great importance to us, because they are potential users of Coach in the area of ​​creating the necessary content through the administration panel. The huge enthusiasm expressed by the designers of educational content for using Coach gave us even more motivation and "wind in our sails".

Describe your experience with the X Factor Accelerator and what exactly will you use the investment funds for?

Aleksandar: The last investment cycle of X Factor Accelerator took place in 3 phases – pre-selection, selection, and Demo Day, followed by negotiations with the selected startups. Our experience with them is very positive, and apart from financial support, we immediately started constructive work - strategies, planning, business development, networking and other activities. That kind of support is often worth more, especially to us.

Kalina: With the help of the investment, we will launch Coach on the market, strengthen the marketing department with new colleagues and strengthen sales and marketing activities.

What is still to come in the development and penetration of the application in the world market? Who will be your key target groups?

Kalina: In the next stages, we have planned revolutionary functionalities for automated content creation with the help of artificial intelligence, which for our customers will speed up the process of creating trainings by more than 20 times. Let this be an announcement, next time with more information.

The main goal for us in the upcoming period is to assemble successful case studies from the pilot projects, which are crucial in the B2B world, so that we can start sales with high speed. I invite companies that are not yet taking advantage of personalized micro-learning to take a look at our site: www.getcoach.app and feel free to contact us about getting involved in pilot programs.

How do you assess the current stage of development of the domestic startup ecosystem? Where have we progressed the most, and where do we still have a lot of work to do, i.e. what things are most appreciated in that ecosystem?

Kalina: I would say that our startup ecosystem is in the early stages of development, but it shows potential. There is movement in several fields, but for us as a small country and a developing economy, networking with other ecosystems of more developed countries is key. We need to draw knowledge, expertise, open as many channels of communication as possible so that the founders can get in touch with experts and investors from abroad. At the national level, other funding sources must be mobilized, especially the private sector – directly or through corporate innovation programs, but which will really be given the space to be implemented.