Our edtech dinner might well be behind us, but there were so many great businesses there that night that we want to continue sharing their stories. Next up is Alice Bonasio, PR and Communications Manager at Mendeley.

What’s the elevator pitch for your startup?
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that helps researchers organise their research, collaborate with others, and discover the latest research available online, Starting a research project can feel overwhelming, but Mendeley simplifies every step of the process, from search and discovery to reading and analysis. 

What were you doing before you launched your startup?
Mendeley’s co-founders were researchers themselves before they embarked on their first startup journey. They encountered the same problems and frustrations about keeping track of all their research materials and through a PhD and decided to do something about it. 

Where did you meet your co-founders?
Co-founders Victor Henning and Jan Reichelt (pictured below) met while doing an MBA at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz, Germany, and became friends before starting a local chapter of the German Entrepreneurship Club. 

What will 2014 bring?
Following Mendeley’s acquisition by Elsevier last year, we’ve been busier than ever, and 2014 will see the London-based team continue to expand and build all the tools and community that made us so successful in the first place. We’re also integrating with Elsevier’s tools and platforms, to offer our users a more seamless experience and more functionality for their workflow. We’re also probably going to move offices as we’re growing too big for this one! 

1 piece of advice for someone starting a business in the education space?
Follow your passion, find co-founders with complementary skills different from your own, and solve a problem that you share with a lot of other people! – that’s 3 🙂 

Convince someone to use your product/service in under 50 words.
I’ll actually let a member of the community do that. Greg Laden, a biological anthropologist, once wrote in his blog that “for a researcher, Mendeley is pretty much the most fun you can have with your pants on.” You can’t really beat it when people say that about your product.

Thanks Alice for (almost) finishing off the series. Watch out for James Larbi and his startup, pre-ued next week.