Data-driven team development: moving beyond gut feelings. How the Ukrainian startup SoftTrainer works

In our recurring Who Are These segment, Vector offers founders an opportunity to discuss their projects, covering aspects such as their products, marketing strategies, monetisation, investments, and plans. The focus this time is on SoftTrainer, a Ukrainian startup offering a web-based application that helps businesses develop and assess soft skills using AI-driven simulations. 

Vector’s editor-in-chief Yuliia Tkach interviewed Ruslan Kovalenko, CEO and co-founder, about the product’s features, promotion, investments, and business plans.

Conception

SoftTrainer has two co-founders:

• Ruslan Kovalenko, CEO. As the technical founder, he brings eight years of development expertise, having worked on high-traffic systems, notably for WeWork and The New York Times.
• Alina Skachenko, CMO. Her background includes B2B and performance marketing expertise, spanning the Ukrainian and U.S. markets.

The product’s development kicked off in January 2024, with the current version starting development in May. «I’ve always been passionate about education and the structured approach to learning. Being a Kyiv-Mohyla Academy graduate with an insatiable curiosity for education, I wanted to build a product that truly fosters meaningful growth in people. The idea took root at an AI hackathon in May 2023, where I explored combining HR, soft skills, and generative AI — at the time, the prototype was built around ChatGPT.

Our paths crossed with Alina’s at an AI House bootcamp in Lviv that summer. The shared vision of developing something genuinely effective in employee training brought us together — and that’s how the product idea emerged.  

It became clear to us that there was a shortage of practical, impactful instruments for soft skills development in teams. Despite considerable expenditure on employee training, companies often find themselves unable to trace and objectively evaluate the translation of these skills into tangible workplace performance.

Therefore, our vision is to create a solution that enables businesses to optimise internal communications and transform soft skills development from isolated training initiatives into sustained, measurable implementation».

SoftTrainer is being developed by its founders, working in tandem: «We’ve had a designer, an HR consultant, and a soft skills trainer working with us at different times, but we’re currently on the lookout for people to become permanent members of our core team. We’re currently recruiting a developer to help in the scaling of the product and the launch of its SaaS variant, as well as a B2B sales specialist to complete the sales cycle, with a specific interest in European markets».

They also have plans to bring more soft skills trainers and methodologists on board for advice and the development of scenarios.

Product and audience

SoftTrainer is a B2B web-based application designed to assist companies in developing and evaluating soft skills via AI-powered simulations. The publicly announced goal of the startup is ‘to educate in the practical use of soft skills, rather than just the underlying theory’. Ruslan notes: «Soft skills influence team efficiency, customer experience, and the bottom line; however, they are notoriously difficult to train and even more so to measure. With this in mind, SoftTrainer seeks to tackle this issue through the use of realistic scenarios and analytics. 

«We simulate scenarios that closely mirror actual workplace situations. Our simulations are adapted to the unique requirements of each company — for instance, assessing communication within a support team or the building of leadership skills in technical team leaders. 

Each user is assigned a role and a task, and interacts with a virtual counterpart in a simulated workplace scenario. We then analyse the employee’s responses and conduct, providing feedback on potential enhancements. The collected data is then translated into actionable assessments and insights for the HR manager or the team leader.

My belief is in learning that’s absorbed as easily as a podcast during a commute: concise simulations that can be instantly put into practice in real conversations. Each reply is a mini experiment with immediate feedback. As an employee observes the effect of their words on a virtual colleague or client, theory evolves into a tangible skill in just 5–7 minutes.

Typically, companies only gather superficial feedback via forms after training, with no actual metrics or return on investment being tracked. This results in a failure to capitalise on opportunities in hiring, leadership development, and team advancement.

The worldwide market for corporate soft skills training presently stands at over $62 billion and is expanding by 20% each year. Our focus is on mid-market companies experiencing rapid growth, especially in Northern Europe».

The product targets three key audiences:

1. Company leaders and department heads — CEOs, founders, Support/Operations Directors, R&D, L&D, and HR Managers;
2. HR and learning & development specialists — recruiters, training leads, corporate learning professionals;
3. HR coaches and advisers who wish to make their evaluations more structured and objective.

Business model and marketing strategy

SoftTrainer operates under the В2В model. Pricing is individual for each company: quotes are provided on request. The team offers a customised briefing, develops simulations based on their specifications, and guides them throughout the process. 

The startup presently has six ongoing pilot projects that they intend to convert into paying customers. Simultaneously, they are developing automated scenarios and getting ready to switch to a SaaS model. The plan is to launch a subscription-based library of the most prevalent workplace scenarios to make the product scalable and accessible to a broader spectrum of companies.

Going forward, they are planning two main subscription options:

• Basic — access to a library of simulations categorised by roles and topics. Limited customisation, a cost-effective option for companies initiating soft skills development investment.
• Customised — development of a competency map, bespoke scenarios, thorough analytics, methodological guidance, and adaptable solutions for companies with more complex demands.

At present, their focus is on direct sales outreach through LinkedIn and email, alongside networking at relevant industry events and pitch sessions. Their core engagement strategy revolves around a demo simulation. 

Investments

SoftTrainer received a €50,000 non-equity grant from Seeds of Bravery this year, which will be used for MVP development, marketing, and initial sales. An additional $25,000 was granted by UMAEF at the Mission Possible acceleration programme demo day.

The co-founders have personally invested around $20,000.

Plans

The key near-term objectives are to onboard new customers and demonstrate SoftTrainer’s efficacy with real-life case studies: «We are currently focusing our efforts on Ukrainian companies and businesses in Northern Europe, where the culture of soft skills development is most deeply rooted.

At the same time, we are progressing with automation: we anticipate completing the generation of simulations and launching a basic scenario library by autumn to further enhance our product’s accessibility and scalability.

Looking ahead, our goal is to use analytics to predict a candidate’s cultural fit with the team prior to offering a job, and to automatically filter out those who don’t align with the interaction style. 

The next step is to analyse behavioural patterns in group simulations and indicate those who are already demonstrating an ‘ownership’ mindset and the capability to improve the team’s psychological safety.

Our vision is to make soft skills as measurable and clear as unit economics. When companies can see the precise impact of every word a manager says, a culture of effective communication will stop being a one-off project — and will become embedded into the working infrastructure», — Ruslan summarises.