El Paso-born entrepreneur wins international award for yacht charter software

Ruben Mena is the founder and managing director of YACHTNOTES, a communication platform for the yachting industry.

On May 14, he traveled from his desert home in Las Cruces to Monaco on the Mediterranean Sea to participate in the Mark Challenge, an international business plan competition hosted by the International University of Monaco.

YACHTNOTES won first place in the competition, which was held at the Yacht Club de Monaco.

The platform, software for desktop and mobile devices, is designed to make communication easier in the yacht industry, connecting yacht charter professionals with guests and owners.

“The charter guests that rent out a yacht, for maybe one week, are paying massive amounts of money and expect immaculate service,” Mena said. “I just thought there must be an easier way, a centralized mode of communication in the industry.”

Mena, who graduated from the International University of Monaco with a master’s in luxury management, competed against 119 participants in the pitch competition. YACHTNOTES won in category two, which is for professionals who have already graduated and MBA students.

Elated to win the competition, Mena said the prize includes training from other luxury companies that will help him develop YACHTNOTES.

“Winning first place in category two in the world’s luxury capital after multiple rounds of being scrutinized by luxury experts really speaks volumes,” he told El Paso Inc.

Developing software from scratch was something Mena said he could not do alone. That is why, in February, he reached out to one of his former college classmates, Adarshh Kumar, for help.

Kumar is the brand manager at Modernizing Processes, a software development company in India.

“Ruben and I got really close as friends,” Kumar said. “When he called me, he was in the middle of the Mark Challenge. This whole deal with Modernizing Processes and YACHTNOTES was kind of destined.”

Kumar said it took about four weeks to create and deliver the software.

“The luxury industry demands perfection, impeccable service and transparency,” he said. “I feel like YACHTNOTES is exactly doing that.”

The idea for YACHTNOTES came to Mena while he was attending the International University of Monaco. Sometimes referred to as the “world’s capital of luxury,” Monaco does not have a personal income tax or capital gains tax and has long attracted the wealthy.

During an internship with yacht brokerage SuperYachtsMonaco in 2021, Mena learned how yacht professionals, owners and guests usually communicate. The charter industry, he said, has been using a combination of WhatsApp, email, text and other modes of communication, which can get cluttered.

“Let’s say you’re a charter manager. You have 30 yacht charters in one given time, and you’re receiving messages through different methods of communication,” he said. “What YACHTNOTES does is it divides the communications by charter and also has additional features for the yachting professionals.”

Mena is working in an industry that is not only growing domestically but around the world.

According to the market research and analysis website Statista, the global revenue in the luxury goods market reached more than $354 billion in 2023. Sales of luxury products rose 8.5% in 2021 – to more than $64 billion.

“When you go out to a Louis Vuitton store to buy a nice wallet or a handbag, they’re not only buying the product but you’re buying the experience,” he said. “They want to be able to share what they purchased on Instagram. In turn, the luxury industry does a lot of work to create that magic.”

Mena said YACHTNOTES is now looking for investors to officially launch the platform.

While Mena did not disclose how much they want to raise, he did say they estimate it will cost about $50,000 for servers and perfecting the software.

“As soon as I can secure investor money, we should have it out into the market by the end of the year,” Mena said. “The yacht chartering industry is growing very quickly, and it needs the tools to keep up with that growth.”

Email El Paso Inc. reporter Luis Rios at lrios@elpasoinc.com or call 915-534-4422 ext. 132.