MANTA
MANTA is a unique data-lineage platform that helps medium and large companies gain a more detailed view of how data travels across their organization, helping them automate processes and gain control over their metadata. This translates into a greater ability to make smart decisions. MANTA is unique in its complexity and development intensity, so it offers very demanding technology challenges and the ability to work on complex tasks that have never been tackled before. MANTAs success is also based on very close collaboration with the academic world and the best universities. Students can test theories in practice and thanks to this MANTA has access to talent and often interesting ideas. Today, MANTA is made up of more than 150 enthusiastic colleagues working from Prague, Lisbon, Dublin and Tampa, who are ready for very exciting growth.
We are defining a new quality of industry, a new meta-level of working with data and now we are ready for growth
MANTA is ready for takeoff
MANTA flows
A product that opens the door to the future. The success of MANTA is definitely due to the uniqueness of our product. No company in the world provides data lineage at such a high resolution and goes so deep in its analysis. Imagine you are looking at two satellite maps. You have one map in HD where you can see the streets, houses, and swimming pools in your neighborhood. The other map is in 4K and that's MANTA. Not only do you see the houses and streets, but you also see the roof tiles and the chicken wings on your neighbors' grill. This level of detail that we are able to provide is based on our focus. We're not distracted by anything else, so we're focused on the absolute technical quality of the result. We help thousands of engineers around the world to make their job easier. It's "Computer Science" in the purest academic sense. MANTA is made by people with a scientific background, people who have acquired a passion for technology at school and found a place where they can put theory into practice.
Sky is the limit
Our team has grown by 60 colleagues year-on-year, we have very ambitious plans to expand into the US market and we have opened an office in Lisbon to launch our R&D center. We are not alone on this journey as we have been joined by great investors and raised the necessary funds to enable us to grow rapidly and develop our technology further. In our most recent investment round, we managed to raise $35 million in funding. Although MANTAs are creatures of the ocean, we plan on making cloud its habitat soon. That's why we are rebuilding our entire infrastructure so that it can be in SaaS mode and therefore more accessible. Anyone at MANTA will tell you that now is the best time to be here. There is a lot going on right now and the number of opportunities that are opening up in front of us is huge. Another part that's very attractive to people at MANTA is that the biggest technical aces in the metadata industry are here, so if you want to learn and get deep in the data industry, this is the place for you.
What all people have in common here is that they see the potential and believe in the market. And it's a chance for them to be a part of something big, whether it's their first time or repeatedly, but it's an opportunity for everybody to witness success.
For me, the most important thing is probably freedom. I can bring any idea to the table and I get full trust that I can do it. And that's what I see as the added value in hiring. We don't hire people based on where we need them most right now, we hire them based on where they want to be and what makes the most sense for them.
Drive
Probably the biggest drive for all of us is the success that MANTA has in front of it. We feel we are on to something very special and everyone wants to pitch in and be there. We have a great position in the market today. MANTA is no longer a completely unknown company as it was a few years ago and we are in the crosshairs of those most experienced in developing start-ups and technology ideas. We have a track record of experience, satisfied customers, and investors who trust us. The investment allows us to develop the team, we can afford much more in marketing, we can have the tools to help us develop our product in very high quality.
Do what you enjoy and the way you enjoy it
MANTA is all about independence. There is no time to micromanage, supervise and control the outcome. Everyone at MANTA has a strong sense of ownership. You know what you are working on and what is the outcome that you need to deliver. It is up to you how to plan and organize your workload. MANTA is a very inspiring environment, but it's also very challenging. There's almost never a specific assignment, it's more about a goal. It might be a quarter, maybe six months, either way it's up to you to define what will get you there. It's about enjoying your work and being given the space to realize yourself.
100% product
Until recently, MANTA was really only for the OGs, the brave pioneers who gave it 100%. A lot of things were without working processes and people had a very broad scope. That has changed today because of the investments that have been made. Now we have a lot more people taking care of MANTA and the whole MANTA ecosystem can afford the best people in the market and abroad, and we can really focus on the best product development.
We are a technology company and today we have the chance to do technology as best as we can. What is unique about MANTA and what is felt across the company is that we are not part of some global vendor parked next to other products in the portfolio. We are standalone product and have a specific and clearly defined value proposition for our customers and for us employees.
Tomáš Krátký: Saving time for thousands of engineers
This mindset allows us to try to do things differently because that's what matters. I've realized that we're growing by 30% a month in everything and if we're doing things in March the same way we did them in January, then something is wrong. We need to innovate on a daily basis and we need to have a culture where people are constantly coming in with improvements because we're just not going to accept that we're going to do it the same way we did it last month. I think everybody here understands that. We help each other, we can win together but we can also lose together and we all have a huge personal responsibility in that.
We're at the beginning, we have no idea where this journey is going to take us. We have a tremendous technological capability and that's also because of the great collaboration with the universities that we have well set up from the beginning and so I think we're going to be able to handle the very difficult technical challenges that are ahead of us.
My mindset is not that we're going to build something that we're going to sell to somebody bigger in two years. What I want is to build a big company because the potential in the metadata market is at its start and it's huge.
I want people in MANTA who see that potential and want to be part of that growth. We all have the opportunity to be there for great success, and this is confirmed by many senior people who have experienced such success with companies and feel they could replicate it with us.
The key is to keep working as a team. Everyone at MANTA is important, we are a very team-oriented company and if there is someone who is toxic, who doesn't respect the team and therefore brings the mood down, there is no room for that here.
I believe we have a great team and we can be very successful.
The more challenging, the better
We solve technologically demanding challenges. Algorithmic problems that no one has solved before. This scientific passion for complex problems and their solutions brings us together. The complexity also means that a person with basic programming skills won't get caught up in our work. That's the reality. MANTA is complex on many levels and the problems we solve every day are very specific and challenging. That's why we need people who have dedicated their lives to technology and programming since high school and are passionate enough to solve the most complex problems we put in front of them. The more challenging, the better. If it were easy, we wouldn't actually enjoy it as much.
At least in my team, no one wants to do low-code work just to get things done quickly. I think if we didn't work on such tech heavy stuff, half of the people would leave. That's why we're looking for people who want to tackle difficult problems and things that no one has done before us.
Manta Scientists
At MANTA, it has always been about people who understand their work in detail, it has never been different and we hope it will never be different because today we can say that MANTA has an engineering approach to the product, which means that the opinions of technical people are always taken into account during development and their opinions are also important for everything else that concerns the customer. Everyone is encouraged to have their say and the resulting decisions are thus backed up by data and relevant opinions.
That's why at MANTA you experience more of an introverted environment. That doesn't mean we don't order a pizza, we don't go out for a beer. We love to meet each other, but we also love to shut ourselves away with headphones on and immerse ourselves in problem-solving for hours.
Cooperation with universities
Students have always been and and always will be full-fledged members of our team. Most of them come to us to write their final thesis, which means that they get a piece of code or another project and help us with real development. At MANTA, we see education as an important part of everyone's development, so we try to support everyone as much as possible. Studying and working at MANTA is not just about a stamp or a project you put in a drawer, but actually using what you learn in school. We encourage students to have time for work, school, and their free time, and we always try our best to accommodate. And then we're happy if people stay with us because MANTA makes sense to them.
When students write their bachelor's or master's thesis, they work on a specific part of MANTA. When you're 22 and you're developing a product that's actually used by, say, an American bank, that's great. They're not just doing something for show, they're developing the main code.
What I always praise and what I think is a benefit of working for MANTA is that you can talk to anyone in the company. There are no hierarchical issues or people you can't write to or give constructive feedback to. There are people here who listen to that feedback and always work on it.
MANTA core principles
Striving for excellence
We never stop learning and we constantly develop our knowledge to reach higher every day.
Teamwork
We bring the best out of everyone to achieve common goals.
Integrity and ethics
We follow fair and transparent business practices and we build a welcoming workplace by supporting diversity and inclusion.
Commitment to customers
We grow strong relationships with our customers to provide them with an outstanding, life-changing product.
#mantatogether
It's our second "working" family. The atmosphere in MANTA is great, relaxed, and very friendly. It's very much about not feeling left out, but always part of the team, part of the outcome, the discussions and decisions. No question is a dumb question. If anyone asks for help, they always get it. Also thanks to the communication of the whole leadership team, we know what is happening in MANTA and where we are heading every month, step by step.
They say that to be happy in your job, you need four pillars. One is a good financial evaluation, the second is colleagues you get along with, the third is strong leaders who run the company and the fourth pillar is a meaningful product and a vision of where that product is going. All of that is in balance at Manta and the people are here because MANTA makes sense to them as a whole, as their second family, the work-family.
I'll slack you
One of the things that work great in MANTA is communication. Whether it's between the different teams or between Tomáš Krátký our CEO and us. Tomáš sends a monthly email where we find a summary of what's new at MANTA, what the results are, and also what went wrong. We have internal podcasts so we can get to know each other more and get practical info on who is responsible for what and how they are currently doing, this was a very effective onboarding tool, especially in the Covid-19 era. We're all just a Slack away - that is, we have the information at the fingertips of one message on Slack. That's the mantra we try to follow and spread to all new colleagues. If you're worried about something or want to discuss something there's nothing easier than sending a message or coming in person to chat with anyone. We take every suggestion, feedback, praise, and complaint seriously and we are truly about making it a good time for people to work here, actually not good, but great.
We have a very clever career plan. I think of it like Pokémon hunting - I can see which trait or skill I can improve and I know what I need to improve on to take myself to the next level. I didn't see that in my previous job where I was always told to wait a bit more.
Impact
MANTA brings real impact to its customers. It's not just something "pretty", but a functional product that helps our customers make data-driven decisions. Decisions that often cost a lot of money. We see how they use our product, how they can develop their IT infrastructure and their business more precisely and be more successful because of it.
Behind each impactful product, there is a team of impacful individuals. At MANTA we're still just big enough for everyone to work on something that really makes sense, that's realistically applicable and that contributes to the overall puzzle that we're creating together. There are not 10 levels of approval, but a straightforward path to a result that we all contribute to at MANTA. When we look back at what we've already accomplished, we're confident that the way MANTA is set up now, it's capable of handling the next level.
MANTA
You'll find us In Prague on busy I.P. Pavlova. You can take the train, metro, tram, scooter or go online to work. In the offices, however, you'll find a quiet place to work, fruit and snacks, regular breakfasts and there's always someone to go out for lunch or a beer with after work.
