The Story of Cobrainer: Building the Google Maps for Skills

Great companies often start by solving a simple problem. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Hanns Aderhold revealed how a challenge in university project teams led to building a platform that’s reshaping how enterprises manage talent.

Back in 2013, as an architecture student in Munich, Hanns noticed a recurring issue. “We were building aircraft cabins. We were building plus energy houses in Japan, doing a slum resettling India,” he recalls. “And it was always about bringing together people from different faculties to execute these projects.”

The problem? Finding the right skills across different departments was a constant challenge. Hanns and his technical co-founder wondered: “Can we build a system that actually facilitates the coming together in project teams at university on a skills basis?”

When they shared their idea, the response wasn’t encouraging. “There was lots of discouragement in the sense of, hey, you should get your experience with a large company first,” Hanns remembers. But for him, this skepticism became fuel. “That kind of actually got me more excited because I kind of tend to always go against, like, common knowledge.”

Their university project caught the attention of a large German enterprise that offered them €100,000 to adapt the platform for their organization. This was followed by a €2 million contract from another company. “We suddenly noticed, okay, something’s here,” Hanns shares.

For the next six years, Cobrainer operated as a consultancy, building custom solutions while maintaining their core skills engine. But by 2019, the limitations of this model became clear. Every project required a custom shell, making scaling difficult.

The pivotal decision came in March 2019: transform from consultancy to SaaS. Their first product launched in October 2019, focusing on internal career transparency. The timing seemed terrible – they discontinued their consulting contracts just before COVID hit. But sometimes apparent disasters hide opportunities. The pandemic drove companies to focus on internal talent management, accelerating Cobrainer’s growth.

Today, Cobrainer functions as what Hanns calls “the Google Maps for skills.” Just as Google Maps became the source of truth for navigation, Cobrainer aims to be the definitive platform for skills data. “The same way Google Maps provides its maps data as an API to Uber and a Lyft and Uber Eats, we would deliver our skills API to all those HR services that have courses or roles or recruiting use cases,” he explains.

Looking ahead, Hanns envisions a radically different world of work. “I really believe in this world of abundance. I really believe that the trajectory that humanity are on is really going to that world of abundance where we have infinite free energy, we have Tesla bots or robotic assistants basically doing all the blue color work. We have huge, like, insane levels of AI augmentation.”

In this future, Hanns believes work will be driven by purpose rather than necessity. “Everybody will basically not need to work for money anymore, but rather be even more focused on their personal, their purpose, what actually want in life, and, like, be focused on achieving their true calling.”

Cobrainer aims to be the platform that enables this transition, helping people navigate their skills and careers in an increasingly fluid job market. With 252% year-over-year growth and approaching €10 million in revenue, they’re well-positioned to play a crucial role in shaping this future of work.

For Hanns, this vision keeps him working 16-18 hour days even after a decade. “I want to be that navigation platform, that mapping platform for skills that enables this kind of transparency, but also this navigating of skills in this world where actually everybody can really follow their true calling and kind of their passion.”