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Ruben Mena discovered “a huge problem in communication” in the multi-billion-dollar yachting industry. Mena worked in this unique industry while earning a master’s degree in luxury management at the International University of Monaco (IUM) in 2021.
Returning to Las Cruces, the Arrowhead Park Early College High School (APECHS) and New Mexico State University graduate created a software-as-a-service company to solve the problem. He launched YACHTNOTES LLC in 2022, making it accessible on desktops and mobile devices to connect yacht brokers, yacht charter managers, owners and charter guests.
It can cost $1-$3 million to charter a yacht for a week – “It’s basically a hotel for a few people in the ocean” – so expectations of a problem-free experience are very high, and “communication is just so important, Mena said.”
Mena and YACHTNOTES won a major international prize in May, taking first place in the 10th annual IUM Mark Challenge, a luxury products and services business-pitching competition in Monaco. The three-month competition included 122 teams representing 55 nationalities.
In the final round, Mena, representing both the United States and Monaco, competed against Swiss, Portuguese and Spanish Israeli teams to win the challenge competition among post-graduate professionals and MBA students who have founded companies within the past three years.
“It was a lot of work,” said Mena, 26. “I was very nervous. The only thing I could do was my best.”
“To have a locally headquartered company win such a prestigious prize is a testimony to the talent we have here in the state,” said Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator, which is helping Mena tell the YACHTNOTES story and find investors.
“YACHTNOTES is a great example of the young entrepreneurialism that exists here in New Mexico,” said Pacheco, who is also president of the Santa Teresa-based Border Industrial Alliance.
YACHTNOTES “enables charter guests to communicate their demands to all their dedicated professionals at once and increases transparency into how the yachts are being managed for yacht owners/family offices,” said Mena, a 2015 graduate of APECHS.
His bachelor’s degree from NMSU is in economics and business administration, and he continues to receive assistance with YACHTNOTES from NMSU’s Arrowhead Center.
“I never saw myself as an entrepreneur a few years ago,” Mena said.
Mena said getting YACHTNOTES fully launched is “a 24/7 job. It’s like a baby,” he said.
Mena is currently creating and copywriting highly technical YACHTNOTES software, which must be available in multiple languages and include each country’s unique regulations because the yachting industry is worldwide. It generates about $3 billion a year in the U.S., according to multiple sources.
While New Mexico may not be a popular destination for yacht enthusiasts, it is a good place to start a business, Mena said. And, he hopes to attract local investors in YACHTNOTES.
“Our state is really changing,” Mena said, noting that New Mexico is home to Virgin Galactic and a booming movie industry.
“I am happy to contribute to that changing perception,” he said. “I’m thankful New Mexico is helping me put this forward.”
Because of Zoom and other remote audiovisual web-based platforms, Mena can instantly communicate with partners, potential investors and advisors anywhere in the world. He just returned from an IUM alumni event in New York City, where he would eventually like to live.
Mena is fluent in English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese (he spent most of his senior year in high school living in China as part of a student exchange program), and also speaks French. And, he spent a year studying in Switzerland and Denmark during college. Mena’s principal YACHTNOTES partners are in Germany (marketing) and India (software).
“I believe in this project so much,” he said.
Born in El Paso, Mena grew up in the Mesilla Valley. His family owns a pecan farm in Mesilla.
“They’re very proud,” Mena said. “I have very supportive parents.”
Contact Mena at mena.ruben@monaco.edu.
