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Born in Lithuania, raised in Siberia, and now based in New York, Anastasia Dor has never lived in the same country for more than a decade — a constant movement that shaped how she sees the world.

“You understand that everybody is going through something,” Dor said. “It made me appreciate people as individuals, as opposed to what their background suggests they should be.”

While managing a vocational school, Dor looked past the stigma often attached to beauty and wellness workers and saw a deeper disconnect. Her students were preparing for hands-on, rapidly evolving careers — but the systems designed to support them were outdated.

“The training we use is 30 years too old — for technology that’s 30 years in the future,” she said.

That realization led Dor to launch Mentivista, an AI-powered learning management system that delivers mobile-accessible, interactive training modules for beauty professionals and their managers. Targeting multi-location operators — where complex setups and consistency in training quality can be a challenge — the platform combines point-of-view video, adaptive quizzes and voice-activated feedback. It aims to build practical skills, optimize employee performance and make training accessible without overburdening in-house trainers.

The company’s name blends mente — Latin for “mind” or “thought” — and vista, the Spanish and Italian word for “vision.”

“We wanted to signify that it’s a company that prioritizes learning or knowledge at the core,” Dor said, “but also the vision of something that is better.”

During this year's NYU Summer Launchpad accelerator, other cohort founders noted that the name’s “-a” ending — common in feminine names — reflects Mentivista’s all-female team.

“We didn’t set out to be an all-women company,” Dor said. “But it ends up being really important, because we are working in an industry that has a lot of women, and a lot of our first knowledge comes from maternal figures.”

Building that team took time and tough decisions. Summer Launchpad mentors advised her to “hire fast and fire fast,” which she admits was difficult.

“But having a smaller team that works really well is better than having a slightly bigger team where somebody isn’t pulling their weight,” she said. “Our team is hardworking, and we have a lot of empathy for our clients. That allows us to go beyond a simple transaction and build real relationships.”

That empathy shapes Mentivista’s training model. Courses aren’t pre-packaged; they’re co-developed with each client and refined from early prototypes using real-time feedback. The team speaks with every stakeholder — employees, trainers, managers and owners — to create a comprehensive solution together.

“It’s very brave for companies to acknowledge that they’re not perfect and for employees to acknowledge that they don’t know everything,” Dor said. “We meet you where you’re at. We don’t pass judgment.”

The same principle guides the company’s approach to technology. Mentivista’s tools are designed for accessibility, not spectacle.

“We want the benefit to people to be at the forefront — not how sexy-sounding the technology is,” Dor said. “We don’t work with virtual reality right now because we think it’s too bulky and scary for a lot of people.”

That care and understanding quickly paid off. In a meeting with a potential design partner, Dor barely had to pitch. As the client listed their challenges, she realized Mentivista had already mapped them out — and knew how to fix them.

“When I said, ‘This is what we can do,’ they were like, ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’” Dor remembered stepping outside and immediately calling her co-founder, Sophie.

“We got it,” she told her with disbelief. “We can actually help people solve real problems.”