At 22, and just months from completing his master's degree, Jens Oskar Gudmundsen, a student in Vatel Madrid's MBA in International Hospitality Management program and the 2026 winner of the Vatel Trophy, the school's highest student honor, has done what many students only plan to do: build a company. In the first week of October, Reputal, his software startup focused on online reputation management for hotels and restaurants, closed its first two sales.
Reputal (reputalsolutions.com) helps restaurants and hotels protect and grow their reputation, and motivates the teams who build it every day. Jens started developing it in June, and for four months he designed, coded and refined the product without earning a single euro, driven by something his professors and mentors at Vatel had taught him: that a project like this is, above all, a way to learn and grow professionally.
"For four months I spent money and earned nothing, and that was frustrating. But if money had been my motivation, I would have given up. What kept me going was knowing I was learning something new every day, and that I need this knowledge to succeed in my future ventures. Even the small things, like the admin work, registering the company and setting up the domain, taught me a lot," Jens explains.
Jens's hospitality training at Vatel Madrid shapes Reputal's mission. In his view, many restaurants in Spain still underestimate how much online reputation and earned media affect their business: reviews decide where guests book, and establishments that neglect them lose tables and revenue every year.
"Spending on reputation and taking reviews seriously is crucial, and in Spain that mindset still isn't the norm," Jens explains. "I want to help change that culture."
The second idea behind Reputal comes from personal experience. During his internship at a representative hotel in Ibiza, Jens became the team's top upseller, driven by friendly competition among colleagues. He saw firsthand how a motivated team lifted the hotel's revenue, and how engaged staff are also the ones guests mention in positive reviews, which in turn raises the rating.
"When the team is motivated, guests feel it, and the reviews show it," says Jens. "Friendly competition made a huge difference for me, and I believe it can do the same for any hospitality team."
Reputal's approach is to build simple, functional tools around real problems. While on vacation in the Netherlands, Jens spoke with the owner of a beach restaurant who struggled to onboard new staff and had no time to do it properly. From that conversation, Jens built an app to solve exactly that problem.
Jens set out to have the company fully operational before finishing his master's, so he could draw on the school's network of contacts and industry connections. With the first customers secured, that new phase begins now.
"The world is our oyster with all these new technologies," says Jens. "I'm a student and a beginner entrepreneur, but I have faith that this company will work."
For more information, visit reputalsolutions.com.
For Vatel Madrid, Jens's story is a source of pride: it reaffirms the school as a true launchpad of entrepreneurial talent, and his example serves as an inspiration for the rest of the student Comunity, proving that it is possible to combine academic training with launching one's own venture.
