Built for startup teams that need QA without the drag.
Mantis was created for fast-moving product teams that need stronger release confidence, sharper QA ownership, and less founder overhead — without building everything in-house from scratch.
Built to fill the gap between no QA and a full in-house team.
Most startups don't need a full internal QA department. They do need real quality ownership, release confidence, and someone senior enough to work without hand-holding.
Mantis was built to fill that gap — embedded QA engineers who plug into startup teams, own coverage, and improve release confidence over time. Without the delay, overhead, or risk of building it in-house too early.
Founded by Gor Nagdalyan.
Gor Nagdalyan
FOUNDER & CEOGor has over 15 years of QA experience across startups, scale-ups, and product teams shipping under real release pressure.
He built Mantis after seeing the same pattern repeat: startups shipping real products with real risk, but without the right QA structure to support them. Either no QA function yet, or a single hire stretched too thin, or coverage that decayed the moment engineering velocity went up.
Mantis was designed to solve that practically — with embedded QA support, senior judgment, fast integration, and a startup-aware way of working. No long ramps, no ceremony, no QA theater.
What kind of team we built.
Not a generic QA vendor. A team shaped for the realities of startup releases — described by how it operates, not by what it claims to value.
Senior enough to own outcomes
We hire QA engineers who can make calls, drive coverage, and protect releases — not juniors who need direction every morning.
Clear enough to work inside startups
Direct updates, honest tradeoffs, short loops. We match how startup teams actually communicate.
Flexible by release cadence
Flex up before launches, ease back during quieter cycles. Coverage tracks load, not a fixed contract.
Practical, not ceremonial
We aim to reduce noise, not create more process than your team can support.
Broad coverage when it matters
Web, mobile, automation, real-device QA — applied where they move the bar, not as a vendor checklist.
What we stand for.
Five values we actually keep. Sharper than slogans — these are the calls we make on hard days.
Client Happiness First
Every decision starts with whether it makes the client's product, team, or release better — not whether it makes us look better.
We are a Team, Not a Family
We work, we deliver, we improve. We don't pretend to be a family — and we don't trade real performance for forced loyalty.
Help, Not Harm
Every report, every finding, every conversation should make the product and the team stronger. If it doesn't, we don't ship it.
Extreme Ownership
We own the outcome, not the ticket. If something is unclear, undecided, or breaking — that's our job to surface and resolve.
Stay Online
Startup release cycles don't wait. Short response times, clear signals, and showing up when teams need us — not when it's convenient.
The kind of team behind the work.
A curated look — senior, embedded, and selected for how they actually operate.
Sona Babasyan
A core leader inside Mantis since the early days. Leads QA work across the team, helps train engineers, and brings the structure, judgment, and consistency strong release quality depends on.
Tigran Grigoryan
Leads Playwright automation at Mantis, explores AI-assisted QA workflows, and helps shape how we apply AI in real delivery work across startup products.
Yeva Melikyan
One of the fastest-learning engineers on the team, with strong hands-on range across manual and automation QA. Adapts quickly, executes reliably, and handles a high volume of work without losing quality.
Naro Kabakian
A highly dependable manual QA engineer with strong exploratory testing instincts, sharp organization, and consistent follow-through. Known for catching important issues early, staying on top of details, and delivering quality work in a timely, structured way.
Embedded with startups across regulated and high-stakes products.
Need a QA partner that can integrate fast and think clearly?
Mantis helps startup teams improve product quality without the overhead of building QA from scratch.