Why StartSchool?

Anna is one of the leaders of the startup ecosystem in Latvia and the head of the Riga TechGirls association and movement. For more than 20 years, her experience has been related to the field of design, communication and technology and entrepreneurship, co-founding startups FROONT and berta.me, as well as serving on the board of TechHub Riga. Under her leadership, the association Riga TechGirls, which supports women in the field of IT, has tripled its growth every year, training more than 20,000 people in Latvia and beyond its borders in the last 3 years. Since graduating from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Anna has been giving guest lectures at the university and creating the content of the Entrepreneurship course, and for 4 years she has led a business school for young entrepreneurs throughout Latvia. Received the highest State award - the Order of Three Stars for her selfless contribution to the organization of the Ukrainian support movement Entrepreneurs for Peace.

Kristofs Blaus has been founding and managing tech companies for 16 years. Has driven the growth of health tech company Nutrameg in over 100 markets. Co-founded the portal ManaBalss.lv, which has changed 60 Latvian laws. Mentor in the Riga TechGirls organization. Received the highest State award - the Order of Three Stars for co-founding the Ukrainian support movement Entrepreneurs for Peace.

Founder & CEO of Printify. Started and grew the company to 600 employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Studied MBA in University of North Carlina, USA, Bachelor International Business Administration, The Netherlands

Andris K. Bērziņš is an experienced founder and C-level executive (in the management team of two start-ups whose exit exceeded $100M) and a venture capital investor (partner at Change Ventures). He is a co-founder and board member of TechHub Riga and TechChill foundations, as well as the Latvian Startup Association. 25 years of experience in startups and investments, MBA degree from Stanford Business School.

Elina has had a varied and impressive career in management and innovation. Currently, she is a board member of Swisscom DevOps Center Latvia, where she applies her skills in marketing and company management. At the same time, Elina works as a product manager at Swisscom, where she oversees the development of the Swisscom brand in Latvia, the creation of the company and the recruitment strategy. Before entering the private sector, Elina worked in the Ministry of Economics of Latvia in various positions, including director of the Innovation Department, head of a structural unit and adviser to the minister. During her time at the ministry, the focus was shifted to investment attraction, tourism and export promotion and innovation development.

Edgars Peičs is a passionate senior leader with 30 years of international experience in the information technology sector. Over his career worked in many companies - Microsoft, Lattelecom, Swedbank, Evolution Gaming, Gaming Innovation Group, Luminor, NetEnt and currently works as a Chief Technical Officer at Printify. Edgars has an MBA degree from the Riga Business School and completed his doctoral studies at the University of Latvia. During his career, Edgars has worked in almost all roles in information technology domain, like as a software tester, software development engineer, system administrator, system analyst, project manager, innovation manager, software development architect and  department manager, data center and IT systems manager, and for the last 12 years of his career he has been in CIO and CTO roles. Edgars actively participates in mentoring and coaching programs, helping young technology managers.

Ieva is a diplomat, an expert in foreign and security policy issues, digital policy and cyber security with more than 20 years of experience in national and international institutions in Latvia, NATO and the EU. She has worked as a digital policy and cyber security advisor to the President of Latvia, the Ministry of Defense and now the EU advisory mission in Ukraine. Author of the "Computer for every child" initiative, guest lecturer of digital policy at Riga Graduate School of Law. Obtained her master's degree in political science at the University of Latvia and master's degree in international politics from Johns Hopkins University in Washington. Received the State award - Cross of Appreciation for contribution to the organization of the NATO summit in Riga.