Meet those Who Started StartSchool

At StartSchool, we're not just educators - we're tech visionaries on a mission. Learn more about our passionate founders and their commitment to shaping the future of tech education in Latvia.

Donate to Support StartSchool

Team

CEO at StartSchool

Anna Andersone

Anna is a driving force in Latvia’s startup ecosystem and Chair of the Board of Riga TechGirls. With over 20 years of experience in design, communication, technology, and entrepreneurship, she has a deep understanding of how to merge creativity and tech innovation. Her leadership and passion for empowering women in tech, combined with her extensive experience in building businesses, make her the ideal candidate to lead StartSchool. As CEO, Anna is responsible for setting the strategic vision, building partnerships, and ensuring the success of the program in transforming Latvia into a global tech hub.

Program Manager at StartSchool

Austra Marta Jirgensone

Austra Marta Jirgensone is the perfect fit as StartSchool’s Program Manager, blending her technical expertise as a Frontend Developer at Mapon with a passion for education. With years of experience teaching programming to children through Datorium and mentoring aspiring developers, she brings a unique ability to simplify complex tech concepts for learners of all levels. Her background in project management and leadership, combined with a deep understanding of the tech industry, ensures smooth program operations and a student-centric approach. Austra’s main responsibilities include overseeing program execution, mentoring participants, and using data-driven strategies to continuously improve the StartSchool experience.

Program Manager at StartSchool

Eliass Baranovs

Eliass brings a rare combination of technical expertise, hands-on support experience, and a passion for continuous learning to his role as Junior Program Manager at StartSchool. With a background in frontend development and IT consulting, he has built real-world applications using modern technologies like React, NextJS, and Tailwind CSS, and contributed to StartSchool’s own technical module documentation. His previous roles—from building internal dashboards at Arvato Systems to managing help desk operations—reflect his versatility and problem-solving mindset. At StartSchool, Eliass supports program coordination, provides technical mentorship, and ensures that students have the guidance and tools they need to thrive in both business and tech tracks.

WhatsApp Image 2024-07-09 at 10.07.29 AM.jpg

Campus Manager at StartSchool

Jānis Altgauzens

Janis was a perfect match as the Campus Manager at StartSchool, with over five years of experience managing and accelerating innovation programs across Latvia. From launching and managing the Innovation Academy to leading initiatives at Buildit Accelerator, Jānis has a proven track record of driving tech education and startup growth. His deep understanding of program management, paired with his extensive network in Latvia’s tech and innovation ecosystem, makes him an exceptional leader for StartSchool’s campus. As Campus Manager, Jānis is responsible for setting the vision, leading the team, ensuring operational excellence, and building key relationships to drive the campus’s growth and success.

Program Manager at StartSchool

Arina Li

Arina Li is a StartSchool alumna turned team member, bringing a unique blend of empathy, tech skills, and hands-on experience to her role. With a background in project management at a mental health startup, customer experience at Smart Advisory, and community leadership at UWC Latvia, she’s no stranger to taking ownership and making things better. Arina has also taught students aged 7 to 55, proving her talent for communication across levels and contexts. As Junior Program Manager, she supports daily operations, mentors participants, and helps keep the StartSchool engine running smoothly — hoodie already on.

Founders

Anna Andersone

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.

James Janis Berdigans

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

Elīna Branta

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.

Ieva Ilvess

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.

Kristofs Blaus

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.

Andris K. Bērziņš

Andris K. Bērziņš, a seasoned founder and executive with successful exits over $100M, is also a venture capital investor at Change Ventures. He co-founded TechHub Riga and TechChill, and is involved in the Latvian Startup Association. Andris brings 25 years of startup and investment experience, holding an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Edgars Peičs

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.

Raimonds Simanovskis, eazy BI

I am grateful that I had a great technical education at my school and university. It was one of the main success factors why I could build a successful software business. Therefore we, eazyBI, already have been supporting many tech education projects in Latvia. StartSchool is a new, promising project with the goal of growing new tech leaders of tomorrow, and therefore, we are joining as a founding partner to support it both financially and also by sharing our tech and business experience.

Jānis Lucaus, Balcia Insurance

Over the past years, we've actively pushed the insurance industry to break conventional boundaries, driven by innovation and new tech. Despite lagging behind banking in innovation, we view this as a learning opportunity from others' experiences. StartSchool participants, too, will have access to this valuable opportunity to learn from industry professionals. We take great pride in being part of the team that contributes to shaping future technology leaders!

Jēkabs Endziņš, weby.vc

We believe that the basis of Latvia's future success is the ability to create exporting technology companies, if we want to live in a country that is prosperous and recognized. Weby.vc was created with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship among young people, showing examples of the opportunities to build your own startup in any field. In our opinion, StartSchool is the right next step in order to create a new generation of technology entrepreneurs in Latvia, who will have the knowledge, the necessary motivation, and a lot of friends to develop big ideas. Let's continue to support and keep our fingers crossed for StartSchool!

Māris Veide, ITissible

If there is one thing Latvia can and should give the world, that is the results of what our collective brain(s) can generate. By my experience, Latvians typically are smart and hard-working introverts. The only thing to add, is the spark of the right knowledge at the right moment. StartSchool is that place to give that initial boost. And I see it’s growing to not be just a place. It’s a philosophy, a new kind of growth engine that we were missing. With that trust in our people, we can add true value to the whole world from here - that small Latvia with those big brains and hearts. I created Matrixify to try and demonstrate what I mean by that. And there are other much more amazing examples from Latvia already. Yes, we are a small country with limited resources, and that’s the exact precondition for maximum creativity - to give enormous value for the whole big world.

Armands Broks

I co-founded technology school in Latvia because I believe we can inspire the next generation with the skills and knowledge they need to not only excel locally, but also compete globally. Technology is a great help and we can serve the whole world from Latvia. As a technology entrepreneur myself, I am well aware of the skills required for this task. By providing up-to-date education and hands-on experience, we aim to ignite passion, foster innovation and bridge the gap between traditional education and the rapidly evolving technology sector. This is a wonderful project that invites Latvian entrepreneurs to join forces for a better Latvia by nurturing local talent that can turn ideas into reality and potential into global excellence.

Antons Sapriko, Scandiweb

Founder and Executive Chairman at scandiweb, a leading eCommerce and digital strategy agency established in 2003. Under his leadership, scandiweb has grown from a content aggregation startup into a global powerhouse in eCommerce Consulting and Delivery, specializing in Magento (Adobe Commerce) and other leading platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce. With offices across the U.S., Canada, UK, Sweden, Latvia, and Georgia, scandiweb serves clients worldwide, helping businesses transform their eCommerce strategies through expert advice, technology, design, digital marketing, data analytics, and more.

StartSchool is financed by successful Latvian tech companies and private donations

Fond aims to strengthen the start-up ecosystem and foster the transition to a knowledge-based economy, as well as to create co-working spaces to promote start-ups and innovation.

Easy-to-use business intelligence application that could be installed and immediately utilized by end users

WhatsApp Image 2025-04-17 at 09.16.16.jpeg

A full-service eCommerce agency providing expert development and digital marketing solutions.

Payment processing platform that allows businesses to collect payments via Direct Debit and Instant Bank Pay powered by open banking.

WhatsApp Image 2025-04-17 at 09.36.46.jpeg

A leading Nordic financial services group guided by a strong belief that entrepreneurial minds and innovative companies are key in creating a better world.

Nutrameg is a healthtech startup developing patented nutrition technology for weight management and fitness used by millions of people worldwide.

The most modern insurance company in Latvia!

Screenshot 2025-10-08 at 17.48_edited.jp

Built IT in several FinTech startups, Consumer lending IT solutions, High-frequency trading transaction processing, Social trading platform backend development.

The Foundation for Growth fosters innovation, creates competitive jobs, and boosts national economic growth.

Your art, our prints – seamless print on demand for wall art You create, we print, they love it. Our print on demand service delivers gallery-quality wall art straight to your customers, hassle-free.