2. Silicon Valley in Riga?
Innovations at TechHub
Andris K. Berzins @akberzins

3. Who is Andris K. Berzins?
 Stanford Business School
 Bain & Company - strategy consulting
 AeroScout – real-time location solutions
 Livebookings – online restaurant reservations
 Amooz – digital loyalty solution for restaurants
 Reach.ly – behavioural analytics for e-commerce
 Creandum – Stockholm-based venture capital fund
 BuzzTale – Instagram meets Storify for enterprises

4. What is TechHub Riga?
 Co-working space for “product oriented”
startups
 30+ startup teams, 75+ residents
 First intl. branch of TechHub London
 Startup event organiser
 Goal to help create the environment for
the “Skype of Latvia” to emerge
 Non-profit foundation
 Run by entrepreneurs
 Funded by membership fees, some
sponsorship and events
 Moving to new space double the size!

5. What is a Startup?
A startup is an organization in
search of a repeatable and
scalable business model
- Steve Blank

6. Why do startups innovate effectively?
 Take risks.
 Fail.
 Take more risks.
 Fail.
 Take even more risks.
 Usually die.
 Sometimes succeed…..

7. Why do startups innovate effectively?
 Take risks.
 Fail.
 Take more risks.
 Fail.
 Take even more risks.
 Usually die.
 Sometimes succeed….. if they focus on what they are good at
and learn from their mistakes.

8. Why can corporates learn from startups?
 Take risks.
 Embrace and celebrate failure (“it is better to ask for forgiveness
than to ask for permission”).
 More small experiments than grand plans (the Post-it story)
 Give innovators room to experiment and the time to focus.
 Pick up what works and scale it.

9. Questions? @techhubriga @akberzins

10. Questions? @techhubriga @akberzins