Mikko Järvenpää is the COO of Infogr.am, a data visualization company based in Latvia and San Francisco. Infogr.am has over 1.6 million registered users who have created over 2.5 million infographics, totaling over 100,000 hours of content. The company has raised around $2 million and employs around 40 people across its two offices. Järvenpää discusses advantages of operating in Latvia such as significantly lower costs of living and rent compared to San Francisco, a talented pool of over 35,000 students across Latvia's top universities, and support for co-working spaces and startups.

1. From Latvia With
Data Visualization
Mikko Järvenpää
COO, Infogr.am
February 23 2015
European Entrepreneurship &
Innovation @ Stanford
Engineering

2. Mikko Järvenpää
mikko@infogr.am
@mhj

3. @mhj

11. @mhj

12. Create infographics

13. 3 years
1.6 million registered users
2.5 million infographics created
100,000 hours, or
4,167 days, or
11.5 years total of humanity’s time
@mhj

14. Team of ~40 people
Rīga and San Francisco
Raised ~$2m total
Key market segments Media & Publishing, Content
Marketing, Enterprise, Education
@mhj

15. Latvia
@mhj

16. Latvia and Rīga in numbers
• Population 750k / 2m
• GDP (PPP) $25,200/c
• SF vs Rīga:
• 87% lower rent in Rīga
• 66% lower total cost of living
• 60% lower Purchasing Power
• 4th fastest internet in the world

17. Universities and talent pool
• Main schools: Rīga Technical U and
University Latvia: 35,000 students
combined
Co-working Support

18. Interesting tech companies in Latvia
• Ask.fm: acquired by Ask.com
• Airdog: $1.4m on Kickstarter
• Froont: responsive site designer
• Sellfy: digital product sales
• Mikrotik: established 1995
• Forticom: social networks (DST)
• And yes, Infogr.am

20. Punching Above
Your Weight
Some thoughts for Latvia’s
competitiveness

21. Thanks.
Mikko Järvenpää
mikko@infogr.am
@mhj