Ep 162: Anna Andersone & Kristofs Blaus
Listen to this if you want to accelerate your career in tech & startups. How StartSchool aims to bring free world-class coding & business education to most ambitious new founders
Anna Andersone and Kristofs Blaus are co-founders of StartSchool, a brand new transformative IT and business education program in Latvia, aimed at nurturing future technology leaders. With a unique curriculum combining comprehensive coding education from Silicon Valley and practical startup skills, the program is designed to produce well-rounded graduates ready to launch their own startups or join tech companies.
Applications for 1st batch are closing on May 31, 2024, find out more here > https://www.startschool.org/
On this episode we talk about:
What StartSchool is all about
Practical matters of getting admitted to StartSchool
Combining business and IT curriculum to forge future tech leaders
Use of AI in education
Challenges in the current education system and how to overcome them
We are on YouTube and Linkedin as well
Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTA
Connect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/
Read the full episode transcript below
Janis (00:03.539)
Hello friends, we're back with another episode of Pursuit of Scrappiness Podcast. Whether building a business, running a team or just starting out in your career, we're here to bring you scrappy and actionable insights to help you become more productive. My name is Janis Zeps and I'm here with my co-host as always, Mr. Uldis Teraudkalns, dressed as Steve Jobs today. Hey!
Uldis (00:21.923)
or Elizabeth Holmes, make your pick.
Janis (00:24.363)
The dress is exactly the dress is Elizabeth Holmes today. Before we start, a quick reminder to follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, helps more than you know. Exchange with that, you'll find over 160 episodes that are covering all sorts of topics you need to become scrappier and better version of yourself in life and in business. So plenty to explore if this is your first episode. And plus, if you follow us, you will be the first one to know every time we drop a new episode that happens every Tuesday. Very easy thing to do, please do that.
open your Spotify and Apple Podcasts app and click the follow button. We will really appreciate it. All right. So today's topic. So if we look zoom out, I mean, not so long ago, countries wealth was measured by either its level of industrialization or, you know, the amount of oil and other minerals it could extract from its soil. And then, you know, services industry started developing, high tech exports started coming in. If we look at the future, I think, you know, the best that everyone is making is that
the future seems to promise most wealth to those countries who can build and export digital services and products and tools that That are used globally Three Baltic nations, of course have been waiting for this moment for a very long time We've been rubbing our hands for a very long time. We're not really endowed with a lot of precious resources I think the most you know valuable one we can extract from earth is peat. That doesn't make us too
too optimistic, but in terms of IT and digital economies, we've been doing more than was, I guess, expected from these countries. And we want to build on that success. But in order to build on that success, of course, you need to produce people who are skilled and capable and knowledgeable about certain things that these companies require, the companies that build those businesses.
We're of course talking about startups who then become scale ups and then grow into global corporations that pay taxes locally and sell globally and that's the success story we want to see more and more in every of the Baltic countries and also in Latvia that's maybe more focus for today. So we're talking today with two people who have together with other people co-founded a great initiative, one of those building blocks of such a successful country.
Janis (02:37.355)
It's called Start School. It's an IT and business education program that will provide future technology leaders with the opportunity to learn technical know-how and business skills and most importantly for free. So if that's not captivating then I don't know what is. Please welcome two of the founders of the school today, Anna Andersone and Kristofs Blaus
Kristofs Blaus (02:57.877)
Yeah.
Anna Andersone (02:58.103)
Bye!
Janis (03:01.651)
There's no better time to talk about this topic. May 31st, mark your calendars, is the deadline for first batch applications. So let us talk in detail about what the school offers, but make a calendar note already, because I'm sure a lot of you will be excited. But let's dive in. And first question, of course, to ask is, can you maybe walk us through what the school will offer from a perspective of this potential applicant or potential...
student and what the aims of the school and the vision of the school is.
Anna Andersone (03:37.277)
Okay, so maybe I can start with what the offer is and then Christophs can do the vision. What do you say Christophs? So yeah, so the offer is that we want to provide two important parts. First part is tech education. So this is
Kristofs Blaus (03:45.365)
Sure.
Anna Andersone (03:59.533)
education about coding, a very kind of comprehensive education module that we will be using, a ready-made one, made in Silicon Valley. And according to Silicon Valley standards, so the graduates of this program, they work later in Google, Apple, etc. So we want to bring this education here to Latvia, and that's going to be the first time that type of education is here.
An important note here that this education is also in a different pedagogy model. So it's not lectures and seminars as we are used to, but it's practice-based, project-based, peer-to-peer learning model. So to learn more about that, we will have also opportunity to talk in person to those who will apply, but in general just need to be prepared to learn on their own.
And the second part is a startup module. So here we will talk about building your own business, building your own product, searching for investment, building the marketing finals, finding the product market fit. So all the necessary components to build your own product. So these people who will be studying in the program, they will have these two parts, the tech part and the business part. And that is very unique.
Janis (05:25.235)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (05:25.393)
No such program exists currently in the Baltic states.
Kristofs Blaus (06:44.039)
Okay, cool. Okay, so the vision of the school is that you come to us without prior knowledge about tech business or about technology. Within one year, we will train you to do basic coding on your own so that you are in a state where you can develop most of the things you can imagine.
and maybe do it over a weekend or maybe over a couple of weeks. Also we will get you to know everyone in the startup community, all Latvian investors, other startup founders. So after this one year you will come out like a 10x person. We'll give you a
All friendships, contacts will give you technology background, will give you business background. And you'll also put your ability to learn and work in a team on steroids. So you're kind of a dangerous person when you come out of the school. And we'll have a hundred of those every year.
Uldis (07:57.646)
Thanks for watching!
Uldis (08:01.742)
100 assassins.
Kristofs Blaus (08:03.52)
Nah, basically.
Janis (08:03.793)
It sounds like mafia. But what's in the...
Anna Andersone (08:05.77)
Ready to kill it!
Kristofs Blaus (08:07.697)
Yeah, if you're having ghost bumps then you're on point.
Janis (08:13.787)
What's the, it's almost like, what do you have to commit to this in exchange to this knowledge? Is there a lifetime blood pact that you need to, you know, what's the, yeah.
Uldis (08:24.021)
a pound of flesh.
Anna Andersone (08:27.693)
So we want to provide this education for free and we have these free 100 spaces in the first batch provided by our generous supporters and partners and founders. In exchange, what we want? We want full commitment. So we want 12 months of hard work, at least 40 hours a week.
and we see that it will not be possible to combine this education with a full-time job somewhere else. It is possible probably to work on your own idea in the meantime or maybe do some very flexible part-time gigs on the side, but definitely not a full-time. And so we want this dedication and full focus on...
learning the skills that we will be providing. And also building the community, so becoming part of the community and what we expect is that part of the graduates would become co-founders of startups themselves, part maybe will go into working for some startups, scale-ups, IT companies, and so we want to keep this community afterwards as well.
supporting the next generation of young and maybe not also that young, maybe some experienced people who have the grit and who want to learn these things and support them in achieving their goals.
Janis (10:05.511)
What's the profile of person you expect to apply? I mean, obviously, I guess you're happy for anyone who's dedicated, but Link, in terms of, you probably looked at the market, is it someone just out of the school, or you think that there is demand also from someone who's like, you know, I've been in 10 years working in some bank, I wanna do 180 degree in my career, I really wanna be in startups. Who do you think will show up for the first batch? What kind of people to expect?
Anna Andersone (10:34.137)
Internationally, this programme has the average age of the participants, about 27 years old. We expect maybe 25-27 average. From existing applications, I can say that the most experienced person who has applied was born in 1982, so they are 42 this year.
Janis (10:42.246)
Oh, okay.
Anna Andersone (10:58.717)
and the youngest so far applied has been born in 2004, so they're 20 years old. From that perspective, we don't have any particular kind of requirements. We want the people to be 18 years old so that they can afterwards start their own company or go work with someone else and otherwise they just need to have the grit.
What we will be testing is the logics, how they think. There will be a cognitive test and we will talk to them about how they approach things because what is very important is this self-driven individuals who can work on their own, who don't need kind of the lectures and the schedule to be set and they can figure out for themselves. Because also in building your own startup and...
later or working in IT, you need these skills as well. I don't know, Christoph, do you want to add something here?
Kristofs Blaus (12:05.673)
Yeah, maybe something to emphasize is you have to be able to provide for your living for one year. So you either need to have some savings or family situation or maybe family situation around you because you will need to sustain your life for one year. That's one.
Janis (12:21.951)
some bitcoin.
Kristofs Blaus (12:35.701)
You need to be kind of bright because the school is going to be really demanding. You will be evaluated by your peers and by the program manager. And you need to be really good and sharp at all times.
I'm not advisable to try to combine it with some other kind of employment or freelance. You will need all your brain power for your school.
Janis (13:14.719)
Can you talk about the business module a bit? I think on the technical side, there are good examples also in Baltics, like code, Yokui for example, school that they are teaching programming. I was interested about the business side. It seemed to cover the things that startup founders might need, right? It's not enough that you can code the product, you need to understand what the market needs, product market fit, testing, business side of it, fundraising. But yeah, how do you teach even these skills? Is there like a...
program that you developed or you're taking over some of these global best practices because these skills are usually, I guess, not so easy to teach. But yeah, tell me what your plan is in this area.
Anna Andersone (13:57.85)
So in this case we are building our own program for the Startup and Business module. We will be taking experience from different incubator incubating programs, accelerator programs.
and startup and entrepreneurship courses, including also entrepreneurship course from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. So we'll be taking all that experience and combining that and putting together also with the founders and with the community that we have here. So we will be adding the possible mentors and
So community players to come in and talk about their possibilities and their offerings, like the Startup Association, the Startup House, and the founders that have already succeeded to talk about how they went through their processes and what they have learned and what they can share. And so we will use a quite typical startup development process.
So working on your pitch and the pitch always also consists of the most important steps that you need to take as a startup. So pitch is not only there to convince investors to invest in your company, but it's also there to put together the essentials of your startup. So we will be talking, we'll be starting in the very early stage of understanding.
the problem that you want to solve, an ideation, design thinking, a validation of all the assumptions. And then we'll move into the product development, the go-to-market strategy development. We will also work with the teams that will be forming in the program to talk about the team building, how to build their culture. We will definitely talk about metrics, OKRs, KPIs.
Kristofs Blaus (15:41.345)
Thanks for watching!
Anna Andersone (16:02.309)
So all of the necessary components that are needed there to build a successful startup and that we as founders have already gone through and experienced on our own skin.
Uldis (16:15.902)
Well, having done business education straight out of high school, I guess the biggest challenge is how to make it applicable or how to make it relatable to someone who hasn't done any of that before. Because I guess with coding, it's very simple. It's like math, right? But with the business side, I guess it wouldn't hurt if the person has some kind of project they're working on, because then obviously it would be a...
a difference maker for sure.
Kristofs Blaus (16:47.729)
That's the thing, we'll be having Latvian startups and startup executives coming in for a lecture on projects that they're doing and maybe some crazy problems they have solved in the past 12 months or so, so that it's going to be way less theory than in business high schools.
It's all going to come from doers and about doing and to both widen the, you know, vision or perspective for students and at the same time to show how what they learn in the school, how that's getting applied in the real world.
Anna Andersone (17:37.681)
And we will also start off the business and startup module with a hackathon where they will be actually working on their own idea that they will be going through within the program and they might use someone who already has an idea to work on that or they might come up with a new one, they will be forming teams and it will be all very, very practical in that side as well.
Janis (18:06.847)
No, I mean, these, I mean, I'm a big proponent on the fact that if you have some knowledge and you know how to build on top of it and you have some models that you have used, you can speed up things. But of course, the traditional business education is kind of really suited, I guess, maybe if you work for a big company, I think, in a startup. I don't know if somebody, when there's a challenge, I don't know if people have come together and said like, oh my God, what do you do?
supporters, five forces think about this situation, you know, can we apply it? Maybe I'm wrong as well, but no, that's the new economy demands a bit different knowledge and I think you guys are working on a curriculum that reflects that. I wanted to ask about...
Uldis (18:47.762)
I don't know what you're talking about. I just sit down with my notebook, take my Porter's Five Horses and solve any kind of situation.
Janis (18:55.111)
You see, that's why you're so good. Look, moving into thing that will solve everything, everything for us, AI, how is that reflected in the learning program? How do you factor it in? I mean, what's your view on this?
Anna Andersone (19:13.633)
So we definitely use all kinds of AI tools in the process and you can't not use them anymore, right? So we will be talking to the students as well of what kind of tools they can use in their learning process and what they should use also afterwards. And I'm sure that in the upcoming year the AI tools will also develop and change.
We will be keeping up to date with that and both generative AI and other approaches, we will be using that. Within the tech program, so what we will be offering for this first batch is a full stack developer curriculum. And in the Silicon Valley based program that we are incorporating here in Latvia, they also have
machine learning and AI as a module. So in essence, in specialization in the tech module, they can also go into more details about data and data analytics and work on that. However, specifically to work on AI and machine learning, that would be a separate program, separate batch that we would create probably later. So that's the plan so far.
Yeah, I don't know if Christos wanted to add something about AI here.
Kristofs Blaus (20:40.299)
Not to really know.
Janis (20:45.919)
And the future founders, like if we just brainstorm a bit, what do you think, what are the skillsets required for to be the future Zuckerbergs? Is it like some technical founder? Is it someone with some knowledge of code? Is it someone with all, you know, very basic knowledge of code because AI is doing everything, but that person has this crazy business vision? Obviously it's not just one profile,
But yeah, what do you think, you know, what are the skills necessary to succeed and build a global success story in 10 years from now, 15?
Kristofs Blaus (21:28.334)
For starters, the more skills you have, the better you are off. It's hard to predict what will happen in the next 10 and what skills will be the most crucial. But if I look at my own track record and my fellow founders here in Latvia, we all kind of, the non-engineers.
us. We all kind of wished we understood technology better. We always come in a little bit short in matters of like how this could be developed. We always struggle, we rely on other people, on our CTOs, but you know, when you just started, how are you going to find and afford a good CTO that you can trust, right? So the...
Technology, the lack of technology skills has, you know, dragged me back. And I know some fellow co-founders and as well. So having that one skill in a level that you at least can build simple things over a weekend and, you know, a couple of technologies by heart.
gives you a much better head start.
Anna Andersone (22:59.933)
I completely agree and I want to add maybe that another thing which we definitely want to stress within our program and will be very important for anyone either building their own startup or actually going to work as a tech leader somewhere else is the ability to continue always learning on their own. So
As Christoph said, things will be changing. We can never know what will happen in five and 10 years, especially in tech. Um, so it's very important to follow what are the news, what is developing, how can I use that? How can I learn to use that? Um, so we want the people to be like, um, sponges. Uh, so when you see something that works well.
Janis (23:51.261)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (23:53.033)
you immediately adapt it to do yourself as well. So not just, you know, if you come to a meeting and someone is using a cool tool in the meeting, so you also learn to use it. You don't just, you know, oh yeah, okay.
I am in the process, I'm just watching things. No, you actually adapt all of the new things that are coming. So this is something that I think is important for anyone who wants to succeed in future, to continue learning, to never stop learning, and to be very proactive in when you see something that is good to adapt it.
Janis (24:22.214)
Mm-hmm.
Uldis (24:32.51)
Yeah, that's key.
Kristofs Blaus (24:32.966)
Anna, maybe you can share about your experience how founders are looking for technical founders.
Anna Andersone (24:44.041)
Yeah, for sure. So what I've seen working with a lot of startups, so I've been working in acceleration programs, in incubation programs with a lot of startups all over the whole over Latvia and in the region and what I see is that there are a lot of ideas.
Janis (24:45.396)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (25:06.189)
a lot of people who are ready to build their own businesses. But a question that I hear almost every time is, where do I find my technical co-founder? And can you help me find a technical co-founder? Do you have some enthusiastic tech people just laying around, willing to become my technical co-founder? And I always say like...
Probably people who are with technical background and full of energy and enthusiasm, they never lay around just like that. So this is one of the main reasons actually we're doing this program, is to create those technical co-founders. They will not be laying around waiting for something, but they will be building their own startups and joining together in teams. And
This is very important for the startups in the very beginning to have a good understanding of what their tech components, what their tech background should be like and about. And so this full-stack development that we are providing, that will be...
helping the people understand what to start with and quickly build that as Christoph said, over a weekend and just get those MVPs out there and kind of create this funnel of much more very early stage startups so that we can get more developed startups and more scale ups and so on.
Uldis (26:39.038)
And by full stack you mean also app development or...
Anna Andersone (26:44.253)
So in this program that we are incorporating, it does not focus on some specific languages or specific platforms. It gives a very wide overview of everything that is available. And definitely solving a lot of the problems that will be provided for the student will also be possible from the mobile perspective.
Janis (26:46.1)
you
Janis (27:11.927)
Mm-hmm.
Uldis (27:15.398)
somewhat relevant platform.
Janis (27:19.376)
No, I mean, I was also kind of, you mentioned in the beginning, there's one year and at the end of this year, this person will spend full time as a hub was labeled to really turn out prototypes and do these things. What do you think in terms of, you know, let's say they are trying to raise money and then there's investor and I guess you also have investors as part of both co-founding team and school supporters.
wouldn't that be a bit of challenge that they would say like, look, you're a technical co-founder, but you have like one year experience in your first prototype. Is it enough? You know, just trying to, to model, uh, the scenarios or, or are these graduates expected to, to kind of get to the level that they can find their first CTO or, uh, cause thinking one year seems like maybe not enough, but like just debating. What do you think?
Kristofs Blaus (27:58.994)
Thank you.
Anna Andersone (28:15.289)
So our premise is that we want to create the future tech leaders and maybe not all of them will be ready to co-fund startups or lead teams already right after graduation. What they will have, they will have a portfolio of projects that they have solved and actually created technically. So that will be important for their future teams that they will be joining.
And from the perspective of investors, so what we see a lot actually is that in early stage startups here in this region, a lot of the startups are first time founders. And a lot of the startups don't have any technical co-founder. So this is definitely already like a much better opportunity and step up. And I think so.
Janis (29:07.59)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (29:12.561)
once they will be going through this 12 months of coding, they will have one year experience. But to build their own startup up to the level that they can get investment, it will take a little bit more time. So by that time, they will have already more experience. So I wouldn't say that we have to be afraid from that perspective, especially seeing that internationally, we see a lot of investors investing in very young people who are, you know,
Kristofs Blaus (29:26.881)
Thank you.
Anna Andersone (29:41.981)
sometimes just out of high school and who actually have all of different other experiences and other positive characteristics why they are getting this investment. So it's not just that. And definitely to create something more than the MVP, more maybe experienced technical team is needed.
and that's what the investment will be for. So in this case, we want to get to that MVP and in that, actually what is more important in that case is to get the prototype or MVP out there to get first traction and see whether that works. And oftentimes afterwards, the whole technology part is built from scratch again. So that is the road that is often taken.
Janis (30:14.089)
No.
Uldis (30:41.386)
I think the key term here is marketable skills that I think a lot of educational programs significantly lack is when you graduate from them. You don't have that many marketable skills. You have intelligence, you have, you know, learned to study, you have learned to find out research stuff for yourself, hopefully work in a team, do a presentation, etc.
Uldis (31:12.16)
skills that you have to learn in your entry job from basically from scratch. So I think that is a massive advantage to have those marketable skills from the start even if they're not ace level then at least you have a pretty good starting point. Christoph?
Kristofs Blaus (31:33.317)
Yeah, exactly. You said the right word. It's about advantage, not about guarantees that if you finish the school, you will get your fundraise done. But about the advantage and I just want to say that the advantage that you're going to have versus people who didn't go through our school is just unparalleled. Imagine, for a year you studied together with the motivated, bright people who all know how to code.
Janis (31:53.748)
Mm-hmm.
Kristofs Blaus (32:00.377)
I all know about business, about payments, marketing, data, analytics, finance, and they are all your friends. And you come out of the school, you can grab four of them and start something together versus another person just keeps on dreaming day by day, you know, maybe one day I will do something.
Janis (32:19.648)
Hmm.
Kristofs Blaus (32:22.637)
You are already in, you already know everyone, you know how to code yourself, right? So you're just like really a very dangerous person compared to the rest of the people who didn't go through the school
Janis (32:36.519)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I think also...
Uldis (32:37.034)
I think it was Obama in one interview. I'm not gonna do a direct call, but he was asked for advice for the younger generation, and he was like, learn how to get stuff done. That was all he said, so.
Kristofs Blaus (32:53.861)
Yeah... Yeah!
Janis (32:58.615)
But no, 100%. And also I think it's maybe an encouragement to people who are already, you know, have spent 10, 15 years in some other roles. And it's like this Chinese saying that, you know, best time to start doing something was yesterday or 10 years ago and the second best time is today. And I think a lot of people, myself included, have talked about, oh, should I learn something? But then you're a bit discouraged that, but others are like 15 years ahead of me. I cannot go, you know.
But at least knowing something, at least you can find the CTO person better and you will not irritate the devs with stupid questions if you know something. So it's also kind of, you can build a better bond with your future technical co-founder. Because if there's a business guy who just thinks that app can be done for tomorrow, whatever, things like that, so yeah, 100%. What's we're talking about overall, like schools and schooling.
What's your take on overall educational system, probably in Latvia first, but I mean, if you know something about nearby countries, let's compare as well. I've heard a lot of people ringing the bells that STEM subjects are, the quality is decreasing, mathematics and people are like, getting through exams with way less than they used to. Can you maybe give some comments on what do you think is the situation? And yeah, if you know some examples in nearby countries, we couldn't get inspired from, just let's open the debate.
Anna Andersone (34:25.409)
Heavy topic. I think we are in quite some trouble, not just in Latvia, but actually almost everywhere in the world. And there are some countries that are supposedly doing better, but that's just comparatively to the others who are doing worse.
Janis (34:27.627)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (34:48.205)
So in Latvia, what we have in the school and education system, there are a couple of very difficult problems to solve. So one is the lack of teachers in general. And so there are the teachers are aging, a lot of the teachers are older in their age.
Of course, it is harder for them to keep up with the development of new technologies. And from the other side, the students are digital natives. They have been born with the technology around them. So it's harder also for them to communicate with each other, understand each other. And the teachers need to be very flexible and also very eager to learn these new things, to be able to...
Janis (35:27.952)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (35:42.593)
work together with the students on the same level and to keep this respect for the teachers. So that is a huge issue and there is a lack of teachers as well, so especially in the STEM subjects and that I think is very connected to the situation that the kids are not getting the education. Another issue is motivation in general. So...
It feels like kids are less and less motivated to learn different skills.
Anna Andersone (36:24.185)
I think, well, that will be my personal opinion. I think that our system is built in a wrong way, in the sense that you are motivated to learn things by heart and to report those in the tests and then get good grades. And you're not motivated to pursue the things that are actually interesting for you, or you're not motivated to understand.
Janis (36:27.85)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (36:51.201)
things, not learn them by heart. So this is the issue that we are losing in critical thinking, we are losing in kind of very practice and focus on things that really matter.
And this is hard to change. In our school, definitely it's going to be very different. So we are very practice-based. We are all about collaboration and learning the things that will be practically useful for you. So it's not about getting good grades or learning something by heart. It's about understanding things. And this is the huge difference, I think, that is in the school system in Latvia, but also internationally.
Janis (37:26.214)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (37:35.677)
If we look at similar schools then as ours, so there is one, as you mentioned, the Kodia, who is cool in Estonia, which has the tech part quite similar to what we will be offering, but not the startup part. So in that sense, we are different. But yeah. Yes, yes, yes. More suitable for those who want to.
Janis (37:53.343)
Mm-hmm.
Kristofs Blaus (37:54.345)
Better, you wanted to say better.
Janis (38:04.696)
Also, I guess you can do the start school without moving to Jochui, which is for a lot of people also a factor.
Uldis (38:15.566)
Speaking of moving, is it open to anyone, like internationally, or how does that work?
Anna Andersone (38:22.045)
So we want to open it up to the Baltics for sure. For people outside of the Baltics we will need to see whether there is no conflict with some other campuses offering the similar tech program in their own countries. So that is something that we need to keep in mind. Otherwise it's a hybrid program, so most of the learning will be possible remotely.
So anyone also from Latgale, Liepaja, Vidzeme, they can also join the program. Don't need to move to Riga. We'll need to come to some parts of the program, but in general it's possible to learn remotely and we want to encourage that as well.
Janis (38:55.895)
Mm-hmm.
Kristofs Blaus (39:05.697)
As long as you have a better internet connection that I'm having this morning. Because every morning, 9 o'clock, you're going to start and you will work all day long, learn all day long with other peers. You're not going to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day or do some other stuff on the side or lose your connection for half an hour. So yeah, as long as you have good connection and devotion, you can study from some other city.
Uldis (39:11.659)
you
Janis (39:34.483)
That's actually a good point that we brought it up because I mean for a lot of especially younger people maybe it's, you know, you mentioned before the cost as well of living during this year and maybe it's easier to manage in their like hometowns and generally the idea that you can you know stay in your home area and still contribute to the global economy is this thing that I guess we just want to encourage more and more. Of course you know you would need to you know move or travel but yeah nice thing.
Anna Andersone (40:01.505)
Mm.
Uldis (40:01.998)
another skill self-discipline.
Anna Andersone (40:04.21)
Yes, yes.
Kristofs Blaus (40:04.893)
Yeah, yeah, very good.
Anna Andersone (40:07.841)
self-discipline and this is, you know, the remote studies here, it also represents the possibility that it's often available in tech, that you can also remote, do remote work afterwards. And this, the approach and the structure will be the same exactly. So we will have this agile management process, we'll have Scrum and we'll have morning stand-up meetings just as you have in tech companies.
So the people who will be joining here, they will learn everything firsthand through experiencing that. And later it will be so much easier to go into the tech field and work remotely or working on site. It will not matter that much, but they will know the whole process.
Janis (40:56.099)
And one more thing wanted to ask and this could be a huge, huge benefit, I think, for somebody who maybe wants to join. The Start School, you guys are well known in Latvian experience and you have other guys who are well known like Printify founder James Sparadagans and Khabarovic of course as well. So
It's like you have a kind of when you apply you almost kind of hope to get access to all these people and that they will Mentor you and coach you what's the reality like how much exposure do you get to? Not only you know these four names that you are the founders but overall to like real founders in tech How much exposure do you get to those guys and how likely are you to network with them and to get to know them?
Kristofs Blaus (41:43.209)
In one word, a lot. The devotion of founders and founding partners and supporters is really high, up to a level to come in and give a personal lecture on some subject. And also, you're gonna be in the startup house, which is like the heart of startup ecosystem in Riga. So just...
coffee breaks you will meet other real nowadays founders, investors. It's just going to be in and it's a one way ticket in the very, you know, elite society of tech startups of Latvia.
Janis (42:30.324)
guys.
Anna Andersone (42:30.417)
Yeah, so just to add, maybe we will have guest lectures, we'll have company visits, we'll have a possibility to meet these people as mentors, so all of the above.
Uldis (42:31.358)
Where do I sign?
Janis (42:44.315)
Awesome, awesome. No, no, that's a huge, huge difference maker from I think, I don't know, buying a course online and going through it yourself or, you know, like if you're still doubting it, right? Yeah, there is some commitment if we hear that you need to put in, but like, look, nothing happens without commitment, right? So one year of your life and you come out as part of a very elite organization of 100 very skilled.
assassins as we defined and then you go and assassinate and get crushed those products and get this money flowing in, right? Nice, nice. Yeah, well, where do I sign?
Kristofs Blaus (43:12.097)
Exactly.
Kristofs Blaus (43:20.529)
Yeah. Did we mention we pay for you? Did we mention we pay for your school?
Janis (43:28.779)
Yeah, well, so tell us in the end, where do you apply, where do you sign and exactly, it says it's free. Is it really free or is it like with asterisks free and you go into depth of two generations or something?
Uldis (43:42.678)
10 year commitment.
Anna Andersone (43:46.266)
So you sign up through Startschool.org, so Startschool.org, or how to better pronounce it so everyone understands how to write it. And there is an application form that you need to fill and there will be a selection process that will take place until the end of June and in July we will already know who those hundred people are who will be accepted.
In the end of August we'll start the studies. So the program is free. We will be asking for a quite symbolic enrollment fee just to make sure that the people are really committed. So the whole program costs about 5,000 euros that we are providing from the donations that are coming from the founders and founding partners and partners.
Janis (44:26.57)
Mm-hmm.
Anna Andersone (44:37.389)
And what we ask for in the enrollment fee is 5% of that, so 250 euros enrollment fee, and then study the whole program and be part of the community and grow.
Uldis (44:51.134)
Also to make sure that you're not a bot.
Anna Andersone (44:54.889)
Yes.
Janis (44:59.067)
No, I mean, that sounds reasonable exactly. Like you just need to be a bit more commitment, like spontaneously sign up and then quit and then your place is, and then you basically are taking up a place that somebody else might have taken. So it's kind of a bit of responsibility. A hundred people, it's not a lot. It's a really good opportunity and awesome. I hope we inspired a few people to take action today. We'll leave link in the notes as well. Thank you guys for doing this. Number one, number two for also.
Kristofs Blaus (45:05.314)
Yeah
Kristofs Blaus (45:10.632)
Exactly.
Janis (45:26.223)
sharing this with us today was a really great conversation. Some subjects were like education, you know, always tough, but I mean, you're making a difference. So thank you for that. And yeah, to the listeners, we will see you again in one week. Thank you.
Uldis (45:43.854)
Thank you guys, bye bye. Bye.
Kristofs Blaus (45:44.065)
Thank you for having us. See you in Startup School. Yeah.
Anna Andersone (45:45.977)
Thank you guys.
Janis (45:48.519)
Yes, bye.
Please note that the transcript text is AI-generated. We apologize for any potential errors or inaccuracies. Thank you for your understanding.
