Andris K. Berzins
Andris holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and completed his bachelor's degree in London at City University.
Andris co-founded the non-profit foundation TechHub Riga, Latvia's leading organization supporting the startup ecosystem, helping establish technology startups as a source of vibrant economic growth in the country and also the TechChill conference, a spinoff foundation from TechHub. He later also co-founded the Latvian Startup Association and is a frequent speaker on digitalization and innovation. He was awarded the Human Development Award by the President for his contribution to the future of the nation.
Andris serves as an independent director on the boards of Sonarworks, an audio technology company and Hansamatrix, an electronics manufacturer. He is an advisory board member for Riga Technical University. He also spends weekends serving in an infantry battalion of Latvia's National Guard.
Andris leads the micro-VC firm Change Ventures, a seed fund based in the Baltic States that invests in Baltic founders worldwide. Change Ventures has backed some of the leading startups in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, including Veriff, Interactio, Nordigen, Giraffe360, MeetFrank and Planet42.
He began his investing career as a venture partner at Creandum, helped set up the first Startup Wise Guys accelerator program in Estonia. Before venture, Andris served as CMO at Livebookings, which was later acquired for $110M. Andris has co-founded several startups, including his share of failures. He joined his first startup, AeroScout, as VP of Marketing and Business Development, later also taking on roles in sales and product management. AeroScout was acquired by Stanley Black & Decker for $240M. Andris holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, following which he worked as a strategy consultant for Bain & Company in Boston.
Andris served his fellowship at Change Ventures as a member of Class 22. His mentor was Daniel Blomquist (Class 16), Operating Partner at Creandum.