STARTUP ESTONIA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- VISA and Foreign Relations Project Lead
Annika's mission at Startup Estonia is to help people out with everything related to Startup Visa and Foreign Relations. Having studied and worked in Italy, she knows how to improvise, adapt and overcome, without dropping her cappuccino. She has previous experience in tourism and event management field and always likes to take up challenges. Annika hopes to showcase her great communication skills, adaptiveness and positivity to enhance the startup ecosystem.
She enjoys meeting new people, eat great food and travel around the world.
Elina has joined Startup Estonia with a simple purpose - to unleash the potential of Ida -Virumaa and make it a better place both for entrepreneurs and people to work and live. Having experience with international projects, in social and green spheres, as well as in a startup, Elina believes that her duty is to help ensure that the community in Ida-Viru is thriving.
She believes that the key to the region's success is innovative technologies that enable global business from anywhere in the world. This means investing in the development of the ecosystem and creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and learning the skills and opportunities of the 21st century.
Elina loves watching Marvel movies, indie horror games, and learning about the crypto market and NFTs.
Job Titles:
- MARKETING & Communications Lead
I have worked on creative economy marketing for Belgian musicians and Estonian upcycle designs as well as financial service branding for a new startup contributing to a more sustainable world.
Eve is a hopeless optimist. She tends to see opportunity amidst despair, to point at the silver lining around dark clouds, and to bring order to chaos. She believes people are a source of powerful energy that just needs a little push to the right direction to make great things happen. Originally destined to be a teacher, she has found that organising procedures, making plans and leading teams outside of schools is much more rewarding to the "let's get things done" spirit. Her previous managerial experience comes from hospitality and marketing; now she's on a mission to make an impact on the Estonian startup ecosystem together with her dream team. Eve's extracurricular interests include travelling, literature and music, with an occasional sprint of Body Pump training.
Job Titles:
- DEEPTECH Sector Project Lead
Starting 2018 at Startup Estonia Inga is keen on bringing education closer to entrepreneurship. Work experiences in different areas previously have given a wider view of economics and education relations. She was involved in education innovation last ten years. Future skills and climate change require a lot of effort from many of us today, including students, researchers, entrepreneurs and policymakers. Their joint cooperation will have a major impact on economic growth and will take united responsibility for our future. She believes in the power of community and networks, being part of one, and helping to coordinate the Estonian deep-tech ecosystem today.
Kati joined Startup Estonia with a mission to boost Estonian cybertech startups and the ecosystem around them. Inspired by the fast-changing field of cybertechnologies she is happy to support the development of the sector. Kati has previously worked in Brussels and enjoyed the internationalism there, but is now pleased to bring her knowledge, skills and lifestyle from the EU bubble to the Estonian startup world. Kati feels most grounded when spending time in beautiful Estonian nature.
I'm Ingeri, and I'm thrilled to be the newest member of the Startup Visa team. You may know me from my previous work at the International House of Estonia. I've always been passionate about showcasing how amazing Estonia is. I'm excited to continue doing so while also assisting founders who are considering or have already moved to Estonia.
I'm looking forward to getting to know the global founders better, and I hope to meet many of you in person at the next Startup Visa events!
Job Titles:
- COMMUNITY Development Manager
Sandra enjoys learning, teamwork and making new connections, which are all things she gets to do while empowering the coolest startup ecosystem! With her background in international project & HR management, facilitating innovation workshops and trying her hand in entrepreneurship herself, she is aware of the struggles starting entrepreneurs can face and the importance of strong startup support organisations. Sandra spends her free time spontaneously exploring beautiful places with friends, dancing or reading.
Job Titles:
- Sector MONITORING Project Manager
Signe monitors and observes developments and trends in Estonian startup sector. She is especially interested in combining data from diverse sources, viewing data as starting point to ask smart questions and discovering insights from information around us. Before joining Startup Estonia team, she has been active in the field of education, monitoring and analysing the developments mostly in vocational and higher education and supporting international project teams. Signe is a passionate wanderer and inspired by nature. She enjoys active lifestyle and sports activities, especially volleyball and badminton.
Tiina is dedicated to making sure all Startup Estonia ventures run smoothly. She supports the whole team and handles various tasks. Having worked in different event management teams, she has evolved the ability to focus on the big picture while keeping track of the little details. Tiina has spent some time working and studying abroad and enjoys communicating with people from different cultures. She loves music, theatre, and exploring new countries.
As a lifelong sci-fi fan Vaido trusts that the combination of humans, science, and tech is the path to sustainable prosperity. For the last decade Vaido lives and breathes the startup scene in Estonia. He's eager to talk about business incubators and accelerators such as S2B Launchpad or ESA BIC Estonia, about rocking business festivals in Estonia like Latitude59 or sTARTUp Day or how to convert science to business.
Today he pioneers Estonian deep tech startup ecosystem onwards as Deep Tech Project Lead at Startup Estonia.