Printful supports the first entrepreneurship and innovation education program in Latvia

Charlotte, North Carolina — Printful has teamed up with Junior Achievement Latvia, the largest educational organization in Latvia, and Riga Business School to start the first entrepreneurship and innovation education program for student-run companies in Latvia. The program will offer students an opportunity to create their own startup companies for an international market. Student companies will work on product development and receive expert advice and consultations to help further develop their ideas.

The aim of the education program is to improve the students’ digital skills, as well as contribute to the Latvian startup environment. According to Junior Achievement data, around 22% of the program’s graduates continue working as entrepreneurs.

Printful representatives will participate as mentors and jury members to rate the student companies in a series of competitions. By sharing their business experience, they’ll help students improve their entrepreneurial skills and inspire them to launch their own startups.

“We want to help students build successful startup companies to enter global markets. Printful is an international company, but we started in Latvia. That’s why we want to share our story and give back to our community. We live in a globalized world and have seen first hand that it is possible to reach international markets, so with the help of this program we want to encourage the next generation of Latvian entrepreneurs,” says Davis Siksnans, the CEO of Printful.

“Young people need to have a real-life education. Our lives have become digital so rapidly, it’s clear that we won’t survive without digital skills in the 21st century. I’m very happy that this program offers students the opportunity to combine their creativity and interest in technology and entrepreneurship, as well as learn from the best professionals of Latvian startups,” points out Janis Krievans, the director of Junior Achievement Latvia.

Junior Achievement Latvia is an organization that offers various practical entrepreneurship education programs for students. Each year, around 120,000 students from all over Latvia participate. Last year, more than 5,000 students applied for the student company program and they generated more than 1,200 business ideas. This year, student teams from all over Latvia have applied and 42 teams are interested in technology specifically. 11 of those teams have been given the chance to work with mentors and implement their business ideas.

Although this year the entrepreneurial program is run remotely, student companies are actively participating in product development, remote workshops, and seminars. The program ends this June and the finalists will receive funding for the development of their ideas, further support from mentors, the possibility to participate in various conferences, and a budget of 5,000 euros to allocate towards advertising their own companies.

About Printful
Printful is an on-demand printing and warehousing company that helps people turn their ideas into brands and products. The company fulfills and ships custom clothing, accessories, and home & living items for online businesses. Since its founding in 2013, Printful has been trusted to deliver 30M+ items, and in 2019 the company hit a revenue milestone of $116 million. Printful has scaled to a team of 1,600+ people across nine fulfillment centers around the world.