Want to join?
We are constantly looking for new mentors to join our Diaspora Mentoring Programme and to match with Albanian start-ups. Would you be interested to join? Then fill out our form and we’ll get in contact with you as soon as possible.
We are constantly looking for new mentors to join our Diaspora Mentoring Programme and to match with Albanian start-ups. Would you be interested to join? Then fill out our form and we’ll get in contact with you as soon as possible.

Diaspora Mentoring Programme
Connecting experienced Albanian entrepreneurs living abroad to the most promising local entrepreneurs.

Being able to rely on experienced mentors are a key success factor for founders to start, grow and succeed as entrepreneurs. Mentors help to accelerate business growth and help entrepreneurs to do more faster by sharing their experience and expertise and by opening their network to the entrepreneurs they work with.
The Diaspora Mentoring programme is connecting experienced Albanian entrepreneurs who built successful businesses abroad to the most promising local entrepreneurs to support them on their growth journey.
If you are a start-up founder from Albania, looking for mentors to help you scale internationally, please feel free to contact us to explore opportunities to get support through our diaspora mentorship programme.

Admir Berbiu
VC Investment Associate @ StarFinder Capital Fund
Admir has a tech background in electronics/telecommunications & is an ex-startup-er. Since 2014, he switched sides and has been investing in pre-seed/ seed, deep tech start-ups (LifeSciences, ICT, Engineering), as part of Starfinder Capital Fund. Besides investments, he co-organized various start-up incubation and acceleration programs, mainly focused in the CEE region & Europe. He is the right person to contact if you are looking for global expansion or raising capital.

Alvin Ihsani
Deep Learning Solutions Architect
Alvin is a Deep Learning Solutions Architect at NVIDIA, developing new customers and technologies for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

Arjeta Culaj
Chief Revenue Officer @LinksUp
Arjeta is experienced in Saas Sales and has previously worked in IoT & IT Project Management, Investment Banking & Private Equity. Currently she is working as a Chief Revenue Officer in a Saas start-up in Germany and is an active community member at 2hearts.

Arjeta Haskaj
Product Manager
Born in Albania, Arjeta has lived in Italy, Germany and now Lisbon (Portugal), where she is running her own startup easly.space and working as a product manager for technological trading platforms in an Investment Bank. Arjeta is very passionate about technology and innovation and interested in helping every start-up that wants to succeed.

Anila (Hyka) Smørgrav
Engagement Director at Orange Business Service
Anila currently holds the position of Engagement Director relating to complex solutions at Orange Business Services market leader in Technology and Telecom. She has over 25 years of international experience in different social and economic environments, in the telecom sector and IT, digital transformation strategies of enterprises including the development of innovative products, project management and contract negotiation, transaction management.

Alen Saqe
Entrepreneur | Tech enthusiast
Alen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dentem. Loves building solutions that make a difference. Founder at 21. Tech enthusiast. Does not believe in crypto-currencies with the current infrastructure!

Daniel Kazani
Daniel is a technology and start-up enthusiast and the co-founder of Softup Technologies GmbH, a software development company based in Munich, Germany and Tirana, Albania. The firm provides software development services for start-ups as well as SMEs that are looking to build or scale their teams. Daniel is a first time entrepreneur who has worked and lived in 5+ countries. He is looking to support young entrepreneurs with mentorship, market access and funding.

Dorina Pulluqi
Sales Leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Dorina is a dynamic and data driven technology leader with 10 years of experience building high performing teams, responsible for driving growth, brand awareness and pipeline to support sales. Nimble innovator with a passion for connecting complex business issues with scalable solutions by developing and executing business strategy that produce measurable results.

Edlira Kasaj
Digital entrepreneur
With a MSc and BSc in Computer Sciences and an MBA, Edlira has always been around tech environments. She started her career by creating small businesses and established the first ICT Innovation Center in Albania. Edlira has had a diverse career working across start-ups, private sector, governmental bodies, international organisations and academic institutions. Recently she setup and lead the Digital Women Program at ReDI School of Digital Integration, an IT training program for refugee and migrant women in Berlin. She is now working to build new ventures.

Endri Mataj
Lead Product Manager at EY
Endri Mataj is a Lead Product Manager at Ernst & Young (EY) in New York City, working with global clients in transforming product strategy and agile software development into their organisation. Priory Endri has worked as a founder and entrepreneur, startup community builder with Startup Grind and served as a key lead in the Albania's digital transformation as telecommunications and information technology adviser to the Prime Minister of Albania (2010-2013). Endri is a Fulbright Scholar, and John R. Weitzel Scholar

Erjon Skora
Head of Product
Experienced manager within multinational and tech companies. Supported operations scale-up and growth for start-ups throughout Europe. Head of Product at Neosurance, Co-Founder at Youtentic, and active member at the Italian Business Angels Network Association (IBAN). Erjon has been boosting start-ups growth while actively collaborating as a Business Developer, Strategic Marketing, Product & Project Manager.

Fioralba Duma
Storytelling and a Tech Addict
Born in Shkoder (Albania) and raised in Rome (Italy) Fioralba has studied Psychology and worked in various areas of Marketing: Research, Customer Care, Communication, Social Media. She has a diverse career path across communication agencies, non-profit organisations and private sector. She was lead of the project ArtisanOnline, that aims to empower Albanian artisans and open a new market in Italy using diaspora as a connecting bridge. Experienced in Advocacy and Immigration, she's also proficient in Graphics & Storytelling.

Frank Hysa
Senior Innovation Manager
Frank has a Ph.D. in management achieved between the University of Maryland and the Polytechnic University of Marche. Frank’s research focused on open innovation strategies, of which he is among the leading experts in Italy. Today he is Senior Innovation Manager and founder of HYLE, a company that provides innovation management services to startups & SMEs.

Gerta Malaj
Product Ops @ LinkedIn
Gerta Malaj, is an Albanian American in San Francisco, California. She has studied Logistics Engineering at MIT and Math at Wellesley. Her work experience include Product Operations at LinkedIn, Health Tech at Sanofi and SaaS consulting at IBM.

Gerd Buta
Innovation Advisor
Gerd has extensive experience working for the UN in Africa, Asia and Europe at key positions and management levels. Working closely with change agents, innovators and entrepreneurs globally, the focus of his work at the WFP Innovation Accelerator is to help teams and initiatives and start-ups with proven innovative solutions, services and products towards their path to large scale impact.

Kebiana Doci
Director of Entrepreneur Education at True and North
Having previously worked in communications, finance and the public sector, Kebiana has a wealth of experience in people-first sectors. She became passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve their full potential, when she started managing The UK-Albania Tech Hub, an accelerator designed to grow scale start-ups for international market entry. Kebiana is now the Director of Entrepreneur Education at True and North, supporting the development of tech ecosystems in various countries.

Lona Aliaj
Founder & CEO of StyleLend
Lona Alia is the Founder & CEO of Style Lend, a fashion rental marketplace. For the past 8 years she has dedicated her time building and prototyping various fashion/ tech startups in Silicon Valley. She founded StyleLend.com 6 years ago to help women around the world have access to the world’s most coveted closets and in the process promote sustainable fashion consumption. She holds an MBA and is one of the few female founders of Y combinator. Born in Albania, Lona has spent most of her life living, working or studying in the US, Paris, London, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paolo.

Landa Grembi
IoT Enabler @Magenta Telekom Austria
Landa is an Experienced Project Manager, ICT Product Designer, Product Manager, Team Leader, Business Analyst. She's guided each and every day by the motivation of turning ideas into business. An enthusiastic promoter of Agile methodology and cross functional teams, she's also very Customer Centric oriented and an expert for feature introductions of new generation networks (NB-IoT & LTE-M).

Stavri Pashko
Self-starter | Challenger
An inquisitive mind, a self-starter and someone who tends to value integrity and honesty over other things. Stavri's experience includes leadership, strategy, risk management, process re-engineering, project management, developed through a career as an internal auditor in industries such as financial services, telecommunications and automotive. He is skilled at developing innovative solutions to ensure compliance and minimise operational losses for organisations. Stavri is always up for a good challenge!
If you want to get in touch regarding Diaspora Mentoring Programme contact
Valbona
