From Selling Raincoats In Student Events To Investing In Global Startups, A Founder’s Story with Anna Sholina

Anna Sholina is a serial entrepreneur, Co-founder of the communication agency SOLYANKA, Partner & Head of Community of the EMERGE Conference, and General Partner at JOINT JOURNEY VC invested more than $25M in startups, mentor and coach. Anna has broad expertise in acceleration processes and start-up global development, ventures, innovations, and technology.

I grow up in Nizhniy Novgorod city, Russia. I have a twin sister, and, probably, our constant competition for attention in the family determined my character, which always pushed me to grow and develop. In addition to that, I always wanted to have more than I have. And the only way was to achieve everything you wanted on your own. I think it is the reason why I started making my own money and building a business in my teenage years. My student period was especially active. I took part in a large number of initiatives, and international projects, and consciously spent a lot of time and effort on these activities. The main thing in this activity for me was the search for a supportive community that was formed around these duties.

I became an entrepreneur in my student years when I started my duties as the chairman of the student council. My first business project was supplying raincoats to a student event and selling them. Then I began to organize parties and rock concerts which brought to me rather good money and the most important thing – a great experience. For the first time, I became the CEO of my own startup, which was engaged in the development of mobile applications and games. Then the startup grew into a training company, and after that into the SOLYANKA agency, which is still successfully operating.

Believe in yourself, rely only on yourself, and do not forget to rest.