Aleph’s journey becomes a Stanford case study—and a lesson in building with intention
Byline Article by Arnis Ozols - Regional Director
North Europe, 2025—When I found out that Aleph had been selected as a case study by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, my first thought was simple: This is a big deal. It's a huge one. Stanford is right up there with the best in the world, so being chosen by them says a lot.
This is a proud moment. I’ve already shared the case study with my fellow MBA alumni and with our startup community here in Latvia. As someone who also sits on the council of my country’s leading business school (Riga’s Business School), it’s a milestone that I knew would resonate, because it shows what’s possible when vision, consistency, and teamwork come together.
It also says something powerful about the people behind Aleph. This isn’t just recognition of our business results, but rather a recognition of how we’ve worked together and with clients. The partnerships we’ve built, the tough calls we’ve made over the years, and the way we’ve stuck to our values, even when easier options were on the table.
Aleph’s story is one of collaboration across borders, of growing smart and staying disciplined. Gaston’s vision has been a constant driver, but so has the entrepreneurial mindset that lives across our teams. The result? A company that didn’t just expand for the sake of it, but made deliberate moves to build something strong and lasting.
What I students take from this is simple: where you’re from doesn’t define how far you can go. I come from a small country. I never expected to be a part of something whose story is being told on global stages. But this case study shows that if you think globally, act with intention, and work with the right people, you can go well beyond your starting point.
On a personal level, there’s a local dimension that makes this even more meaningful to me. This year marks ten years of Aleph in Latvia. Back in 2015, I teamed up with Marius Ivanovas and Aljoša Jenko to build Httpool what became a regional advertising powerhouse. We understood early on that the Baltic region had its limits, but by joining forces and later merging with IMS, we unlocked a scale we couldn’t have reached on our own.
In hindsight, choosing to be a smaller player in a much bigger ecosystem was one of the best decisions we could have made.
While Aleph’s name is on the case study, credit belongs to every team, partner, and client who has helped shape our journey so far. This isn’t about celebrating a moment. It’s about recognising what that moment represents and staying focused on what’s next.
North Europe will continue to be a place where we build with purpose. This case study is a proud marker of how far we’ve come, and a reminder that there’s still much more ahead.