Vaida Alisauskaite, Lithuania | Webmobix
Written by Fabiana Seitz, Photography Jenny Milow
“I have this one dream. This dream that one day I will be a cool, coding grandma. Being 80 years old, sitting on the sofa and passing the time with coding. I mean, that would be funny, right?
However, now I am still young. I have no need for a quiet, well-organized life. I want to gain new experiences and make things happen. Just coding would be far too boring for me.
I was a good student. English and Physics were my favorite subjects in high school, so I aimed for a university degree in these fields. When I told this to my IT teacher, he looked at me with astonishment. He said: You’d better study IT, you have English and Physics, plus a great job with future prospects. Thank God he convinced me. And that’ s why I enrolled to study computer science.
The studies were demanding. Some people did not understand my interest as a woman in computer science at all. But I stayed with my decision.
After my master’s degree I was working in Lithuania, my home country. I didn’t want to code eight hours a day, though. My boss at the time made it clear that this was my job. I realized that I have to take control of my destiny myself: I quit and founded my first own IT company. I was 27 years old, and I already knew that I wanted to decide for myself what I would work on.
It was the same year I left my country. I wanted to see the world. I travelled a lot, worked for international projects. I spent some time living in Germany and the Netherlands before I came to Switzerland five years ago.
In 2016 I founded my current company in Switzerland called Webmobix together with a co-founder. We offer web, mobile and cloud development. Capacity was a great support in building and positioning our start-up. Nowadays I am on the other side and give workshops for Capacity participants.
Of course, sometimes it’s not easy to be my own boss. But the freedom that my company gives me is very precious to me. I created a job position for myself, and enjoy working with interesting companies and inspiring humans. Besides, I don’t have a steady workplace and can freely choose from where I want to operate. When my father in Lithuania had a stroke, it was obvious for me that I was going to support him in the recovery process. That would have been difficult with a permanent employment. Recently I was even able to buy my parents a little house with a garden in the countryside. It means a lot to me.
I don’t know yet whether I will ever return to Lithuania. If so, I will probably be an old lady. Old and eager to do nothing but code on the sofa.“
November 2020
