This is not a representative study, just the story of one guy. However, similar stories are repeated – fortune seekers from Lithuania who have previously wandered around the world return here with experience and knowledge.

Currently, Mr. Urbonas works at a startup “Health arose“Product Manager” is responsible for the team that develops and supports the application for the US market. However, in his life he tried the path of both a hired worker and a budding entrepreneur until he returned to his hometown. He agreed to tell LOGIN.LT about his experience.

He left because he saw no prospects

J. Urbonas left Lithuania when he was just 18 years old – just after finishing secondary school in Klaipėda in 2008.

“The bottom line is that when you’re eighteen, you want to run away, discover the world, understand what the possibilities are, and then see what happens,” says J. Urbonas.

The first stop was Denmark, where free studies and a specialty obtained in two years enticed.

“I decided to enroll in the Danish college Aarhus Tech, which had a multimedia, design and communication course. It fit my needs at the time because it covered design, programming, business, and marketing, all areas that interested me. There, I received a professional bachelor’s degree in two years, I realized that I was most interested in technology,” says J. Urbonas.

He said that he didn’t come from a rich family, so he had to constantly take care of himself, do “menial jobs”, and he was also attracted to parties, so he didn’t dig deep into the roots of science at the time, which he later regretted. He did not intend to stay in Denmark after his studies – New York was on his mind, Silicon valleybut life took me to London because then United Kingdom the EU was still there, and it was easy to continue my studies.

“I went to Ravensbourne University in London, maybe less knowledgeable but very respected by the industry. I realized that I needed to learn hard and re-entered graphic design in London. The first year was again completely tangled: you had to balance between science and survival. This is already the case for us Lithuanians, that you have to come and find out everything yourself, how to do what, because we had such experience”, J. Urbonas recalls.

On weekends and evenings, he worked in a restaurant, during the day he went to university and studied, and the rest of the time he did an unpaid internship at a design agency. At that time, he had a burning desire to have his own startup.

He created his own companies

While still studying, J. Urbonas noticed a discrepancy: his university required the most aesthetic and professional design, but in real life, a simple, specially adapted design “sold better”. Because if you create a “perfect” app or website, the first impression of the user will be very expensive here, it is better to avoid.

“I think design doesn’t always have to be aesthetic or beautiful. Sometimes, in order to show the price or value of a product and to speak to the audience through the design, the design needs to be simplified and maybe even understood. The difference between expensive and cheap chocolate is usually not its taste or quality, but simply the positioning of the company’s identity and the design that represents it,” said J. Urbonas.