Milda Mitkutė, co-founder of Vinted and alumna of the EMBA Class of 2025 at BMI Executive Institute, is no stranger to complexity. As an entrepreneur, mother of four, lifelong learner, and creative at heart, she balances many roles with intention and curiosity. In this interview, Milda reflects on her personal and professional journey — sharing honest insights about leadership, growth, and the realities of building something meaningful in a fast-changing world.
Getting to know Milda
How would you introduce yourself?
That’s a difficult question since I see myself in many different roles. Most people recognize me as a businessperson, my family sees me as a mother of four, some people know me as a cat-lover, and others see me as someone who loves to study a lot. So, it’s very hard to define myself in one sentence only. I always say that I am more than just one role in my life.
Is there an animal that best reflects your personality and work style?
I’m not sure – maybe it’s just a spontaneous answer – but I would imagine myself as a fox, because I’m spontaneous, I like to be playful, I enjoy dynamics, and I don’t like sitting in one place for too long. So somehow, I see myself as a fox.
What is something about you that always surprises people?
The most common thing is maybe the boring stigma people have about me. But usually it‘s about, you know, how I had four boys in a row. Everyone is surprised – especially those who have young kids themselves. The second thing that surprises people is the combination of things I’ve done in my professional life and what I’ve achieved. Also, the fact that I’ve managed to balance everything – my family and my business. Those are the things I often hear surprise people.
What are you currently most focused on?
One of my key projects – I wouldn’t call it as a startup, but it’s a new initiative I‘m trying to create in education. So, I spend quite a lot of time on that. Right now, I‘m also spending a lot of time as a student, writing my final thesis. I am studying in another place as well, so I have several educational tasks. Then there’s my family, and the ceramics I make. I‘ve been making pottery for 6 years – pots, plates, everything. So yes, it’s a combination of many things.
What fuels your curiosity to learn and experience new things?
Well, I think nowadays it‘s not true that you finish your bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and that’s it. That’s not the case anymore. If you ask people, most would say, “I need to study more. Times are changing and I need to learn this or that.” It’s all about lifelong learning – that’s the new norm now. And I don’t see a way around it. You don’t just study for four years when you’re 18 or 20 and then stop. That’s because of necessity — or, I would say, the changing situation in the world, like the VUCA world.
The second reason is that I’m usually very curious. I like learning new things. It’s my type of motivation. I always say: “If I don’t feel a sense of achievement, I feel that I’m stopping somewhere.” And I don’t like that feeling – being stuck in the same status quo and not going up anymore. For me, it’s like food – it’s a must. I need to grow personally, because that’s how I feel happy.
Where do you find inspiration?
I don’t have one specific person I admire. I like creating a puzzle. Each person is perfect and imperfect in different ways. So, I like taking inspiration from other people. I like talking to people, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, and finding things I’d like to take from this person or that person. That’s how I end up with some kind of vision or puzzle picture – that’s my leadership inspiration that I would like to become one day.
I think there are no perfect people in the world. I’m not naïve – and even if someone seems perfect, it’s probably because you don’t see the full picture. We are all human beings, we are all imperfect, but we all have super nice skills or features that we can take from each other — well, not take, but they can inspire you. So, it’s like a game – I’m always looking for something I can learn from each person, and that helps me shape the vision of the kind of leader I’d like to become.
Leadership and Growth
What motivated you to choose EMBA studies at BMI Executive Institute?
I met a friend of mine, and she said, “Well, why shouldn’t you try?” I told her I had an idea, but I was too lazy to develop it, and I wanted someone to force me to do it. And she said, “I’m working at BMI, maybe you’d be interested in joining.”
It wasn’t about gaining more knowledge in specific fields. My key motivation was that I had this idea, but I need someone to push me to make a business plan for it. So that was the reason I joined.
How does your focus time typically look?
Today, before this meeting, I was looking at my schedule and cancelling all the meetings I could or delegating them to someone else. When I have an intense schedule, I need to focus. I don’t like distractions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the phone, a meeting or a small chit-chat with someone – I see all of that as a distraction. That’s why I try to isolate myself and work as much as possible. Of course, it’s impossible to stay productive for 6-7 hours per day, but I have some tactics. The main one is to eliminate distractions – that’s my number one step.
What skills do today’s leaders lack the most – both hard and soft?
From my experience in the startup world – I have more exposure there, so I can judge more from that side– I would say the hard skill most entrepreneurs lack is a financial background.
It was the case for me as well. Even at BMI, one of my motivations for joining was to gain more exposure to finance. I think financial literacy is very important. Usually, it’s not enough to have an idea or passion. Sometimes you need to understand the “hygiene” of business, find business models, and know how they work. Having some background in finance is a key to success. Otherwise, you need to have someone on the team who supports you.
As for soft skills, I don’t know – it’s changing now – but if you speak to older generations, people who came from hierarchical structures, they are afraid or don’t know how to say, “I don’t know” and ask for help.I consider this to be a crucial skill for entrepreneurs and general managers, and even for myself – to be humble and to admit that you don’t know something. The world is super complex and it’s impossible for one person to know everything. That’s why you always need to be part of a team. You need to be able to go to your team members and ask questions or delegate tasks to others. We are no longer living in times where you – the leader or the manager – need to know or control everything like in the past. I guess it will never be like that anymore. So having the soft skill of admitting that you don’t know, and being able to ask for help, I think that’s very important.
What does it take to be a great leader?
I’ve met so many great leaders, but if I tried to put them in a row, I would see that they all have very different skills and leadership styles. Everyone expects one answer: you should be like this and then you’re going to be a great leader. No, that’s not the case – it’s a combination. Sometimes one leadership style doesn’t fit certain people, it doesn’t work for leading the people. For others it’s a very intuitive thing. They are very good at it: they feel like they are dancing, and they can do it from the heart. So, it’s a tough question.
Although of course you expect the person to be a team leader, someone who knows and understands the VUCA world – it’s like the new big thing in our world. It’s not a solo player thing but a team player game.
These days, I noticed a common idea, especially among the younger generation. When you are looking for a job, what you expect from leaders is inspiration and setting the direction. Many people roll their eyes when they see a 20-something person come and say: “I want to work for some purpose.” Older generations might not agree, but I see this as one of the key things. If, as a leader, you cannot offer or show the purpose or direction to your team members, well, you’re lost. Of course, if you’re a boutique, a small company, maybe it’s still possible. But if you’re a big global company working on a huge scale, without a purpose or vision, then it’s impossible to be successful.
How have you evolved as a leader over the years?
I think leadership is a journey. Even, if you asked great leaders, after 20-30 years, if they are perfect, I believe everyone would say: “No, I’m not perfect.” Sometimes the more experience you have, the more imperfect you feel. The more knowledge you get, the more you understand that you don’t know anything about the world.
I started my leadership journey when I was 21, I was a student. I wasn’t at the stage of leading others yet. It was more about discovery understanding who I am: my strengths, my weaknesses. It was a very natural, very intuitive path of improving and going forward. With time, you start to find more leaders that inspire you, and you discover different skills from these leaders you would like to take with you. You create a puzzle and end up with a kind of intuitive picture of the leader that you yourself would like to be. That was the case for me.
What remains your biggest leadership challenge?
There are many of them. It’s always about whether you’re mature enough because as a leader, you always need to be two or three steps ahead of the team. You need to think about the future, and it’s one of the biggest challenges – thinking about the future while also making sure you are in the present.
Another challenge is being a part of a team. As a leader, as a human being even, sometimes you want everything to be faster: to come to the team and just to tell them what to do. But that is the wrong way of leading. Leaders should be part of the team and lead from within. At first, it can take longer to work with a team. It’s an investment that you need to make to have long-term results. Sometimes you want to take a shortcut and instead of working with the team, just tell them what to do. However, that’s just short-term vision because then the team is not scalable. If you are the only person who decides on the team, then the team cannot move fast because there’s one bottleneck in the company making all the decisions by themselves.
Building success
What qualities do you look for in people when building a team or hiring?
I try to check how the person reacts to the unknown. Because a vast majority of people when in an unstable situation will feel lost, stressed, and won’t stay for a long time. If you’re building startups, it’s a very spontaneous area where you don’t know what will happen tomorrow or whether the startup will still be running in 6-12 months. That’s why being ready for the unknown is one of the most important things I’m looking for in my team.
I’m a team player and I’m looking for other team players. If you pretend you are a team, but some of the people are actually solo players, then there’s no dialogue.
I’m also looking for people with ambition to grow. Even in my personal life, I admire people who have ambition, passion and curiosity – people who will go the extra mile just to learn more in this field.
What is your main goal in your current activities?
For my educational project, my goal is to decide in 12 months whether my project can be a sustainable business. So, next year, I should have the answer – do I continue with my project or not? In the meantime, I’m experimenting, taking care of the monetization plan, the marketing plan. Now, we are building the product and later we’ll decide whether to continue or stop.
What is a common misconception about successful business or founders?
Not only in Lithuania, but all over the world, in schools, kids are taught to be managers or founders of companies, and it’s presented as the key result and purpose in life. Because you get independence and financial freedom, you acquire power of making decisions on your own. That’s the image created by society, but there’s also the other side.
You should ask yourself if you want to be a leader or manager or founder of the company because that’s a huge responsibility. Most people finish their work at 5, close the door, and forget about it. However, if you’re a founder, it’s the opposite because at 5 people leave, the meetings are over. Only then can I start working since I need to think strategy. I wouldn’t call it the dark side, but it’s something you need to ask yourself: are you okay with taking more responsibility, always thinking about your project, because you own it — and no one else will solve the problems for you? Many people imagine “oh, it’s so nice being a founder”. But I need to make the ugly decisions as well. It’s not purely positive or negative, it’s a combination of the two. You need to see if that fits you well.
One piece of advice for future founders?
I can give you advice today but tomorrow the answer will be totally different, and in one week it will be another. There is no recipe for success.
Today my advice would be: try not to be alone. If you have ideas, try and have a team around you. A team that is strong, sometimes even stronger than you. That helps you grow much faster. Not being alone is usually a shortcut to success: instead of one person you can have five strong people who accelerate growth and success for the future.
