OECD commends Central Denmark Region - Region Midtjylland

“Most of my friends here in Aarhus are foreigners.It’s easier for me to get together with other Englishspeakers. But since my Danish has improved, Ihave also got to know several Danish friends,” saysSarunas.From paper boy to self-employedSarunas Vaisnoras came to Aarhus when he was 18.He had heard good things about the student environmentin Denmark and wanted to study here.In the first few months, his parents helped himfinancially, but Sarunas wanted to pay his own way.So he delivered newspapers, cleaned, worked in awarehouse and in a shop.All while studying, first at the Business Schooland now at Aarhus University, where he is completingan MA in marketing.factsmThe Student Incubator in AarhusThe Student Incubator Aarhus is for all undergraduateand post-graduate students in Aarhus wishing to workwith entrepreneurship based on their academic qualifications.The students get free access to office spaceand the offer of coaching in the start-up and developmentof their own business. Around 50 companies arecurrently associated to the Student Incubator.During the course, he learned a little about programming,and the rest he taught himself by researchingonline.“I’ve always been good at maths and I think verylogically. It dawned on me that I could make moremoney by programming websites than from otherstudent jobs,” says Sarunas, who now makes a livingfrom DataDog.The first customers were typically small webshops, but now Sarunas has bigger customers, whereheavy databases have to be incorporated into userfriendlywebsites.A low hourly rate fills the order book up, and accordingto Sarunas, he has not needed to market DataDogsince its launch in 2010.Training in Lithuania“To start with, I sent jobs on to programmers in Lithuania,but now I program everything myself. The cooperationdidn’t really work,” he explains.The Lithuanian programmers are cheap, butthere was a problem with both communication andthe quality of the work. Sarunas is now consideringmoving to Vilnius for four to six months to trainLithuanian programmers so that they can meet hisexpectations.“Then I will return to Denmark. I like it here, andit’s important for me to be close to my customers. AndI also want to keep up my Danish.”the Odder line transported around one million passengers,while the Grenaa line had 1.2 million. At the same time, the40–45-year-old Y-train at Odder was taken out of service andreplaced by the more comfortable Desiro train.Information: per.holm@ru.rm.dkDIALOGUE theme: The Region through outsiders’ eyes 19