Women in Tech: Game Development and Leadership
Konstantina Bethani is the Founder and CEO of Tenebra Studios, a Greek game development and digital interactive software development company. She talked to Mooi about the hardships of building your own business and the rapid changes in a previously male-dominated field.
“I have always been an avid gamer for as long as I can remember. Even before video games, I used to spend all my pocket money on arcade machines” remembers Konstantina fondly. With a father and an uncle in the tech universe, she was learning to code by the time she was a teenager. “I didn’t even have any clear idea of what was driving me to learn. It was an innate motivation. I simply enjoyed doing it, was curious to see what was next”.
Konstantina Bethani is the founder and CEO of Tenebra Studios, a Greek game development, and digital interactive software development company. She’s also a Professor, Mentor, and Research Fellow in the Games Development, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Curriculum of New York College, the University of Ioannina, the University of Crete and the Metropolitan College, and the IST College.
And to top it all of, she’s one of the organizers of Digital Expo, the largest technology event in Greece that has been held successfully for the last 6 years, attracting 20,000 visitors in 2019.
Building Tenebra Studios from the ground up
“Back in the day, game development in Greece was not even an option” she remembers. Her initial studies were in the field of Political Science. While doing her undergraduate, she started working in Games Localization for companies abroad. “That’s where the first sparkle of the idea of creating my own company in the video games industry came into existence”. Konstantina felt that the new medium held a hidden potential, and she decided to give it a go.
“You must possess the ability to see what others cannot see. While others see problems, you must see opportunities”
And the road was a hard one. “No one can be prepared in advance for the difficulties involved with the entrepreneurial process. You must possess the ability to see what others cannot see” she explains. “While others see problems, you must see opportunities”.
And that’s just the beginning. The main challenge is the ability to be able to forge that opportunity into a business idea. To keep up with the industrial changes and trends. To deal with the unforeseen business challenges and expenses. “People see success in numbers or media tributes, but no one knows about many sleepless nights and panic attacks all of us had to deal with”.
When asked about her biggest challenge, Konstantina is adamant: “Capital”. She prefers the self-fueled growth model, where you fund your own business endeavors.
“We continually work to find new customers and partners and consistently strive to be remarkable to those we already serve. This way the business grows slow but steady. Proper budgeting and planning are critical to maintaining cash flow, but even these won’t always save you from stressing over bills. We have discovered that one way to improve cash flow is to require a down payment for our products and services” she explains.
Women in tech: challenging the status quo
Konstantina is proud of the road already traveled. She achieved innovation and success in her business, successfully establishing herself as a leader and role model with a proven track record and a high level of achievement. Tenebra Studios is well established, and business is good.
And yet, her greatest joy is “that my team members consider the company as their “own” and strive for its progress and prosperity”.
She’s proud to have been able to challenge the status quo in an industry where, unfortunately, very few CEOs are women.
“The most important thing organizations can do to attract and retain talented women is to admonish sexism and offer gender parity in pay, experiences, and opportunities for success”
But things are changing, and fast. “We are noticing a trend where more and more women pursue a degree in technology and subsequently a career in the field. A lack of women in technology is surely a thing of the past and especially in the last 5 years, things have changed rapidly for the better. Nowadays most tech companies employ women in high power positions. Best case in point that immediately comes to mind is AMD which is nowadays in the forefront of technology and innovation with Dr. Lisa Su at its helm”.
For Konstantina, women are just as likely as men to be interested in raises, promotions, and leadership development opportunities. And if some of them still have doubts concerning their capabilities “the most important thing organizations can do to attract and retain talented women is to admonish sexism and offer gender parity in pay, experiences, and opportunities for success”.
Being a leader is committing to a vision
The leadership process of working with the company to develop a vision of where it can go and putting things in place to achieve that vision is her favorite part of the journey. She enjoys her position as Professor and Mentor for the opportunity it gives her to ensure those coming up are supported and celebrated.
“Young people are the future of our field. Video games are a people-based industry and we always need people with fresh ideas and new skills”.
Founding Tenebra Studios has been a life-changing experience, and for the past 14 years, Konstantina has encountered numerous difficulties, wild loneliness, and multiple burnouts that have tested her limits, both mentally and physically. But it has also proven to her that the opportunities are limitless and that she’s unstoppable.
“I wouldn’t change a day of it. Having all this valuable experience, I aspire to continue to grow and bestow upon my coworkers, students, and women in the industry the importance of acquiring knowledge, following your dreams, and never, ever, giving up”.
