Victoria Bastide, CTO of Lifesum, the Swedish digital health company, with over 15 million users, gives us an insight into her life online.
Victoria Bastide is the Chief Technology Officer of Lifesum, the Swedish digital health company based in Stockholm, that combines applied psychology and everyday technology to help people change the way they eat, train and live.
Before joining Lifesum in June 2016, Victoria, who holds a computer science degree, spent the last twenty years in tech companies in various roles within engineering organisations, working for Silicon Valley startups, both big and small. After sixteen years in America, she returned to her home city, Stockholm, Sweden, because she was craving to work at a startup again and wanted a company that was creating something that she was really passionate about. When Victoria got the opportunity to join the Lifesum team as CTO earlier this year, the choice was one of the easiest ones in her career, as it is a tech company doing interesting things, with a mission to help people become healthier and happier.
As CTO at Lifesum, Victoria leads the technology team, where her product development, release engineering, building & operating large-scale infrastructure, quality engineering are invaluable. She is also part of the company’s executive team.
In June, Lifesum released an update to its app called Lifesum Plans, launching a new range of personalised plans that target overall health and lifestyle goals, and allow users to focus on challenges that are specific to them. The update encourages its users to tailor their diet and exercise regimes to long-term goals such as building strength, improving energy levels, controlling hunger pangs, or modifying snacking habits. Users can take a test to help identify the best fit for their lifestyle, and are able follow a plan of their choice that can help them reach their goals including: Food For Strength, Hunger No More and The Energizer.
The Lifesum app is available on mobile and wearable devices for Apple and Android and currently supports more than fifteen million users around the world.
My favourite website... Coursera - I am borderline obsessed with learning new things and Coursera is phenomenal at satisfying that need. If I spend time ‘online’ you can find me there. I’m currently taking a class on neuroeconomics, as I am fascinated how the human brain works. Super fun!
My favourite app... Strava - I love their way of benchmarking runs against your previous performances, and those of others. It keeps my motivation high. Did you know that exercise is one of the few ways that has been proven to create neurogenesis: creation of new neurons. Killing two birds with one stone, so to say.
My favourite blog... Brainfacts - Not really a blog, but a great site with a lot of cool and interesting facts about the human brain (yeah, by now you may understood that I have a fascination with this incredible organ).
My internet/tech hero... Diane Greene - Founder and former CEO of VMware, Investor, Google board member. She is a true inspiration, an extremely competent leader, tech visionary, and at the same time a very genuine person with a lot of integrity.
Most recent buy online... A grey carpet for my living room, from Svenssons i Lammhult.
Book I've just downloaded and listened to... Adam Grant’s Originals - How Nonconformists Move the World - It was an awesome read that is surprising, provocative, and refreshing.
My favourite tweeter... @AdamMGrant It varies a lot depending on what is on my mind, and what I’ve just been influenced by. I find myself closely paying attention to what Adam Grant tweets at the moment.
My favourite Instagrammer... @whowhatwear - It is a great way to get a sense of what is going on in fashion - it prevents me from being a complete fashion disaster!
Most worthwhile newsletter subscribed to... BPS Research Digest - Informative weekly summary of the latest psychology studies. Keeps me up-to-date on all kinds of new findings on how our minds work.
Social media allowed me to meet... All my friends back in the US, despite being a big ocean apart. I used to live in California, and now when I am back in Stockholm, Sweden, they still feel close via social media.
Pet hate about life online... Same as the pet hate I have with angry people in cars, which is road rage. Just because there is something between you (a screen, a wire, and internet, or a car), people tend to think it is OK to say things they never would have said to a person in real life.
Stand out online memory... Back in the day when NetZero had free dial-up internet, I still remember how amazed I was that I did not have to pay anything for ‘dialling into’ the internet - what a treasure! I felt like I had won the lottery.
September 2016
Before joining Lifesum in June 2016, Victoria, who holds a computer science degree, spent the last twenty years in tech companies in various roles within engineering organisations, working for Silicon Valley startups, both big and small. After sixteen years in America, she returned to her home city, Stockholm, Sweden, because she was craving to work at a startup again and wanted a company that was creating something that she was really passionate about. When Victoria got the opportunity to join the Lifesum team as CTO earlier this year, the choice was one of the easiest ones in her career, as it is a tech company doing interesting things, with a mission to help people become healthier and happier.
As CTO at Lifesum, Victoria leads the technology team, where her product development, release engineering, building & operating large-scale infrastructure, quality engineering are invaluable. She is also part of the company’s executive team.
In June, Lifesum released an update to its app called Lifesum Plans, launching a new range of personalised plans that target overall health and lifestyle goals, and allow users to focus on challenges that are specific to them. The update encourages its users to tailor their diet and exercise regimes to long-term goals such as building strength, improving energy levels, controlling hunger pangs, or modifying snacking habits. Users can take a test to help identify the best fit for their lifestyle, and are able follow a plan of their choice that can help them reach their goals including: Food For Strength, Hunger No More and The Energizer.
The Lifesum app is available on mobile and wearable devices for Apple and Android and currently supports more than fifteen million users around the world.
My favourite website... Coursera - I am borderline obsessed with learning new things and Coursera is phenomenal at satisfying that need. If I spend time ‘online’ you can find me there. I’m currently taking a class on neuroeconomics, as I am fascinated how the human brain works. Super fun!
My favourite app... Strava - I love their way of benchmarking runs against your previous performances, and those of others. It keeps my motivation high. Did you know that exercise is one of the few ways that has been proven to create neurogenesis: creation of new neurons. Killing two birds with one stone, so to say.
My favourite blog... Brainfacts - Not really a blog, but a great site with a lot of cool and interesting facts about the human brain (yeah, by now you may understood that I have a fascination with this incredible organ).
My internet/tech hero... Diane Greene - Founder and former CEO of VMware, Investor, Google board member. She is a true inspiration, an extremely competent leader, tech visionary, and at the same time a very genuine person with a lot of integrity.
Most recent buy online... A grey carpet for my living room, from Svenssons i Lammhult.
Book I've just downloaded and listened to... Adam Grant’s Originals - How Nonconformists Move the World - It was an awesome read that is surprising, provocative, and refreshing.
My favourite tweeter... @AdamMGrant It varies a lot depending on what is on my mind, and what I’ve just been influenced by. I find myself closely paying attention to what Adam Grant tweets at the moment.
My favourite Instagrammer... @whowhatwear - It is a great way to get a sense of what is going on in fashion - it prevents me from being a complete fashion disaster!
Most worthwhile newsletter subscribed to... BPS Research Digest - Informative weekly summary of the latest psychology studies. Keeps me up-to-date on all kinds of new findings on how our minds work.
Social media allowed me to meet... All my friends back in the US, despite being a big ocean apart. I used to live in California, and now when I am back in Stockholm, Sweden, they still feel close via social media.
Pet hate about life online... Same as the pet hate I have with angry people in cars, which is road rage. Just because there is something between you (a screen, a wire, and internet, or a car), people tend to think it is OK to say things they never would have said to a person in real life.
Stand out online memory... Back in the day when NetZero had free dial-up internet, I still remember how amazed I was that I did not have to pay anything for ‘dialling into’ the internet - what a treasure! I felt like I had won the lottery.
September 2016