She’s Next Talks with Aneida Bajraktari

Growing up in Albania, Aneida Bajraktari followed a well-trodden path: earn a degree, secure a stable corporate job, and settle into family life. “I grew up believing that the right path was to study, to find a stable job… because actually that’s how families raise kids in Albania,” she reflects on She’s Next. Armed with a background in finance and law, she was thriving as a finance manager for a Swedish NGO when a single weekend event altered her trajectory entirely.

Attending a Startup Weekend workshop transformed her perspective on risk and initiative. “I realised entrepreneurs are not like superheroes,” she says. “They are ordinary people who decide to solve a problem and just take action”. That mindset shift inspired her to found Balkans Capital. After balancing both roles for nearly a year, she took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship, confronting her initial anxieties about leaving a secure salary behind. Looking back, she recognises that traditional corporate stability can be an illusion. “As an entrepreneur you realise there is no ceiling, but there is also no floor,” she observes. “That’s both the scary and the beautiful part”.

Today, Bajraktari is not only leading Balkans Capital but also launching Doll’App, a resale app bringing circular fashion to the Western Balkans, while actively building Albania’s start-up ecosystem through mentorship and Startup Grind. Rather than fearing technological disruption, she is actively learning AI and coding to keep her ventures ahead. “The real challenge is not AI replacing entrepreneurs,” she argues. “It’s entrepreneurs who don’t embrace AI being replaced by those who do”.

For Bajraktari, modern leadership requires humility and the confidence to admit when you do not have all the answers. “One of the biggest strengths a leader can have is the confidence to say, ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out together,'” she notes. Across her ventures, she defines ultimate success not by revenue alone, but by personal agency and community impact. “My biggest success is my freedom,” she says—from picking up her three children from school without asking for permission to helping cultivate the region’s first tech unicorn.