Meet Alisa Chumachenko, one of the panelists at the upcoming GameDev Women Cyprus Annual Conference on October 9.
Alisa Chumachenko, Game Industry Veteran, Chief Strategy Officer 4dev.com
I’ve been in games and tech for more than 20 years. I built and led companies including Game Insight and GOSU.ai, scaled international teams, raised capital, went through acquisitions and exits — and through projects that didn’t work out the way I expected.
Over time, I realized that the common thread wasn’t games, AI, or even entrepreneurship.
What I really love is building and transforming companies: figuring out strategy, assembling strong teams, rebuilding organizations and solving problems where there is no obvious playbook.
▫️Success, Failure and Starting Again
A long career gives you both sides of the story. I’ve built companies that grew incredibly fast and had successful exits. I’ve also lost a business, a team and a big part of the professional identity I had spent years building.
It taught me that a career isn’t a ladder. Sometimes you build a company. Sometimes you rebuild it. And sometimes the thing that needs rebuilding is you.
▫️Which game character best describes you on your career journey?
I’ll cheat: I’m not a character. I’m the person playing Civilization.
Give me a map, limited resources, an ambitious objective and a slightly unreasonable number of problems to solve — and I’m happy.
I build, expand, negotiate, discover that some of my assumptions were completely wrong, change the strategy and keep playing.
Actually, that sounds suspiciously close to my career.
▫️What is your superpower?
Building and transforming companies.
I’m at my best when the problem is complicated and there isn’t an obvious answer. I look at the whole system — strategy, people, product, revenue, structure — figure out what is preventing it from moving forward, and start rebuilding it.
After 20+ years, this is still the kind of work I love most.
Found something in the story that resonates? Connect with Alisa: @lynnalisa | Linkedin
💬 Want to continue the conversation? Join our chats and meet Alisa there: ru chat and eng chat.