One-on-one with Alice Setti, Senior Architect at Smartpricing

Hi everyone, let me introduce myself, I am Alice, a 32-year-old transgender woman.

I've been working in Smartpricing for 13 months, I'm in charge of the backend (the software backbone of our product) and integrations, that is, the network of connections to third-party partners, such as channel managers and management systems.

When I started the working relationship with Smartpricing I was still

Amedeo: For the past six months I have been on the path of gender transition, which is leading me to become a girl, Alice to be exact.

To answer this question, it is necessary to establish a bit of context by going back in time.

It was September 2021, and during the final pre-employment interviews I tried to be as transparent as possible with Eugenio, the CTO of Smartpricing, by telling him how interested I was in gender identity issues. His response I will always remember: "The only people we don't want here are uneducated people."

Needless to say, this response motivated me even more in my choice to work for Smartpricing.

Over the course of the next few months, in addition to producing a great deal of software, I met fantastic colleagues with whom I was able to open up and tell them about the path I was on.

The first one I spilled the beans to was Eugenio himself, my manager, both to make sense of my many absences during working hours (the transition takes time, between psychologists, doctors, estheticians etc.) and to try to further improve the relationship between us.

Over time, I also told the guys on my team, out of transparency to them and because there were only two kinds of people: those with whom I could be myself, and those with whom I was limiting myself. And with the former, I found it much easier to work, as well as to have a human relationship.

On this subject, I would like to share an episode.

During the May 2022 team building in Abruzzo, I found out that I would have to share a room with 5 other guys on the team.

I vividly remember the anxiety I had never felt before in such a situation: I had never thought about it before, but I felt uncomfortable being in the room with boys.

So I contacted Valentina, the administrative manager, told her my whole story, asking her without much hope if she could find me a single room just for me.

To my immense joy, Valentina in less than an hour found a room to for me. People who truly do their best for others are rare, but Smartpricing is full of them!

Today my transition is no longer a secret, neither in my personal life nor at work.

In fact, in early October 2022, I sent an email to all the people who work for the company informing them of my journey, of my "new" self.

The response has been outstanding, beyond all expectations. Practically all colleagues wrote to me privately, encouraging me and showing me incredible affection. To you, colleagues, thank you, I am infinitely grateful!

I don't feel like a person in the right to give a lot of advice, but if I had to give one, I would tell you to believe in yourself and accept yourself for who you are, without forgetting that we are all unique, and therefore, to trust your feeling.

Most importantly, I would tell you to give yourself time, as much time as you need. 

It took me almost 20 years to understand myself, to accept myself, but even if I could go back, I realize that these years are what I needed to get to accept myself. And so far, it's been worth it.

Among the best things about working here at Smartpricing is the lack of imposed hierarchies: the last person to arrive can address or confront, with no problem, the highest ranking person. This creates such a peaceful atmosphere that is hard to find elsewhere.