Daniel Rebane - the ball-crazy web developer living an "ordinary" life

Lina Johansson

Specialist Paid Social & SEM

Daniel wasn't exactly jumping for joy when asked if he'd be interviewed and have an article written about him. The reason was that he himself feels he doesn't have anything particularly special to share and that he lives a fairly "ordinary" life. Everyone has a story, of course, and here is the story of developer Daniel Rebane — Motillo's very own Average Joe.

Daniel was born in 1992 and grew up in the small community of Skattkärr, a couple of miles outside Karlstad. He describes his childhood as "ordinary" and says he did what most others did. In Daniel's world, that means sport, sport, and sport. Ball sports — and especially floorball — have been a big part of his life, so when it was time to apply for upper secondary school, he chose the now-defunct Karlstad Sports High School. There he could combine the social science programme with hundreds of hours in the floorball hall, something that suited ball-obsessed Daniel perfectly!

– I grew up with floorball because my dad played when I was little. I've played for several different clubs in the Karlstad area and always done it because it's been fun above all else. League wins and other successes have of course been great, but that's not what's driven me, says Daniel.

He enjoyed the setup at the sports high school so much that he stayed on as an instructor during his first year after graduating.

One of Motillo's most educated?

After his time as a floorball instructor, Daniel started a programme in Health and Wellness. It only took one semester for him to realise it wasn't quite what he'd imagined, so he dropped out and instead began studying to become a business economist. It's a four-year programme, but when Daniel had completed 75% of it, he once again realised it wasn't what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. New track — again!

– I have many friends who studied web development and it seemed exciting. I've always had an interest in technology, so I decided to study System Design, which was a three-year programme. It's probably lucky that I worked part-time at ICA Maxi throughout all my years of study and didn't take any student loans — otherwise I'd have had quite a lot to pay back, says Daniel with a laugh.

Inspired by a high school classmate

In early 2022 he finished his studies and it was time to look for a job. Daniel knew Anton Marklar from when they were in the same class at high school and had heard him speak highly of his job at Motillo.

– I threw out a line to Anton and checked if they had any open positions. He connected me with Jonas and we got a meeting set up the very next day. We both realised it was a good match, and I think it took no more than five days from when I reached out to Anton until I had a job, says Daniel.

It's now been almost 1.5 years since he started working as a developer at Motillo, and when asked what he enjoys most, the answer is fairly typical:

– I'm really enjoying it, both the tasks and the colleagues. So far I've been working on further development, but after the summer I'm set to be involved in a project, so it'll be exciting to be part of it from the start when an e-commerce site is being built. I've learned so incredibly much since I started working here and I feel like I've made the right choice, he says.

Despite his ordinary answers, Daniel is anything but boring. He has a quick wit, isn't afraid to poke fun at himself, and is often the one responsible for loud laughter in the office.

Last autumn we went to Vann Spa and one of the activities was riding a RIB boat — it was absolutely brilliant!

We do a lot of fun things outside of work, both organised by management and on our own initiative. It definitely contributes to the great atmosphere!

Doing ordinary things

When he's not coding or being funny at work, it's still all about balls for Daniel — even though the floorball stick was put away 5 years ago. He enjoys playing golf in the summer, represents Motillo in a padel cup, and rarely says no to a table tennis match at work. However, it's watching others chase balls that takes up the most time — he follows the Italian football league and supports Milan. Apart from that, he says he and his partner Johanna mostly do "ordinary" things. They moved into a newly built apartment a stone's throw from the office earlier this year, so there's been a lot of focus on interior decorating lately.

– I do some cooking too, but everyone does that so there's nothing special about it, says Daniel, who doesn't like to elaborate.

His Instagram, however, shows off homemade sourdough pizzas and advanced sous vide dishes — so it's a little above the ordinary after all.