Start-up Stories by IE Alumni: Rocky Path to Success

IE University - Benelux

Masterclass of Start-up stories by IE Alumni

House of Startups

Come and join us at an Entrepreneurship Evening on December 1st at the House of Startup in Luxembourg in which we will unpack the real stories behind two fintech startup owners. These two Luxembourg based entrepreneurs are IE alumni and they are eager to share their paths as entrepreneurs and the challenging journey to success. The evening will follow with networking drinks. 

Speakers: 

<ul>
	<li>James Hickeson
	Founder &amp; CEO; IE Alumnus
	Bloom Group SA</li>
</ul>

James Hickson is the CEO and Founder of Bloom Group SA., a European Fintech company focused on providing non-dilutive capital to eCommerce and SaaS founders. Bloom recently closed a Series-A round of $376M to fuel their European expansion. James is also an accomplished author having features in 1FS, Entrepreneur, The Fintech Times, Delano, The Next Web, The European Business Review, Thomson Reuters, Business Insider, and World Finance. He has featured heavily on TV and online media discussing Fintech, Lending, Cryptocurrencies, Security Token Offerings (where he delivered Europe’s first fully regulated issuance with partner Expandly), Banking and Consumer technology trends.

James has won numerous industry awards and was most recently recognized as FinTech CEO of the year as well as Payment Service of the year by AI Global Media.

James graduated with a degree in Computer Science, where he also started his Ph.D. in the second year of his undergraduate degree focused on mathematical modeling. He went on to complete his MBA at IE University while at Morgan Stanley focused on Global Business and Strategy where he also won the Wafra award for Entrepreneurship in Brazil. James coaches a number of start-ups via his work with The Founder Institute as well as working at the Board level with a number of scale-up and PE-backed companies.

<ul>
	<li>Matteo Cernuschi
	Co-Founder &amp; COO
	ANote Music</li>
</ul>

Before becoming co-founder at ANote Music, the company democratizing access into music royalties as an alternative investment asset class, Matteo worked in IT consultancy at Ernst &amp; Young, Luxembourg, specializing in Business Process Modeling. Matteo has also held roles with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas (IACC Texas, Houston), and with SES Satellites, the world’s leading satellite operator, based in Luxembourg. Matteo holds a Master’s Degree in International Management from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Financial Markets, from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. Matteo was also enrolled in a graduate course in Sustainable Finance and Investments at Harvard University.