She graduated from IESE Business School in Barcelona last year after a career at management consultancy firm A.T. Kearney and before that a stint at Santander Asset Management UK, the British fund manager of Santander Group, the Eurozone’s biggest bank by market capitalization.
She was able to benefit from her MBA program’s entrepreneurship courses and the diverse experiences of her classmates.
Iwoca was founded by two former investment bankers in London to close the gap in financing for businesses in e-commerce – a sector that is growing rapidly.
The start-up has raised about £7 million in funding so far and its latest round was led by Global Founders Capital, a venture capital fund launched by the founders of Rocket Internet, the recently listed start-up accelerator.
Iwoca uses technology to eliminate the cost and complexity associated with traditional business finance and utilizes a data-driven risk model.
Isabel will hope to use her MBA to help plug the hole in funding for Europe’s small and medium sized companies.
According to February data compiled by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, the region has a smaller pot of funding with about €30 trillion available for investment, compared with €49 trillion in the US.
Why did you decide to begin an MBA degree?
I had friends and family that had been to business school and [who] deeply recommended the experience, on both a professional and personal level.
I researched [business] schools and career opportunities, and with where I was in my career, it seemed like the perfect thing to do. I wanted to switch industry and location, and needed time and insight to decide where and how to make the right move.
How helpful was the MBA in securing your current job?
The MBA was key to get my current job – not just because it was through the school network that the opportunity came up, but most importantly because it gave me the frameworks to consider all factors involved in launching a start-up in Spain.
I would say the best part is to see how things that you learnt during the MBA – be it as part of a lecture or learning from other classmate’s experiences – become useful in many different areas of your job on a daily basis – it gives you a general background of how to deal with multiple topics, nearly immediately.
How have you been able to utilize your business school network?
The IESE school network was very useful when I was considering different career plans in multiple sectors during the MBA, since I was able to reach [out] and meet alumni [who were] working in those sectors to understand the sectors better, as well as the companies themselves.
As of today, I find it useful when I encounter things at work [that] I am not that familiar with – I know some of my friends have more experience and can point me in the right direction.
What is your biggest lesson learnt?
The MBA taught me two major things: to be humble and to be perseverant.
[I am] humble because when you are sitting in a class full of extremely smart people from all over the world and with so many experiences, you put yourself in a bigger context than ever before, and as we all grow in our own career paths, it is a constant reminder.
[I’m] perseverant because you realize that no big dream was achieved over night or by a matter of luck – it takes is hard work and determination.
What advice would you give to MBA students who are about to graduate from business school?
To cherish the moment and not rush too quickly into working life; to make sure they spend more time with classmates because when the program ends they will miss the old times; and to write down the key things that they want to achieve in their professional and personal lives, because once you are back in the game it can be very hard to stay focused.
You work at iwoca. How important are alternative sources of finance for small businesses, particularly in Europe?
It is surprising to see how suffocated small companies have been for a long time when it comes to finance across Europe. On a daily basis we encounter great businesses that don't have access to opportunities, simply because of a cash flow issue.
Working in iwoca means not only enabling them to have the same advantages as their larger peers, but also dealing with many different businesses at the same time – every day feels like another MBA case [study], which I consider to be a privilege.
What are your future career plans?
For the moment I want to establish and grow iwoca in Spain as much as possible. It has only been eight months and so many things have already changed. It is great to be in a growing start-up environment, and for now this is what I envision my future to be like.
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