Gary Stewart
Director, Wayra
London, UL
Gary Stewart is the Director of Wayra UK and founder of nuroa.es, a Barcelona-based startup. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and was the executive editor of The Yale Journal at the university’s Law School before working at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett in London, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Spain.
Like most entrepreneurs, Gary never thought he would be where he is today. While attending Yale, he thought he would become a litigator for a company similar to Microsoft, however, he later decided he didn’t want to live in the U.S. anymore. Gary settled in London where he worked in Mergers and Acquisitions at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett before moving to Madrid. The turning point for him came 4 years after his move; when he was told the terms of his contract would have to change in ways he wasn’t comfortable with. It was then that Gary decided to become an entrepreneur.
However, he did not instantly succeed in his endeavors. His first creation was an offline real estate company, which flopped. Determined to make his mark, Gary later founded nuroa.es, an online property search company where he stayed for 5 years, and raised £4 Million in funding. He was also an associate professor and the entrepreneur-in-residence at IE Business School. Gary learned a lot from this position, as he spent two years redesigning and re-launching IE Business School‘s accelerator for MBA students. After that, he joined the British branch of Telefónica’s start up accelerator, Wayra. Since then, he’s been helping entrepreneurs grow and build successful businesses by providing them with a physical working space, funding, and resources to mentors, investors, and all round support. They even fly their entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley to learn from the world’s largest tech hub.
Gary Stewart’s passion for entrepreneurship perseverance have led him to the core of his business. Today, he seeds and mentors promising startups to get them to pitch in front of British investor panels thus gaining exposure, reputation, and a chance to get larger funding.
