Stanford graduate student Nicky Goulimis had to start her financial life over when she moved from London to the U.S in 2014. Despite her excellent credit in the UK as a former consultant at Bain & Company, Nicky was often turned down for credit cards and other services requiring U.S credit history. Her pain was shared among most of the international students at Stanford, including Misha Esipov and Loek Janssen.

Together, they started a class research project to understand the challenges that immigrants and expats face in financially integrating into a country. Their research brought to life Nova Credit, a platform enabling immigrants to transport their credit histories worldwide. Nicky, who studied English Literature at Cambridge and previously worked in consulting and international development, had never considered creating a fintech startup. But coming from a Greek family, and having watched her father’s journey building his software company in the U.K, made her especially interested in helping foreign families to achieve their dreams. After spending 3 years as the Chief Operating Officer at Nova Credit, Nicky now serves as a Board Member.