Born and raised in a middle-class home in Ecuador, South America, Manny’s first job was helping out every summer on his family’s shrimp farm. He first moved to the US aged 21, to do a degree in computer engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.

As his English was “fairly poor” at this stage, he says he coped in lectures and classes “by writing things down furiously, and asking lots of questions.” However, he adds that “dating girls was really hard.” To improve his English, he says he avidly read the Economist newspaper.

After Stevens, Manny did a masters in the same subject at University of Philadelphia, before going to Harvard Business School to do a masters in business administration. The corporate world then followed, with two years at Amazon, and six at Microsoft.

But worried that he was “not fulfilling my full potential” in life, he quit in 2011 to launch the first business, Group Talent, with friends. “I became the CEO because I was the only one who didn’t code. I looked after making the coffee, and taking care of whatever distractions needed sorting out.”