"Don't think too long - just do it" is Bernhard Niesner's top advice for bootstrappers

European Bootstrapping Champions

Co-Founder & CEO of Busuu, one of the world's leading mobile apps for language learning with more than 100m+ users. Their vision is to inspire the world to learn together!

Bernhard is frequently invited to speak at international conferences about Edtech and entrepreneurship, such as DLD, Webit Congress, Noah Conference, SIME, SXSW Edtech, BETT, GET Beijing etc.

Originally from Vienna, he traveled around the world during his studies, spending 5 years in Madrid and now living in London where their headquarters are based.

In 2009 he was awarded “Entrepreneur of the year” in Austria for his academic achievements. UK Winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ 2018 award in the 'Disruptor' category.

He has a Bachelor's Degree at Vienna Business School, one at Universidad de Belgrano and an International MBA (with honors) in Business Administration from IE Business School. He also has a Magister degree in International Business Administration from WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), graduating with "summa cum laude"; among the top 3% of all students.

When Bernhard Niesner relocated to Spain to study his MBA he didn't know that he would end up creating a new company with fellow student Adrian Hilti. The result was busuu.com, the largest and most active language learning community in the world.

Before founding Busuu, Bernhard worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in the area of consumer goods and retail in consulting projects around Europe. In addition to busuu, he is an Associate Professor at IE Business School in the area of online marketing.

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