By Jaya Pathak
In the world of entrepreneurship, there are few stories which resonates powerfully. One such story is of Cate Luzio.
Cate Luzio expanded two decades in financial services which lead to global multibillion dollar business. She is the perfect example of resilience, vision and tenacity which is required to stand in the start up world. Her journey is completely an inspiration for the young entrepreneurs especially women who are navigating challenges of building and scaling a business.
Journey of Cate Luzio
Cate Luzio’s professional journey began in the high state world of banking where she performed executive role at institutions like HSBC and JP Morgan Chase. Apart from her success, she was feeling a growing disconnection between her work and her personal fulfilment of desire. In 2018, she made a bold decision by leaving her career and enter into the world of startups.
In an interview, she said “I was not where I wanted to be culturally.” It is said that you want to do something where you have an impact and the same happened with Cate. She already had a well established career in the banking industry but she was searching for doing something big and impactful. This influenced her to enter into the world of startup where she was unknown.
After leaving her job, she experienced a period of self doubt and uncertainty which every entrepreneur feels at the starting. She attended a women’s networking event. It led to sparkle an idea in her brain. She realized that there is more need for an inclusive and supportive space for the professional development. This builds the foundation to the creation of luminary. It is a membership based platform which aims to uplift and upscale women and their allies across various industries. She said, “I realized I could do it better. So I wrote a business plan.”
Kate choose a different path. She self funded luminary and she calls the move as stiletto-strapping. She recollets, “Everyone told me, go raise money, don’t take this huge risk and build your business on your own dollars.” But with her strong determination to maintain the control and ensure that the mission of company remains uncompromised. She put her money where she wanted to. In an interview, she explained, “I wanted to put my money where my mouth was.”
With her skill and strong determination, luminary has grown into a global platform with members in over 30 countries and partnership with more than 60 corporations. This company offers a range of programs, workshops and events to support professionals at every stage of their career.
About LUMINARY
Luminary is a global membership based professional education and networking platform which was founded with the mission to uplift upskill and propel women and their allies forward through all phases of their professional journeys.
Luminary is a home to multi generational and intersectional community of professionals, entrepreneurs, corporations and organizations who are proud to be agnostic to age, level, industry, career and gender.
Luminary offers high impact programming built to advance women in their careers, building skills, connecting to global network and support the personal development.
It offers the expanded knowledge of key trends and research. It has the access to a diverse and broad ecosystem with numerous opportunities for members to work and collaborate with like minded professionals, entrepreneurs and organizations which can help support individual needs.
The journey of Cate Luzio has not been without personal challenges. In 2022, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She got the news just few minutes before leading a major zoom session. She showed her resilience and composed herself and then proceeded but the meeting. This movement shows the strength and determination which define a true leader. She put strong emphasis on the value of nurturing relationship and finding strength and one’s support network. In one interview, she said,“ I get the energy I need to keep going and innovating from the people around me.”
Conclusion
Cate Luzio is truly an example of resilience, strong leadership and community building. The journey of Cate from being a corporate executive to a startup founder shows the importance of staying committed to one’s vision even if you’re facing adversity and challenges. For the young entrepreneurs, her story is a compelling reminder that success comes to those who “stay in it to win it.”
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