Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based Founder operating in the Social Media Advertising space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Muayyad Shehadeh
Co-Founder and CEO of Uhive
Over 25 years of experience, CEO of Genie9, BigMIND and UHIVE A long and broad experience in machine learning algorithms and A.I. systems.Created BigMIND cloud which was the first cloud solution to utilise cold and hot storage, and integrate A.I, Muayyad has a degree in Architecture. He is well known as a Windows C++/WIN API Guru with deep conceptual thinking; which is an ability he developed and enhanced through his Architecture degree Spent last 5 years working on UHive Social Network Idea
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About Uhive, Zoolz: Uhive is a social network that lets users socialize, interact, and find people across the world while earning its own digital currency.
Samuel Huber
Founder & CEO of Admix
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About Admix, VR Focus: Admix is the first programmatic monetisation platform for in-game advertising
Joe Bachle-Morris
Co-Founder and COO of Admix
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About Admix: Admix is the first programmatic monetisation platform for in-game advertising
Mats Stigzelius
Founder of Takumi
Having started his career at McKinsey & Company, Mats Stigzelius has spent the last dozen years working in Strategy Consulting and Private Equity. His experience includes developing brand strategies, implementing business plans and arranging financing for companies across a number of industries in Europe and North America, including Retail, Consumer Goods, Financial Services, Media and Telecoms sectors. Before joining Rainmaking in January 2010, Mats spent five years in Private Equity with a focus on the Retail sector, completing 15 acquisitions, refinancings and exits in that period, in addition to sitting on the board of a number of companies as a Non-Executive Director. Mats holds a 1st Class Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Manchester University and over the years he has lived in Finland, Holland, USA and the UK. Mats currently lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife and two young sons.
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About Rainmaking, Takumi: Takumi is a platform that gives large brands and advertising agencies access to branded influencer creative at scale.
Gummi Eggertsson
Co-Founder,COO & CFO of Takumi
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About Sidekick Health, Takumi: Takumi is a platform that gives large brands and advertising agencies access to branded influencer creative at scale.
Ben Knight
Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Croud
Ben is the Co-founder of Croud, Google’s fastest growing agency in the UK in 2013 and 2014 Having worked within search for over ten years, Ben realised that there was a gap within the industry to deliver a more innovative and creative service to clients that could rival other agencies. In 2011, Ben, founded Croud as a new concept in digital to deliver excellence to clients expertise to help their clients grow their businesses. Prior to Croud, Ben has worked for a number of prestigious search agencies. Ben spent his first 6 years at The Search Works where he joined a small team learning his trade and later heading up the financial search vertical, Ben was a key member of the team during it’s growth from 12 to over 100 people. Following the sale at TSW, he joined Harvest Digital as Head of Search in a full service digital agency where he was responsible for paid and natural search as well as social media and analytics, in the 2 and half years he spent at Harvest he grew the size of them team 7 fold and revenues 10 fold before leaving this role in early 2011. Outside of work, Ben is an avid but often disappointed Liverpool football fan.
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About Croud, Croud: Croud is a digital marketing agency that provides services including SEO, PPC, content, programmatic, paid social, and analytics
Martin Adams
Co-Founder & CEO of Codec
Martin is an international keynote speaker on innovation, artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies, and the Founder and CEO of Codec.ai. Codec.ai has raised millions & uses artificial intelligence to identify new target audiences and understand what content and products they want to consume, all before brands have to guess. Codec won ‘the Best Artificial Intelligence Product in Marketing’ award at CognitionX and has been named one of the ‘Hottest AI Businesses in Europe’ by TechCrunch. Martin has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs by Maserati and as an innovation advisor he has worked with some of the most high-profile individuals and organisations in the world on how to use technology to be more innovative and connect more deeply with real people- including companies like Pfizer and Red Bull and governmental organisations like the Royal Marines. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and the Co-Founder of the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council.
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About Ambient Tone, Codec, CognitionX, Digital Leadership Council, London Speaker Bureau, University College London (UCL): We help brands to discover and tap in to the pockets of culture that drive growth. Powered by award-winning AI.
Olga Egorsheva
CEO & Co-Founder of Lobster
Entrepreneur at Lobster. Building a bridge between every individual online and creative professionals. Inspired by independent creativity. Inspiring by breaking the rules. The world is my home country to learn, work and start companies.
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About Lobster: Lobster is a platform which enables brands, agencies and the media to licence visual content directly from social media users.
Maria Iontseva
Co-Founder of Lobster
Usability addict at Lobster. Lovingly creates this company’s designs, interfaces, investor pitches and social media campaigns. Designed PC Mag awarded consumer IT products (in previous life). Londoner, photographer, sailor, jazz guitar.
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About Lobster, UX Loft: Lobster is a platform which enables brands, agencies and the media to licence visual content directly from social media users.
Matt Wilson
Co-Founder of Ball Street
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About Ball Street: Ball Street is a group of sports fans that wanted to club together to create an independent, alternative to the mainstream sports media.
Joel Davis
Co-Founder and CEO of Mighty Social
Joel Davis is the founder and Director of the UK’s first social media agency – agency:2 & sister brand Mighty Social. Founded in 2007, he has overseen the agency’s growth to become a truly global agency. Client experience includes Barbie, Microsoft, Disney, JLL, Worldpay & Pan Macmillan. With over 19 years marketing experience in social & digital, Joel is adept at helping brands identify and hone their marketing objectives, recommending compelling ideas and strategies to capitalise on what social media can do for their business and how to leverage the best possible ROI from social media activities.
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About agency:2, Mighty Social: Mighty Social is a fast growing social ad technology company. We provides advanced targeting technology.
Alex Vaidya
Co-Founder & CEO of StoryStream
Alex is the CEO and co-founder of StoryStream, a leading live content marketing platform that helps brands such as Porsche and Unilever to source and publish user-generated content, and other forms of live content, to create a more engaging customer experience. Alex is a specialist in content marketing and how the role of technology is changing the nature of the brand communications and the connected story.
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About StoryStream: StoryStream is the world’s most advanced content marketing platform built for automotive brands.
Deidre MacNair
Co Founder of The Village Communications
I have a dual role here at The Village. Firstly, ensuring we deliver outstanding work for our amazing clients. The rest of my time is spent helping make The Village the best place to work for our fabulous people!
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About The Village Communications: Small and independent, with a talented, passionate, multi-disciplinary team, we allow great ideas to flourish
Richard Cox
Co Founder of The Village Communications
Since Launching the Village Communications with Dee and Kat , the pride in watching the agency grow and producing such fantastic work has being second to none. Allowing not only myself, but the team, to explore the creative side of media is also a thrill, but always keeping an eye out for that extra value alongside any deal is still my number one priority.
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About The Village Communications: Small and independent, with a talented, passionate, multi-disciplinary team, we allow great ideas to flourish
Giovanbattista Cimmino
CEO and Founder of SocialAsk
Giovanbattista Cimmino is an entrepreneur in the hospitality and digital industry. CEO and founder of the London-based social media agency SocialAsk, founder of the Remodels agency and creator of the Model Restaurant platform. Giovanbattista is the co-founder of Kowa Restaurant and Osteria Romana.
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About Entrepreneur.com, SocialAsk: SocialAsk is a London-based social media agency specialized in social media marketing and online reputation management.
