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 Tourism 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.
Stefan Hobl
CFO & Co-Founder of Butter.co.uk
Stefan Hobl joined Butter.co.uk as CFO & Co-Founder in 2017.
Follow Stefan Hobl:
About Butter.co.uk: Butter lets you spread the cost of shopping from any online store with a simple monthly instalment plan. Download the app now!
Clive Jackson
Founder & Chairman of Victor
Clive Jackson is the founder and Chairman of Victor.
Follow Clive Jackson:
About Victor: Victor is a London, UK-based private jet charter marketplace.
Tom Valentine
Marketplaces CEO & Co-Founder of Secret Escapes
Secret Escapes has seen explosive growth since its formation in 2010, with turnover forecast to hit £100m in 2014. Tom Valentine, alongside his co-founder and CEO Alex Saint, has catapulted Secret Escapes into a well-known and respected brand in the UK, with a 60% net promoter score and 95% post-stay satisfaction. Much of the company’s success is down to a robust digital and TV acquisition framework, built and managed by Tom, which has allowed the company to confidently spend over £10m annually at a consistent, predictable and positive ROI. This has led to a profitable UK business and huge confidence in international expansion. Tom has scaled the team from less than 30 to over 100 across the UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the USA and recently secured GBP39m from Google’s venture arm to fuel global expansion plans.
Follow Tom Valentine:
About Secret Escapes, Smart Pension: Secret Escapes is a members-only travel club offering discounted rates on luxury hotels and holidays in the UK.
Scott Malkin
Founder of Value Retail PLC
Scott D. Malkin is the founder and Chairman of Value Retail PLC. He also serves as Chairman of S.D. Malkin Properties, Inc. which develops retail, residential and hotel projects in the United States. Scott is a Trustee of The New York Public Library, Partners In Health, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the U.S. Olympic Committee Foundation. In addition, he serves on various Advisory Boards including Conservacion Patagonica and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Scott is graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.
Follow Scott Malkin:
About Value Retail PLC: Value Retail operates luxury outlet shopping destinations.
Blake Reddy
Founder and CEO of easyGuide
As a Sir Stelios Scholar, Blake graduated from Cass Business School in 2012 with a Masters in Banking and International Finance. Blake spent the next 6-years building an investment management firm in London before taking on a new venture with Sir Stelios with the objective of creating an end-to-end customer journey across the tourism industry.
Follow Blake Reddy:
About easyGuide: Discover and book tickets to top attractions, activities, experiences, tours and theatre shows in your favourite locations around the world!
Anthony Collias
Co-Founder & CCO of Stasher
Anthony oversees business development and marketing at Stasher. Before co-founding Stasher, Anthony studied PPE at Oxford University and worked as a PPC specialist at Brainlabs. His interests include eating and complaining about being hungry…. Always.
Follow Anthony Collias:
About Stasher, Treepoints: Stasher is the world’s first luggage storage network.
Jacob Wedderburn-Day
Co-Founder & CEO of Stasher
Entrepreneur, co-founder & CEO of Stasher.com. Studied at Oxford & UCL. Passionate about startups, economics, the sharing economy, game theory and football.
Follow Jacob Wedderburn-Day:
About Stasher, Treepoints: Stasher is the world’s first luggage storage network.
Daniel Spinath
Founder & Managing Director of Crepeaffaire
Follow Daniel Spinath:
About Crepeaffaire, Entertainment Ventures Group International, Frizzenti, Liberation Cocktails, Tap: Crêpeaffaire offers freshly prepared crêpes, waffles, coffees and smoothies.
Christian Samuel
Founder of Resooma
Follow Christian Samuel:
About Personalised Co, Resooma: We’re building an end-to-end rental marketplace with simplified payment solutions that serves both tenants and property owners.
Samuel Rason
Co-Founder and CEO of Viva City
Follow Samuel Rason:
About Viva City: Viva City offers guest experience, discovery, and analytics software to help businesses thrive with the Chinese Inbound market.
Ali Beklen
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
After working for several financial institutions and IBM, Ali Beklen co-founded HotelRunner with Arden Agopyan, with the ambition of converting the long-tail accommodation sales and distribution management from offline to online at global scale. For the last 10 years, he has been advising many organizations and initiatives focusing on digital transformation of the travel industry globally. He has publications in international refereed journals and conferences about service and cloud computing. He is Advisory Chair for Software Service Computation at the International Academy, Research and Industry Association. Beklen holds an M.Sc. in Computer Engineering and a B.A. in Economics. He is also a PhD candidate in computer engineering.
Follow Ali Beklen:
About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
Arden Agopyan
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
Arden Agopyan is an experienced entrepreneur and business development executive with a proven track record. Prior to founding HotelRunner, he led IBM’s Cloud Computing Software technical sales and market creation activities across Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa. His areas of expertise also include international team management, business execution, strategic marketing and financial management. As a talented hacker coming from software development background, along twenty years of business experience in technology, Arden is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance, holds a BSc in Computer Engineering degree and an MBA. Arden speaks five languages and is also Advisory Chair for Cloud Computing at International Academy, Research and Industry Association and co-author of a book, academic journals and articles.
Follow Arden Agopyan:
About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
Gabriella Csányi
Co-Founder of Like Locals
Follow Gabriella Csányi:
About Like Locals: Like Locals is a travel media startup on a mission to inspire and empower curious explorers to uncover each city’s unique culture.
Constantinos Los
Co-Founder of Like Locals
Follow Constantinos Los:
About Like Locals: Like Locals is a travel media startup on a mission to inspire and empower curious explorers to uncover each city’s unique culture.
Ijaz Khan
Co-Founder of Like Locals
Follow Ijaz Khan:
About Like Locals: Like Locals is a travel media startup on a mission to inspire and empower curious explorers to uncover each city’s unique culture.
Raphael Zier
Co Founder and Executive Chairman of PerfectStay
Follow Raphael Zier:
About PerfectStay: PerfectStay is a Paris-based B2B tour operator that offers a tailor-made travel sales offer for major brands.
Maxime Leufroy-Murat
City Relay Founder and CEO of City Relay
Follow Maxime Leufroy-Murat:
About City Relay, FG Properties, Outswitch: London’s premier short let management company. Short lets, but smarter.
Callum Hemsley
Founder & CEO of eola
Entrepreneur and founder
Follow Callum Hemsley:
About eola: eola is an operating system for experience providers
Leroy Lawrence
Founder of Pigee
Leroy Lawrence is the Founder of Pigee Inc.
Follow Leroy Lawrence:
About Pigee: Pigee is a Mobile App that allows tourists to post home purchases directly from the shops and street markets they visit.
Léa Bourratière
Co-Founder & CMO of Live2Leave
Building brands, generating impactful content and breakthrough communications, that is what I am known for, and passionate about!
Follow Léa Bourratière:
About Live2Leave: Live2Leave is a travel app where you can record your favorite spots & get recommendations from people you know.
Jose Pablo Julia
Co-Founder of Kymboo
Follow Jose Pablo Julia:
About Kymboo: Kymboo is a booking social system for professionals and owners to promote other establishments, hotels, and apartments.
Tom Marchant
Owner and Co-Founder of Black Tomato
Tom Marchant is an entrepreneurial traveler and co-founder of The Black Tomato Group, parent company of the award-winning bespoke luxury travel operator Black Tomato, strategic creative agency Studio Black Tomato and incentive travel group Black Tomato Agency. Black Tomato, a Virtuoso member, has been recognized as the leading innovative authority in global luxury travel by revered industry voices including Bloomberg, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Vogue. Tom Marchant and Black Tomato were awarded Conde Nast Traveler’s 2019 World’s Best Travel Specialists and Tom lauded as ‘one of the 50 people in the world changing the way we travel’. Marchant is a member Travel + Leisure’s A List contributor to Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar and Inc.
Follow Tom Marchant:
About Black Tomato: Black Tomato is a bespoke luxury travel company that delivers imaginative and travel experiences around the world.
Matt Smith
Co-Founder and Director of Black Tomato
Matt Smith set up Black Tomato Ltd with Tom Marchant and James Merrett in 2005 and to date have had a broad strategic and operational remit across all areas of Black Tomato. Central to Matt’s role is the responsibility for both driving forward the day to day business operations and Business Development / Sales processes that have underpinned the Group’s commercial success and significant growth. I also oversees a number of critical areas of the business including, Office Infrastructure, Company /Staff Culture, IT, Security, Data Protection/GDPR, HR, H&S / F&S, Insurance, Legal Contracting , Procurement, Staff / Business expenses, Staff Reward / Engagement, Staff Training and Staff Meetings and Events. Alongside this, he leads critical strategic projects including those that increase profitability and productivity across the business in line with the constant reinforcement of BT’s ‘purpose’ and company culture both internally and externally.
Follow Matt Smith:
About Black Tomato: Black Tomato is a bespoke luxury travel company that delivers imaginative and travel experiences around the world.
Daniel Yates
Managing Director and Founder of Pitchup.com
Follow Daniel Yates:
About Pitchup.com: Making it a doddle to book campsites in 65 countries. Member of Financial Times FT1000 fastest-growing companies in Europe 2018/19/20.
Matt Smith
Head of Business Development & Founder of Charterworld.com
Matt has always been around the yachting world. He learnt to walk on a yacht, and then grew up on one for 3 years as a boy cruising the pacific with his family. Since then boating has always been his main concern, from racing sailing dinghies and keelers to cruising on super-yachts. He has sailed all over the world, including working for several years on charter super-yachts as engineer, first mate as well as captained smaller yachts. His non-marine experience includes practicing briefly as a commercial law solicitor, as well as internet and business development. He has a law degree (LLB) and has been admitted to the Bar, as well as a double major bachelor of arts degree (Political Science & History). He believes in promoting a happy, positive and energetic work environment for employees and clients. He is keen to share his skills and experience from on and off the water to make your charter experience the best that it can be.
Follow Matt Smith:
About Charterworld.com: CharterWorld is a private yacht charter specialist. It’s what we do. We provide crewed luxury yachts, for large motor yacht charters,
Thomas Ableman
Founder & CEO of Snap
Follow Thomas Ableman:
About Freewheeling, Snap: Snap is a technology marketplace that aggregates and fulfils travel demand
John Walker
Founder of gloudio
Follow John Walker:
About gloudio: gloudio offers an application that enables its users to access audio clips of travel guides.
David Smith
Co-Founder of unPaved
I began competing in combat robot competitions (i.e. BattleBots®) at 14 yrs old and qualified for the national championships at 16. After graduating from high school a year early, I enrolled in local college courses and eventually transferred to UC Berkeley to study Physics. Before finishing my degree, I left Berkeley to cofound unPaved, a travel networking and discovery application aimed at connecting friends-of-friends around the world. In early 2017, my team and I decided to close unPaved and, later that year; I returned to Berkeley to complete my Physics degree beginning in Fall 2017 (exp. graduation 12/19)
Follow David Smith:
About unPaved, unPaved, unPaved, unPaved: The Ultimate Travel Companion — Explore Destinations like never before.
Guy Nakamura
Co-Founder of unPaved
Follow Guy Nakamura:
About unPaved: The Ultimate Travel Companion — Explore Destinations like never before.
Dan Harrison
CTO and Co-Founder of Snaptrip
Follow Dan Harrison:
About RentalTrips, Snaptrip: Snaptrip is a marketplace for people to discover the best last minute cottage holiday deals in the UK.
Matthew Fox
CEO and Co-Founder of Snaptrip
Follow Matthew Fox:
About Snaptrip: Snaptrip is a marketplace for people to discover the best last minute cottage holiday deals in the UK.
Jamie Reece
Founder and CEO of Booking Spaces
Follow Jamie Reece:
About Booking Spaces: Booking Spaces Disruptive venue booking platform, connecting those looking for spaces with the spaces available for hire.
Merilee Karr
Founder & CEO of UnderTheDoormat
Merilee has travelled the world to over 60 countries – and feels at home in many of its major cities. A strategist, property management and partnership expert formerly working for a global energy company, she has always been inspired by authentic and memorable travel experiences. When she’s not feeding her own wanderlust, she loves hiking, cycling, skiing and taking part in the occasional triathlon. Merilee has a passion for changing the world. 12 years working for Shell and being able to observe different cultures around the globe, gave birth to her desire to actually start making a difference in the way things are done. Combining her drive for initiating change with her love of travelling, Merilee realised the potential for tourists to experience a new destination like a local while allowing homeowners to earn extra income with piece of mind through the growing sharing economy.
Follow Merilee Karr:
About UnderTheDoormat: Our mission is to redefine the future of accommodation.
James Werth
Founder of Cruiseo
Founder at Cruiseo
Follow James Werth:
About Cruiseo: Personalised online cruise vacation experience
Joshua Flax
Founder of Cruiseo
Follow Joshua Flax:
About Cruiseo: Personalised online cruise vacation experience
Joshua Flax
Founder of Cruiseo
Follow Joshua Flax:
About Cruiseo: Personalised online cruise vacation experience
Matti Fruhman
Co Founder & CEO of Azooki
Follow Matti Fruhman:
About Azooki, Unbound Global: Azooki helps you book & discover amazing things to do in South East Asia’s most enchanting destinations
Gregory Geny
Co-Founder & CEO of BeRightBack
Gregory is the Founder & CEO of BeRightBack, the world’s first travel subscription service billed as the ‘Netflix for Travel’ by The Telegraph. BRB is an early stage travel start up whose mission is to remove all the hassle for travellers by delivering 3 surprise trips per year to Europe, with flights and hotel included, for a fixed monthly cost. The company was voted by Skift as one of the ‘Top 25 Startups to Watch in 2019’, was featured on the CNBC documentary ‘The Edge’ about the ‘Future of Travel’ and made it to the final of the PITCH competition at Web Summit in 2019. Originally from France, Greg has spent the last 17 years building and growing start-ups in a range of dynamic industries including Sports & Fitness, Media / Publishing, Music Publishing, Financial Services, Fintech, Education and has spent over 10 years in Travel tech.
Follow Gregory Geny:
About BeRightBack: The world’s first fixed price travel subscription service.
Nat and Mase
Founder of Go To Travel Guides
Founder at Go To Travel Guides
Follow Nat and Mase:
About Go To Travel Guides: Visual Travel Guide Apps that Inspire You to Explore New Destinations
Gordon Hamilton
Founder & CEO of Torszo
Gordon Hamilton developed the concept for the Torsorest, or mini flight bed He was inspired, firstly, by years of observing international travelers struggle during the one part of their journey when they should have reasonably expected to sleep (…in the seated and passive part of their journey). And, finally, by the personal focus that one 24 hour coach journey to ski in the Italian Dolomites can bring. In 2012 Gordon completed the acquisition of the global IP for the Torsorest, setting the scene for the introduction of a standalone version of the product to the market. This will be the first step towards the longer term objective of integrating the torsorest into the multi-billion dollar hand-luggage market. Previously, Gordon has enjoyed a successful 22 year international career spanning shipping & logistics in the UK, Canada and USA. He was deputy MD and Chief Accountant within the P&O group, and held a variety of senior management roles with Canadian Pacific, leading the implementation and global role out of a number of groundbreaking projects. Gordon’s educational background is in Pure Maths, Natural Philosophy and Accountancy at Glasgow University and Caledonia University.
Follow Gordon Hamilton:
About Torszo: Torszo designs, develops, and commercializes the Torsorest mini flight bed.
Jamie Snedden
Co-Founder of Hulah
Follow Jamie Snedden:
About Hulah: Hulah is an online personal travel guru for people who want incredible trips without the hassle of finding them.
Gareth Thomas
Founder of Turtle Rabbit Travel
Founder at Turtle Rabbit Travel
Follow Gareth Thomas:
About Turtle Rabbit Travel: Turtle Rabbit brings you a totally new way to experience the U.S.A. Grab your mates and join our RV fleet, exploring the best of America.
Diego Pinna
Founder of Mavel
Founder at Mavel
Follow Diego Pinna:
About Mavel: Buy quality package tours directly from top travel agencies in China
Diego Pinna
Founder of Mavel
Founder at Mavel
Follow Diego Pinna:
About Mavel: Buy quality package tours directly from top travel agencies in China
Aris Spiliotopoulos
Director & Co-Founder of LuxOlympus Mayfair
Follow Aris Spiliotopoulos:
About LuxOlympus Mayfair: LuxOlympus Mayfair is a boutique Travel Agency authorized and regulated by the TTA (Travel Trust Association).
Aris Spiliotopoulos
Director & Co-Founder of LuxOlympus Mayfair
Follow Aris Spiliotopoulos:
About LuxOlympus Mayfair: LuxOlympus Mayfair is a boutique Travel Agency authorized and regulated by the TTA (Travel Trust Association).
