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 Gamification 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 โ Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth โ Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management โ Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact โ Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data โ 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.
Rob Whitehead
CPO & Co-Founder of Improbable
Robert Whitehead is the Co-Founder & CTO at Improbable. He worked as Cohort Member at Entrepreneur First. He served as Technical Consultant at McKinsey & Company. He was the Founder of TyroTech Software. He also served as Financial Software Developer Intern at Bloomberg LP.
Follow Rob Whitehead:
About Improbable, Improbable: Improbable is a UK-based games technology company that is dedicated to building powerful technology designed to help problems.
Herman Narula
CEO and Co-Founder of Improbable
Herman Narula is the cofounder and CEO of Improbable, a London-based technology startup born out of Cambridge University. Improbable is creating SpatialOS, a distributed, cloud-based platform for game development that integrates with and augments existing workflows, engines, and tools. SpatialOS empowers developers to build, run and operate previously impossible online games, with unprecedented levels of scale, complexity and persistence. Improbable has investment from some of the worldโs most admired venture capitalists. Improbable currently has a team of over 200 people in offices in London and San Francisco, including top software engineering talent from world-renowned academic institutions and companies such as Google, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Microsoft. Founded in 2012, Improbable received $20m in Series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz in March 2015, with a $30m follow-on led by Horizons Ventures in July 2015. In May 2017 Improbable announced a $502m Series B funding round, led by SoftBank and including Andreessen Horowitz and Horizons Ventures. Herman holds a computer science degree from Cambridge, and is interested in the potential impact that powerful, virtual worlds will have on how they think, play and make decisions.
Follow Herman Narula:
About Improbable: Improbable is a UK-based games technology company that is dedicated to building powerful technology designed to help problems.
Josh DeSeno
Co-Founder of Fish Bowl VR
Josh DeSeno is Founder and CTO at Fish Bowl VR.
Follow Josh DeSeno:
About Fish Bowl VR: Fish Bowl VR is an online platform that assists its users in testing and analyzing VR applications.
Adetunji Adegbesan
Founder/CEO of Gidi Mobile
Dr Adetunji Adegbesan is the Founder & CEO of Gidi Mobile, creators of gidimo, Africaโs leading curriculum mastery & learning-as-a-service platform. Tunji has a First Class Honours degree in Electronic Engineering, and a PhD in Strategic Management from the IESE Business School. He is globally respected as one of Africaโs top scholars of competitive strategy, as well as one of her leading experts on the mobile telecommunications industry. A recipient of multiple awards, he has been invited to speak at knowledge events in more than 20 countries across four continents. Immediately prior to founding Gidi Mobile, he was Director of the Centre for Competitiveness & Strategy at the Lagos Business School (LBS), where he led sessions on Competitive Strategy, as well as on issues arising out of the intersection of Strategy, Technology, and Innovation. During his 14 years at LBS, his consulting experience spanned the software, telecommunications, banking, oil and gas, publishing, logistics, identity management and electronic payments sectors; while prior to LBS, his work experience spanned software development, consulting, information systems management, and electrical engineering, in both manufacturing and service sectors. Tunji is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Review, the worldโs leading conceptual journal in the field of strategic management. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Businessday Newspapers (West Africaโs premier business periodical), and a peer reviewer for several of the worldโs top strategy research journals. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Strategy Division of the global Academy of Management, as well as a past Global Representative for Africa of the Division. He has also been a Representative-at-Large for the Competitive Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society, and a member of the Research and Strategic Planning Committee of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is a past Visiting Scholar & Associate Researcher at the Center for Globalisation and Strategy at the IESE Business School in Barcelona. An amateur historian, philosopher, and student of culture and geo-political affairs, Tunji has native fluency in English and Spanish, and basic literacy in French, Yoruba and Catalan.
Follow Adetunji Adegbesan:
About Gidi Mobile: Gidi Mobile is the creator of gidimo, the developing worldโs leading personal mastery & learning-for-opportunity platform
Kerem Ozelli
Founder, Director of Cygnecode Ltd.
Follow Kerem Ozelli:
About Cygnecode Ltd., d:code:it โ DCODEIT LTD.: Creators of Flick a Trade. London based tech company designs, develops and operates trading games and gamified financial applications.
Dan McGuire
Founder & CEO of cube19
Follow Dan McGuire:
About Broadbean, cube19: cube19 is a cloud-based business intelligence and performance management solution for recruitment and staffing companies.
Katz Kiely
CEO & Founder of We are beep
A award-winning expert in open-innovation, participatory systems design and digital engagement. She converts complex challenges into memorable experiences, smart solutions and strong innovative cultures. Over a 17 year career, she has supported a host of global brands through transformation: including BBC, GSK, HP and the UN. Some highlights. She has: * Helped organisations use digital to evolve, drive efficiency and connect to customers/ stakeholders * Influenced at C- level * Build and led large multi-disciplinary teams and managed multiple service provider * Designed winning pitches, multi-channel strategies and services * Built strong partnerships * Worked in global environments * Grown large and loyal networks As a digital pioneer she has delivered a number of breakthrough projects including: * The first open-innovation competition for Hewlett Packard * A massive transformation project for a UN agency. A visible voice in the digital transformation, innovation and behaviour change arena, she is a regular speaker at global conferences including TED, SXSW and IBC and regularly writes for b2b publications on stuff like this: http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2016/8/18/recruit-change-agents-and-save-11-trillion.html#gs.Cja9aQU She is a proud ambassador for the Burning Man Foundation.
Follow Katz Kiely:
About We are beep: beep (Business Enterprise Engagement Platform), a world changing enterprise platform, that unlocks the wisdom of employees
Helen Walton
Founder. Chief Commercial Officer of Gamevy
Helen Walton is co-founder of Gamevy, a tech start-up bringing gameshows online and who recently launched their first game on Facebook โ Blackjack Attack. As a company, they are employee-owned with no bosses and a democratic decision-making structure. She began her career working in marketing for Unilever before specialising in branding and copywriting for clients ranging from publishers to supermarkets. Helen has written 18 books for Value Flow Quality โ the Agile Practitioner Course approved by the BCS. She has written numerous articles for different magazines and events, including InfoQ, but also on subjects as diverse as make-up in the Mail on Sunday and Henry Mooreโs sculptures for Tate Britain. Helen is one of the organisers of the Spark the Change event which runs in London, 3-4 July. It aims to transform the whole business, not just a part โ allowing us to build more successful businesses, become better leaders and create happy workplaces. Speakers include Tim Harford, Jurgen Appelo and Simon Baker, while companies involved include Unilever, change.org and PropellerNet.
Follow Helen Walton:
About Gamevy: Gamevy is a new start-up, owned by its employees and aiming to follow in the footsteps of pioneering companies who work differently.
