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 Reading based Founder operating in the Software 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.
John Lunn
CEO and Founder of Gr4vy
John Lunn is the Senior Global Director of Developer and Startup Relations for PayPal and Braintree. John is focused on innovation, ensuring that developers and startups around the globe have access to the features, functionality and mentorship that they need. Prior to his current work at PayPal, John spent 15 years building systems for payment and fraud detection at several successful start ups.
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About Gr4vy: Gr4vy is a cloud payment orchestration platform that helps businesses manage their payment solutions
Andrew Yeoman
Co-Founder and CEO of Concirrus
Andy is the founding CEO of Concirrus and since then has led the company’s strategy to solve a problem in the insurance industry – how to harness the power of big data and artificial intelligence to improve loss ratios. Andy has driven the vision and product roadmap of the company built a solid customer base and reputation for the business. In 2019 Andy was voted the second most influential person Worldwide in Marine Insurance. Prior to Concirrus Andy had extensive experience in telematics, big data, and insurance in start-ups, turnarounds, and M&A. He’s passionate about discovering new business models that technology can unlock for the insurance market and their customers.
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About Concirrus: Concirrus support digital transformation of the specialty insurance industry using the latest developments in technology.
Vivek Doraiswamy
Co-Founder / CTO of MeVitae
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About MeVitae: Deep tech company helping companies find talent smarter, faster and fairer without unconscious or algorithmic bias.
Tony Abouzolof
Co-Founder &Managing Director of Syncron
Tony Abouzolof is one of the founders of Syncron. Tony Abouzolof has more than 20 years of experience in developing and implementing global supply chain planning solutions. Over the years, it has enabled many leading organizations, such as BAE Systems, Al Futtaim, and Electrolux, to formulate global logistics strategies and carry out the implementation of large-scale supply chain solutions. Tony Abouzolof is a lecturer for many European events; He is known for his leading positions and views on various aspects of international supply chain management. Tony Abouzolof holds a M.Sc. from Cranfield Institute of Technology.
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About Syncron: Syncron empowers the world’s leading manufacturers to maximize product uptime and deliver exceptional after-sales service experiences.
Steve Brazier
Co-Founder of Canapii
As President and CEO of Canalys since its founding in 1998, Steve Brazier delivers in-depth analysis, targeted trends insights and senior counsel to high-tech decision-makers. Now ranked as one of the top 15 global industry analyst firms, Canalys has established successful operations across three continents – Europe, North America and Asia. Steve’s expertise spans the full range of the firm’s research areas including mobility, cloud, IT infrastructure, emerging technology and channel strategy. He is recognized in the technology industry as a leading source of distribution channel trends and routes-to-market strategy. Previously, Steve worked for the Dataquest subsidiary of Gartner, where he held various posts, culminating in Principal Analyst and Associate Director. Prior to 1993, Steve was a consultant for technology research firm INTECO (now Gartner-owned), for which he worked for a time in Norwalk, Connecticut. Steve holds a Joint Honors Degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Bristol, UK. He also completed an International Executive Management Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the United States.
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About Canalys, Canapii: Virtual and Hybrid Events platform
Rita Chaher
Co-Founder of Canapii
Rita leads Canalys’ Global Operations. Upon taking over the position of COO, she has been using her creative vision and excellent insight into company management to further developing the Group’s capability, products, and services. Prior to her current role, Rita has taken different positions across the organization including sales, marketing and leading the company’s flagship event, the Canalys Forum, which attracts some of the world’s most influential technology vendors, distributors, and reseller partners. As a co-founder, Rita’s seek for constant innovation and her keen business insight played a key role in Canapii’s inception and has consequently led to her global responsibility for R&D, operations and for driving strategic growth. The launch of Canapii, is only one of Rita’s latest challenges, and one she faces head on. Rita aims to take Canapii to the #1 spot as the most sophisticated tool for event managers available in the market, and turn it into the leading platform for virtual, onsite, and hybrid events. Previous to joining Canalys, Rita worked in both the international and Argentinean legal market, becoming a member of the Bar Association, and an active member of COLADIC (Latin American Council of International and Comparative Law) and IMLA (International Media Law Association). Before graduating as a lawyer, Rita completed an internship for the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University, where she corresponded with presenters and lecturers of the High Level EU-Latin American and Caribbean Information Society. She also took part in the Media Law Advocate Training Program at Oriel College in Oxford. Rita qualified as a solicitor in Argentina and speaks English and Spanish. She has also completed an Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School.
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About Canapii: Virtual and Hybrid Events platform
Andrew Yates
Founder & CEO of Artesian Solutions
What does Andrew do at Artesian? I am responsible for helping shape our strategy and engagement plans. Our vision is to change the world through the provision of *the* must have app for B2B sales professionals so I have a busy agenda! I am operationally focused and aim to spend as much of my working day with customers, colleagues and our investor community. About Andrew I started as a sports scientist and did a post grad in marketing – I wanted to play rugby for England but only made it as high as England Students. By chance I was asked to join a grad-program which changed my life and opened the door to the most exciting industry on the planet – software! I have been lucky to work with some fantastic mentors: @ SCG learning from Frank O’Rourke; @ Misys learning from Kevin Lomax; @ Cognos learning from Chris Coan, Peter Beard and Ron Zambonini; @ Eyretel learning from Nick Discombe; @ Then learning from Chris Sykes [building my first software business]; @ Aprimo learning from Bill Godfrey; and @ Artesian we have Dr. Steve Garnett as our Chairman and a cast of super talented executives who teach me new things everyday. Outside Artesian it’s all about family and all things petrol.
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About Artesian Solutions: Artesian is the company intelligence service which is changing the way B2B sales people work.
Steve Borthwick
Founder & CTO of Artesian Solutions
What does Steve do at Artesian? I am responsible for helping to shape and implement our strategic business goals through the design, development and roll-out of innovative and market leading software products. About Steve I have over 30 years’ experience in the software and IT services industries, prior to founding Artesian I was CTO of a MRM software start-up “Then-UK” which was successfully acquired by US firm Aprimo. Prior to Aprimo I was CTO of Palo Alto (USA) based analytics software vendor WhiteLight and helped design and develop a market leading multi-dimensional BI/analysis product which was later acquired by SunGard. Before WhiteLight I worked in a number of senior roles for Canadian software firm Cognos in the UK and Europe, both in the product consulting and product development groups. Outside of being a student of the art of making great software and my family I have a wide range of interests which include collecting fine wine, playing guitar and keeping fit.
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About Artesian Solutions: Artesian is the company intelligence service which is changing the way B2B sales people work.
Lukas Neumann
Co-Founder, Chief Engineer & Architect of Invenias
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About Invenias, MEMOS Software, University of Oxford: Invenias provides software solutions to the executive search and strategic recruitment sector.
Tim W Cummins
Chief Software Architect & CoFounder of Swoogo
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About Swoogo: Swoogo is a fast-growing event management software company.
David Vernon
Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Ecrebo
David is responsible for driving customer focus into all aspects of Ecrebo’s business to ensure retention, satisfaction and loyalty. David has a track record of establishing new operations, leading teams and executing major projects from inception to delivery. As Ecrebo Co-Founder, David also has significant experience with managing processes and platforms. Prior to founding Ecrebo, David had more than 10 years’ experience in management and finance for leading fund management companies including De Putron and Amiri Capital.
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About Ecrebo: Ecrebo is a point of sale marketing platform.
Simon Corley
Co-Founder & CFO of CloudApps
Simon is a co-founder of CloudApps and is responsible for Finance, Administration & Operations and brings over 18 years of relevant experience to this role gained whilst working at Salesforce, Siebel Systems and Informix. Prior to founding CloudApps, Simon spent over 6 years at salesforce.com, joining in 2003 before its IPO. Simon has been a member of the European Management team since hire and initially was responsible for the company’s Finance and Administration for EMEA. In 2007 Simon was promoted to Vice President, Operations for EMEA, and in 2009 to Vice President of Strategy for International Sales. Simon’s focus was to optimise sales performance through targeted go-to-market strategies, coverage models, and evaluation of sales execution. Prior to joining Salesforce, Simon spent 6 years at Siebel and 5 years at Informix within the European Finance functions, providing infrastructure support to enable explosive growth in their sales teams. Simon is a Chartered Accountant who gained his professional qualification with Deloitte and Touche in London in 1990. He has a BSc in Geography from King’s College, London University. Simon is married with two children and lives in Hampshire, UK.
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About CloudApps: CloudApps increases sales performance by motivating more of your high-value, winning sales behaviours
Scott Wattie
Co-Founder and Group Commercial Director of iDefigo
Scott has a passion for innovation development and product commercialisation in the security and wireless sectors. Scott has held leadership roles within software development, carriers and consultancy businesses. Additionally he has played leadership roles within the New Zealand wireless industry, including a period as President of the New Zealand Wireless Forum. Scott has the ability to think both strategically and executionally as the need dictates. Scott has a strong bottom line orientation and he is a positive leader. Scott spends his time travelling between New Zealand, Australia, America and Europe, developing strategic partnerships within the Telecommunication industry and evangelising the business.
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About iDefigo: iDefigo offers M2M surveillance solutions that help monitor and protect assets for global enterprise and government customers.
Paul Swaddle
Chairman & Co-Founder of Pocket App Limited
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About Pocket App Limited, The Supper Club, Westminster City Council, Westminster City Council: Pocket App is the UK’s Leading Mobile Development Agency, based in the heart of London.
Daniel Gipple
Co-Founder and CEO of BetterPoints
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About BetterPoints: BetterPoints is a platform – a ‘Software as a Service’ (SAAS) – for motivating positive behaviour change through smartphones.
Omer Dawelbeit
Founder of OfficeMA Timesheet
A high caliber IT professional, technology Evangelist and Entrepreneur. Founder @ http://www.officema.co.uk. Founder @ http://www.myworldapp.co.uk. Developer @ http://ecarf.io
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About OfficeMA Timesheet: Provider of cost effective cloud based time tracking and reporting for individuals and teams.
Ed Bradley
Co -Founder & Director of Virtualstock
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About Virtualstock: Fast-growing technology company providing digital supply chains solutions across the retail and healthcare sectors.
Paul Volkaerts
Founder and CEO of Nervecentre Software
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About Nervecentre Software: Nervecentre Software brings clinical applications to mobile technology within acute hospitals.
Steve Lucas
Founder and Managing Director of Skillstream
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About Skillstream: Skillstream is the leading contingent workforce management technology.
Rob Skidmore
Chief Product Director and Co-Founder of CarVue
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About CarVue: CarVue is simple but smart automotive management software in the cloud.
James Galloway
Co-Founder and Director of IC Resources
James Galloway is the co-founder and director of IC Resources.
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About IC Resources: IC Resources develops and delivers insightful and relevant recruitment solutions to the technology community.
Marcin Ryzycki
Co Founder of MILLION12
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About MILLION12: MILLION12 Ltd develops projects based on Neos CMS publishing platform, including the Typostrap.io
Jianbo Mao
Founder & CTO of ebpSource
As Chief Technical Officer, co-founder Jianbo has been responsible for overseeing many of the world’s leading and most successful e-billing reference application deployments across the financial services, payments, telecoms, government, utility and outsourcing sectors. Formerly Director of Technical Client Services at CheckFree, Jianbo has also held senior technical roles with Tandem Computers, Compaq and Rubus Consultancy. Jianbo holds an MSc in Computing from North Eastern University, China.
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About ebpSource: ebpSource is the most experienced team in the international electronic billing and payment industry.
Jianbo Mao
Founder & CTO of ebpSource
As Chief Technical Officer, co-founder Jianbo has been responsible for overseeing many of the world’s leading and most successful e-billing reference application deployments across the financial services, payments, telecoms, government, utility and outsourcing sectors. Formerly Director of Technical Client Services at CheckFree, Jianbo has also held senior technical roles with Tandem Computers, Compaq and Rubus Consultancy. Jianbo holds an MSc in Computing from North Eastern University, China.
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About ebpSource: ebpSource is the most experienced team in the international electronic billing and payment industry.
