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 United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Video on Demand space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Jonathan Curley
Founder & CEO of FurShows
Velivian Fesothe is my artist/furry name, a persona I developed through Second Life to express aspects of who I am.
I started my Tech journey slightly before the Commodore 64 days and surfed the internet back when dial up modems were released just before 56k kbit/s, one of my memories is sitting with my now deceased father where he tried
to teach me to code on the Commodore to animate a hot air balloon or just a balloon to move across the screen.
When I was ready to leave school I was asked what I wanted to do for work at my first school careers interview, I asked if I could work with satellites or in the semiconductor industries, manufacturing microchips/CPUs etc as I’d been intrigued, impressed, and inspired by watching Intel Technicians on TV working in clean rooms. Alas such opportunities we’re out of reach in my town but I’ve never forgotten what I dreamed of and it will always motivate me to learn more.
This is likely why I joke I have a tech/laboratory trolley addiction as I enjoy daily surfing products to see what cool looking items come up.
Around 2002 or so I started an ISIT Course and I’ve been moving in multiple directions over the years picking up skills but not certifications, I’m actively looking to finalise my skillset and collect certifications to prove I’m capable which I hope will lead to the opening up of further opportunities to learn and work in the Tech/3D industries, or will help me with my own projects or opportunities I create myself through my own businesses.
My journey into 3D started when I joined Second Life in 2006 where I started modelling using primitives and became a registered mentor, I then went on to design sims/virtual environment’s for DAZ3D in an effort to develop/transition them into a high-end University, Shopping mall, and Welcome Hub when mesh was added to the service, I then moved away to Open simulator to develop DAZLife.
Around 2016 I was trained as a teacher/trainer, part of a 3d printed motorsport program (The Blair Project) after which I started 3d printing on the Ultimaker 2+ for a none profit social enterprise 3d teaching company I founded in 2016 called FossaLab Technologies, where I helped children get started with 3D using Tinker cad and trained adults in Fusion 360 and Hexagon.
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About FurShows, Glow Raiser, Snack Ferret Studio, The Furry Party: FurShows is a cultural archive and video hosting site for the furry fandom and anthropomorphic fans that aspires to be a streaming service.
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George Meek
CEO of InPlayer
CEO at InPlayer
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About InPlayer: InPlayer is a video and digital asset monetization platform.
Daniel Berg
CEO & Co-Founder of NextUp
Daniel Berg joined NextUp Comedy as CEO & Co-Founder in 2016.
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About ComComedy, NextUp: The home of stand-up, showcasing all the wonders of live comedy worldwide.
Holly Stephens
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Subly
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About Subly: Subly makes content simple, by automatically transcribing, translating, and adding subtitles.
Steve Callanan
CEO and Founder of WIREWAX
Steve was once the youngest TV producer in the UK, creating his first six-part series with record-breaking audience share while still at university. He established his first production company in 2001 and was also producing over 400 hours of branded, short-form content for the four biggest UK lifestyle publishers. During this time, he proposed that online video content should be as “connected” as the rest of the web; linking pixels to people, products and information was the goal. He engineered the world’s first “shoppable” video tool, which led to the most powerful interactive video platform to help hundreds of global brands realise their connected-video potential.
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About WIREWAX: WIREWAX is the leading interactive video technology company.
CEO and Founder Alchemiya.com of Alchemiya Media Limited
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About Alchemiya Media Limited: Alchemiya Media is a subscription based Video on Demand service, offering video content about Islam and Muslims.
Guido Meardi
CEO & Co-founder of V-Nova
Former senior Partner at McKinsey, where he was head of the Organization and Operations Practices of the Mediterranean Complex, Guido has a breadth of business experience and access to senior executives in a variety of industries and geographies, with well-established experience in telecoms, technology, healthcare, insurance, aerospace and defence. He led transformational projects in all continents, and was instrumental in setting up some of McKinsey’s own innovation-related business building activities. Guido is also a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, with many previous business ventures and half a dozen exits. Having retained his engineering expertise, he contributed to the foundational development work for PERSEUS of his co-founder Luca Rossato and is joint inventor of a number of essential aspects of the technology as well as of several of its latest developments, with over 200 patents co-authored and filed. Guido holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, where he was a Siebel scholar, and a M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, where he was an Intel scholar, and University of Texas at Austin.
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About : Next-generation video and image compression that works today
Douglas Lloyd
CEO & Co-Founder of Macademia
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About Macademia: Macademia is an award-winning global EdTech company providing educational programming and games for children.
Mark Reid
Founder & CEO of Renderyard
Founder & CEO at Renderyard
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About Renderyard: Renderyard contains a selection of free to watch movies & short films that include independent film and documentaries from around the world.
Howard Scott
CEO & Co-Founder of PopWorld
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About PopWorld: Live streaming and on demand video pop music news and views.
