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 Founder operating in the Professional Networking 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.
Maisie Williams
Co-Founder of Daisie
Maisie Williams is best known for her portrayal of Arya, one of the few Starks left standing in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Off-screen, Maisie is the co-founder of Daisie, a social networking site making it easier for creatives to network, share ideas, and collaborate on projects. She is also a powerful advocate for women’s rights, and hopes Daisie will open doors for women in all sectors of the creative industry.
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About Daisie: Daisie is where creators learn together.
Dom Santry
Co-Founder & CEO of Daisie
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About Daisie: Daisie is where creators learn together.
Tim Groot
CEO and Co-Founder of Grip
Tim is an entrepreneur at heart, having started his first company at the of age 17. He graduated with a BBA in International Management from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His passion for the app development space eventually lead him to co-found Grip in 2014. Tim is also a member of Founders of the Future.
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About Grip: Grip is a market engagement platform used by event organizers to create virtual and live event experiences.
June Angelides
Founder and CEO of Mums in Technology
Named the 15th most influential woman in tech by Computer Weekly, June Angelides is the founder and CEO of Mums in Technology, which partners with industry to provide an immersive learning experience that encourages new mothers to take their children to school with them while they learn to code. She founded the company in 2015 when on maternity leave from Silicon Valley Bank, where she held roles as an associate for accelerator growth and an associate for entrepreneur banking. Most recently, Angelides joined Samos Investments as a VC and was appointed chair of the Future Skills Programme. She is also the founding ambassador for the FiftyFiftyPledge and mentor and advisor to startups.
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About Mums in Technology, Samos Investments: Mums in Technology is a child-friendly digital skills training company for mums.
Ashley Friedlein
CEO & Founder of Guild
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About Ably Realtime, Cambridge Judge Business School, Centaur Media Plc, Econsultancy, Founders4Schools, Guild: Guild is the platform for professional communities and networking.
Jason Kingdon
Co-Founder of Telectic
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About Blue Prism, Telectic: Telectic applies artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret the Web and discover insights about the professional world.
Iain McLaren
Co-Founder of Telectic
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About Telectic: Telectic applies artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret the Web and discover insights about the professional world.
Pip Jamieson
Founder & CEO of The Dots
Pip Jamieson is the Founder & CEO of The Dots (https://the-dots.com), a professional network for people that don’t wear suits to work -‘dubbed “The next LinkedIn?’ by Forbes. Delightfully Dyslexic with a distinctive marmite laugh (you either love it or you hate it) Pip was named by The Sunday Times as one of the Top 100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs innovating in their respective fields & as one of the trailblazing leaders having a positive impact on the world. Being a dyslexic sole female tech founder, Pip has put promoting social responsibility and helping business build diverse teams at the heart of everything they do! 68% + of The Dots community is female, 31% + BAME & 16% + LGBT+. The Dots also do a lot of work around socioeconomic diversity and neurodiversity to fuel a more balanced industry of the future.
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About The Dots: The professional network for people who don’t wear suits to work.
Charles Sekwalor
Founder of Movemeback
Charles Sekwalor is Founder at MoveMeBack. Entrepreneur, mentor, advisor and investor focused on building startups that drive change and positively influence people’s lives.
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About COS Vetures, Mindsmeet, Movemeback: Movemeback is the community that connecting talented professionals, leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Oyin Solebo
Founder of Movemeback
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About Mindsmeet, Movemeback: Movemeback is the community that connecting talented professionals, leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Matthew de la Hey
CEO & Co-Founder of inploi
Matthew is co-founder & CEO of inploi, a recruitment marketing platform built to connect great employers with the future of the workforce. With employer branding at its heart, inploi empowers companies to speak to candidates as consumers of workplaces, helping them to tell their stories with captivating videos, images, and written content in order to engage active and passive candidates. When actively hiring, inploi’s software is a powerful recruitment tool incorporating job post creation and distribution, applicant tracking, CV-parsing, candidate-job matching, proactive talent search, video profiles, instant messaging, video calling, file sharing, programmatic job advertising and more. For jobseekers, inploi provides a beautiful professional presence making it easy to access career-related information, apply for job opportunities, and connect and communicate with employers, and with each other. Matthew is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar and a two-time Weidenfeld Scholar.
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About inploi: inploi is the future of talent engagement and job discovery.
Clare Griffiths
Founder and Chief Enabler of The Thrive Effect
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About The Thrive Effect, University of Brighton: The Thrive Effect provides business coaching and professional training to aspiring female entrepreneurs.
Dennis Owusu-Sem
Founder of Success Talks
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About Success Talks: Success Talks specializes in consultancy, technology, workshops, events, networking, diversity, and conferences.
Neil Rylance
CEO & Founder of Tahdah
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About Tahdah: Tahdah is a multi-tenant software as a service platform that provides unique benefits and functionalities for each of its different users.
Daniel Coleman
Founder and CEO of FTE Innovation & Startup Hub
Daniel Coleman is the founder and CEO at Future Travel Experience.
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About FTE Innovation & Startup Hub: FTE Innovation & Startup Hub is an air transport innovation network that connects corporate innovators with air transport specific startups.
Bernadine Bröcker
Founder & CEO of Vastari
Bernadine comes from a background in the commercial art world, part of the core team setting up an Impressionist and Modern gallery in London in 2010. She is also a scholar of art history, a graphic designer and originally trained as an illustrator.
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About Vastari: Vastari provides networking tools to connect museums and private sector directly to share information and organize exhibitions worldwide.
Francesca Polo
Co-Founder and COO of Vastari
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About : Vastari provides networking tools to connect museums and private sector directly to share information and organize exhibitions worldwide.
Francesca Polo
Co-Founder and COO of Vastari
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About : Vastari provides networking tools to connect museums and private sector directly to share information and organize exhibitions worldwide.
