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 Streaming 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.
Efe Cakarel
Founder & CEO of MUBI
Efe Cakarel is a Turkish entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of MUBI, an online film service. Previously, Cakarel worked with Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he worked on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. Cakarel obtained his bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1998, and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2005. Cakarel was a contributor to The Huffington Post. He also has two patents involving the monetization of web applications.
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About MUBI: MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor.
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Nick Sabine
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Resident Advisor
Nick Sabine is the co-founder of Resident Advisor (RA). Established in 2001, RA enables the discovery of new music and events through a unique combination of original content and listings. By providing a platform for artists, promoters and fans RA connects the global dance music community and plays an indispensable role in supporting the electronic music industry worldwide.
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About Resident Advisor: RA is an online music magazine and community platform that’s dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe.
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.
Oliver Reason
CEO of Giggl
Oliver Reason is the CEO of Giggl, revolutionizing online interaction. Oliver started programming at a very young age, and earning money at 11. He is now building on his own company as well as consulting others.
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About Giggl: Watch and browse together with your friends and teams. Your new portal into the internet.
Nick Jeffery
CEO and President of Frontier Communications
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About Frontier Communications: Frontier Communications Corporation is an independent provider of telecommunications services that offers voice, data, and video services.
George Meek
CEO of InPlayer
CEO at InPlayer
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About InPlayer: InPlayer is a video and digital asset monetization platform.
Kevin Brown
CEO & Founder of FanCircles
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About Brandaisy, FanCircles: Reach followers and fans through your own fan club platform built for music artists, YouTubers, television shows and celebrities
Adrian Pearmund
Founding Partner & CEO of Cablato
Adrian has been working in programmatic marketing since 2010. Founded Intelligent Futures independent trading desk in 2013 and subsequently Cablato in 2015. Strong media and business background (LBi, KPMG, WPP) proven success at building innovative businesses.
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About Cablato, Conviva: Cablato develops and deploys broadcast quality video personalisation technology for OTT & addressable TV industries.
Blaise Bellville
Founder & CEO of Boiler Room
Boiler Room founder Blaise Bellville created a new underground music network quite literally from a utility room. Blaise left school at 18 and founded many businesses before starting the worldwide phenomenon that is Boiler Room, which reaches over 72 million music fans every month worldwide. Beginning as a club promoter and DJ, Blaise’s first business to gain national recognition was All Age Concerts. Founded when he was 25, it kicked off an under-age gig movement across the country, even creating a festival for 10,000 in Victoria Park at the movement’s peak in 2010. In the same era, he created online magazine Read Platform, which was written by and run for teenagers. It was while running his, surrounded by other London music obsessives that Boiler Room was born. Bellville enlisted Thristian Richards, who worked for Soul Jazz and Gilles Peterson and Femi Adeyemi, founder of online radio station NTS and organised a weekly hang out/ session – broadcast from a webcam and Ustream to the world from the utility room in the warehouse it was run out of. The session run by the electronic music scene, for the electronic scene quickly drew big name guests. Jamie XX, SBKRT and Hudson Mohawke all turned up for early session to DJ and hang out. Though Read Platform was drawing 300,000 unique users, Boiler Room soon mushroomed passed it in popularity. Since 2010 it has gone global, with a growing and significant fan base in Latin America, partnership with Japan’s biggest streaming provider, key broadcast hubs in Berlin, New York and Los Angeles and the dedication of the most hard core, committed music fans on the planet.
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About Boiler Room: Boiler Room is an online platform that enables its users to live stream and archive musical shows.
Justin Hsu
CEO / Founder of MarcoPolo Learning
Justin Hsu is one of the founders of Marco Polo Learning.
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About MarcoPolo Learning: MarcoPolo Learning is an award-winning digital curriculum developer for early learners.
Adam Smith
Founder & CEO of Simplestream
Adam Smith is a Founder & CEO at Simplestream.
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About Simplestream: Simplestream is a leading London based provider of live streaming and live-to-VOD services to broadcast and media companies.
Rob Bishop
Founder & CEO of Magic Pony Technology
Rob Bishop is the founder and CEO at Magic Pony Technology, which is now part of Twitter Cortex.
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About Magic Pony Technology: Magic Pony Technology is a technology company that develops machine-learning based approach for visual processing on web and mobile.
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.
Rich Jacobs
CEO of Player+ (PlayerPlus Limited)
Rich Jacobs is Co-Founder & Chief Executive of PlayerPlus (Player+). He is an experienced media, entertainment and sports rights executive, working with broadcasters, publishers, digital media companies and brands. Rich began his broadcasting career as an award winning producer with LBC and talkSPORT. Successfully founding NetFM, the UK’s first independent online radio station, Rich has spent more than 15 years developing business, leading sales, account management and marketing activities for service and solution providers addressing the media, entertainment and sports rights marketplace, including: WRN Broadcast; the US-based interactive television specialist Ensequence, the leading pay-TV specialists Paywizard (formerly MGt), FTSE 100 company Babcock International and SoCloudMedia, a media technology supply chain management company and managed services partner of Microsoft. In 2019, Rich co-founded PlayerPlus (Player+) – a unique, co-operative streaming aggregator bringing together premium content from multiple providers into single genres. Delivered in stand-alone products, direct to consumers. NewsPlayer+ (newsplayerplus.com) beta launched in January 2021. StagePlayer+ (stageplayerplus.com) is coming soon. Follow StagePlayer+ on Twitter @stageplayerplus for updates.
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About : OTT, SVOD, PayTV, Content Aggregators, Direct To Consumer
Neil Martin
Chief Executive Officer of RugbyPass
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About RugbyPass: RugbyPass is a rugby media business that focuses on OTT broadcasting, video, social, audio, and editorial.
Mark Hain
Founder and CEO of DingIt.tv
Mark Hain is the founder and CEO of DingIt.tv.
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About DingIt.tv: DingIt is a leading destination for premium eSports and Gaming content
Paul Bojarski
CEO & Co-Founder of Sceenic
Building the ultimate co-viewing experience for OTT and TV #WatchTogether. Born in Poland, raised in London, lived in Israel, Spain, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Chile. Don’t drink coffee – don’t need it to “wake up”. Product guy. Innovator by observing human behaviour. Building startups since 1998 age 17. Top 20 entrepreneur in VOOM Richard Branson competition 2016 and Winner of the Hype Foundation & TEAM SKY UK Finals Aug 2016. Started Skipworth, first startup in London in 1998, age 17. Secured distribution deals in the US, Europe, UK and in Japan (JV). Most recently CEO of SayYeah, an award winning company of the HYPE Foundation and TEAM SKY UK Competition 2016, Winner of the Wolves Summit ‘Pitch’ Competition, Semi-finalists in the Telefonica “Global Innovation Awards” 2015 and Semi-finalist Top 20 in the Virgin Media #VOOM Pitch to Richard Branson 2016 UK Competition. Previously the Head of MTV LATAM Digital Ad Sales based in Argentina, responsible for double digit % year on year growth and hitting multi million dollar budget, previously MTV London. Also an expert in Ad Ops and Product from AOL UK back in 2004.
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About Sceenic: Watch Together”” software technology for media companies
Paola Marinone
Founder & CEO of BuzzMyVideos
Founder & CEO at BuzzMyVideos.
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About Blackbox, BuzzMyVideos, TechItalia:Lab: BuzzMyVideos is leading martech company that drives hyper-growth & new revenue from and on YouTube.
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
Paul Gardiner
CEO & Founder of Eoovi
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About Eoovi: Eoovi is a Global Video Platform that allows small to large video providers access to our unique compression software.
Drew Thomson
CEO of Live For Football
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About Live For Football: Live For Football is a vertical social network co-owned by the people that make the content that matters most to fans
Toby Heelis
CEO (Co-Founder) of virtuall
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About : Transforming industries by creating innovative products that connect the world more sustainably and profitably.
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.
Nick Tassini
Co-Founder and CEO of NativeVideo
Nick Tassini is the co-founder and CEO of NativeVideo. He is a former senior manager for Cloud First Applications and Salesforce Practice at Accenture.
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About NativeVideo: NativeVideo provides a video recording and browsing solution that is fully integrated into Salesforce.
Nick Tassini
Co-Founder and CEO of NativeVideo
Nick Tassini is the co-founder and CEO of NativeVideo. He is a former senior manager for Cloud First Applications and Salesforce Practice at Accenture.
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About NativeVideo: NativeVideo provides a video recording and browsing solution that is fully integrated into Salesforce.
