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 Messaging 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.
Michelle Kennedy
Co-Founder & CEO of Peanut
Michelle joined Badoo originally as lead counsel over 4 years ago. Prior to joining Badoo she was a successful corporate lawyer at leading international law firm, Mishcon de Reya, before being poached by the firm’s successful biotech client, Quotient Bioscience to head up their legal team. During her time at Badoo, she built the legal, compliance, HR and talent teams before moving into a more operationally focused role, including a position on the board. Today, Michelle is responsible for most key areas of the business, and works closely with founder and CEO Andrey Andreev, on the existing product, and exciting ‘special projects’ coming soon….
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About Peanut: Peanut is an online platform that provides a safe space for women to connect across fertility and motherhood.
Damien Tanner
Co-Founder of Pusher
Damien Tanner is a Founder at Konf and Rebase Ventures.
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About Konf, Pusher, Rebase Ventures, thoughtbot: Pusher Ltd. provides a hosted API service for adding real-time bi-directional.
Max Williams
Co-Founder & CEO of Pusher
Max has spent the past 5 years running the London-based Ruby on Rails development shop New Bamboo, with his co-founder [Damien Tanner](http://crunchbase.com/person/damien-tanner). Their latest company is a realtime messaging service called Pusher (http://pusherapp.com), which was incubated inside New Bamboo. Max is passionate about realtime technology, and has the goal of making it more readily available for everyone.
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About Pusher: Pusher Ltd. provides a hosted API service for adding real-time bi-directional.
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.
Serge Alleyne
Co-Founder & CEO of Shipfix
Serge Alleyne is a co-founder and CEO at Shipfix.
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About Nomao.com, Shipfix: Shipfix operates as a data and community platform that helps with the operational efficiency in the maritime industry.
Antoine Grisay
Co-Founder and COO of Shipfix
Antoine Grisay is a co-founder and COO at Shipfix.
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About Shipfix: Shipfix operates as a data and community platform that helps with the operational efficiency in the maritime industry.
Peter Tanner
Founder & CEO of Boomerang Messaging
Peter has had over 20 years experience in setting up and running telecommunications companies. Moving across to technology communications solutions 10 years ago he cut his teeth providing SMS services to a range of organisations. Whilst developing the business he identified an opportunity in the use of Identifications numbers across digital messaging. Boomerang’s success and use of this threading technology within its unique product set along with its subsequent global patent family, are as a result of Peters singular vision and determination to evangelise and commercialise this exciting new intelligent digital communications solutions for business’s globally.
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About Boomerang Messaging: Boomerang Messaging offers automated digital communications over SMS, e-mail, and voice that enables management of time.
Eli Katz
Founder & CEO of XConnect Global Networks
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About ITSPA, XConnect Global Networks: XConnect provides interconnection services driving the adoption of IP-based multimedia communications.
James Fabricant
CEO & Founder of Emoticast
James is CEO at Emoticast where we are on a mission to bring the universe of popular culture (music, sounds, interactive content, you name it) into your chat stream making the communication more engaging and emotive. Formerly James was the Founder of IdeaPlane and served as its CEO. Prior to founding IdeaPlane, he was one of four founders of MySpace International and played an integral part in its global expansion, which included launching MySpace sites in 17 languages across 30 countries. He qualified as a corporate finance and private equity attorney at leading international law firm Linklaters which included a secondment at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Fabricant holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Law from Cambridge University.
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About Emoticast: Emoticast is a platform to share music GIFs with sound across all platforms.
Bobby Simms
Founder of Emoticast
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About Emoticast: Emoticast is a platform to share music GIFs with sound across all platforms.
Beau Lotto
Founder of Traces
Beau Lotto is the Founder and CEO of Lab of Misfits, the world’s first neuro-design studio. Uncertainty and the brain’s need to resolve it is essential for thinking about not only branding and business, but design, leadership and innovation. Misfits is a team of scientists, designers and producers who discover the essential questions about the nature of uncertainty. Their work provides a deeper, scientific basis for an organisations DNA & Strategy, creates content that expands PR & marketing potential, and strengthens its internal and external relationships. By focusing on how the perceptual brain resolves the fundamental challenge of uncertainty, The Lab of Misfits gives audiences and clients the opportunity to create … and more than this … to embody innovation. Their results inform and transform. They have worked with the Edelman Group and TJ Max, Golin and L’Oreal, and are currently working Cirque du Soleil. Beau is one of the few speakers to have given two TED talks, which have amassed over 6 million views combined. He has also spoken at Google’s Zeitgest Minds, Wired, G8 and made significant programme contributions to BBC’s Horizon, National Geographic Channel and PBS in the US. In 2017, Beau published a new major popular science book, Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently. He draws on over two decades of pioneering research to explain that our brain didn’t evolve to see the world accurately. It can’t! Visually stunning, with entertaining illustrations and optical illusions throughout, and with clear and comprehensive explanations of the science behind how our perceptions operate, Deviate will revolutionise the way you see yourself, others and the world. With this new understanding of how the brain functions, we can apply these insights to every aspect of life, love and work. Deviate is not just an illuminating account of the neuroscience of thought, behaviour and creativity: it is a call to action, enlisting readers in their own journey of self-discovery.
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About City University London, Goldsmiths, University of London, Lab of Misfits, New York University, Ripple, Traces: Traces lets you share digital messages anywhere in the world. To get messages, you have to be in the right place at the right time.
Jim Dutton
Co-Founder of Sotro
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About Gravity Not Applicable, Sotro: Search and connect with new people, to chat with via Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Snapchat, Kik and Line.
Peter Nixey
Founder of Copyin
Peter Nixey is a Coca coder and the founder and CEO of [Twistilled.com](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/twistilled#/entity). He is also a part time partner at [Entrepreneur First](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/entrepreneur-first) and an alumni of YCombinator. Previously, he founded [Clickpass](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clickpass#/entity), product-managed teams at Yell labs, built a new mailing list application called [Copyin](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pingpanel), and built the infrastructure for Brojure.com. Peter Nixey has a PhD in computer vision from University of Oxford.
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About Copyin, Twistilled: Ever feel your team dragged down by its own email? Or like an on-call librarian, dredging up old messages to bring new hires up to speed?
Sean Nolan
Founder & CEO of Blink
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About Blink: We make remote working less remote. Welcome to the Frontline of the Future.
Henry Hyder-Smith
Founder and CEO of Adestra
Henry has been working within the email marketing industry since its inception. As co-founder, Henry leads the board of Adestra and has a unique understanding of different clients’ needs, industry issues and development. Henry has a hands-on approach, and is devoted to keeping Adestra’s products, services and staff at the cutting edge of email marketing.
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About Adestra: Adestra is a trusted provider of First-Person Marketing solutions for global and growing brands.
Steve Denner
Founder and COO of Adestra
Steve is highly experienced in developing and delivering email solutions, having led teams responsible for bringing five email applications to market. Since co-founding Adestra, Steve is focused on ensuring Adestra’s platform continues to be today’s best email marketing system and that Adestra’s clients receive the best support.
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About Adestra: Adestra is a trusted provider of First-Person Marketing solutions for global and growing brands.
Justin Ashurst
Co-Founder, CTO & COO of AppInstitute
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About AppInstitute, Peckish: AppInstitute is a software developer of a digital framework for small businesses to create their own mobile applications.
Ian Naylor
Founder & CEO of AppInstitute
Ian Naylor is Founder & CEO at AppInstitute.
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About AppInstitute: AppInstitute is a software developer of a digital framework for small businesses to create their own mobile applications.
Matthew Wiggins
Founder & CEO of Mojiworks
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About Mojiworks: Mojiworks is a video game developer for mobile social platforms
Alan James Harding
Founder & CTO of Mojiworks
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About Mojiworks: Mojiworks is a video game developer for mobile social platforms
Max Adamski
Co-Founder and CPO of Jigsaw
Max Adamski is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Jigsaw.
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About Jigsaw: Jigsaw develops a dating app that covers the user’s face in a jigsaw puzzle.
Alex Durrant
Co-Founder and CEO of Jigsaw
Alex Durrant is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jigsaw.
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About Jigsaw: Jigsaw develops a dating app that covers the user’s face in a jigsaw puzzle.
Anton Gu
Founder of Hitch
Founder at Hitch
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About Hitch: Hitch is a mobile messaging application
James William Middleton
Founder of Boomf
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About Boomf, Ella & Co: Boomf is an initial product, Boomf is a quite simply a better way to send a sentiment.
Fabian Blaicher
CTO & Co-Founder of Shipamax
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About Shipamax: Shipamax provides seamless fleet and deals management for operators and brokers.
Jenna Brown
CEO & Co-Founder of Shipamax
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About Shipamax: Shipamax provides seamless fleet and deals management for operators and brokers.
Douglas Orr
Founder and CEO of Novastone Media Ltd.
Douglas Orr, CEO and Founder of Novastone, has over 20 years of entrepreneurial background including multiple successful exits to companies such as GfK and Sungard. Douglas has founded world-renowned businesses with operations spread over many European countries and created revolutionary new technology in both the retail and financial industries.
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About Novastone Media Ltd.: Bridging the gap between advisors and clients via messaging centred solutions
Stefan Richter
Founder of muchosmedia
Stefan is the founder and managing director of muchosmedia ltd (founded in early 2008), a UK based software company which specialises in real-time enabled web applications, with Scribblar.com being one of the examples. Over the past few years Stefan has established himself as a sought after industry expert and consultant for Flex and Flash Media Server, and his personal blog FlashComGuru.com is one of the largest resources covering Flash Video and related technologies on the web. Stefan is the co-author of ‘Hands-on Guide to Flash Video’ published by Elsevier in 2007 and he continues to speak at many industry events including Adobe MAX and Streaming Media Europe.
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About Membermeister, muchosmedia: Muchosmedia develops software solutions, focusing on video integration and real-time collaboration through websites.
James Gill
Founder and CEO of GoSquared
James Gill is a Founder and CEO at GoSquared.
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About GoSquared: GoSquared is a platform where businesses can communicate with their customers through analytics, CRM, live chat, and marketing automation.
Khaled Mardam-Bey
Founder and Developer of mIRC
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About mIRC: mIRC is an internet relay chat software that enables its users to communicate and share content with others.
Christian Huhnt
CEO and Co-Founder of Artwishlist
Christian Huhnt is the co-founder and CEO of Artwishlist. He is also a fine art adviser. He earned his master’s degree at London School of Economics and Political Science.
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About Artwishlist: Artwishlist is a messaging app for the art world, where the user can buy and sell fine art without commissions.
Dimitrios Hermann
CFO and Co-Founder of Artwishlist
Dimitrios Hermann is the CFO and co-founder of Artwishlist. He used to be a consultant, performance management and analytics at Capgemini Consulting. He earned his master’s degree at London School of Economics and Political Science.
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About Artwishlist: Artwishlist is a messaging app for the art world, where the user can buy and sell fine art without commissions.
Ken Banks
Founder of FrontlineSMS
Ken Banks is the founder of [Frontline SMS](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/frontlinesms) and [Kiwanja.net](http://www.Kiwanja.net). He specializes in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He combines over 22 years in I.T. with over 15 years experience living and working throughout Africa in countries including Kenya, Nigeria (where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In 1999 he graduated from Sussex University with honours in Social Anthropology with Development Studies His vision is to empower others to create social change, and he does this by developing and providing tools to mostly grassroots organisations who seek to better use technology in their work. In 2007 he hit headline news on the BBC when his text messaging application – FrontlineSMS – was used to help monitor the Nigerian Presidential elections. Since launch the software has been successfully implemented in over forty countries including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Pakistan Ken has recently been interviewed by the BBC World Service, The Economist, BBC News Online, The New York Times, Nokia, Mongabay.com, The Africa Journal, White African and the Sussex University Alumni magazine, among many others, and he was recently invited to take part in an Aspen Institute round table discussion on the use of mobiles in activism and civic engagement. Ken has written about his work, and the wider role of mobile technology, for a number of publications including Pambazuka News, Didactics World and Vodafone Receiver magazine, and has a regular online column in PC World. He has also acted as an official judge for the Global Mobile Awards, the Mobile Messaging Awards and his own nGOmobile initiative, and is a regional judge for the 2008 Adjudication Panel for the African ICT Achievers Awards Programme He has spoken about the application of mobile technology at a number of conferences, workshops and organisations including Nokia, IDEO, Stanford University, the MacArthur Foundation, Amnesty International and the University of Arizona. He has also presented papers at the W3C Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries (Bangalore, 2006 and Sao Paulo, 2008) and the 16th International World Wide Web Conference (Canada, 2007), where he also sat on a specialist panel discussing web delivery models for emerging markets. Ken also spoke at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (2008), and delivered a keynote address at Mobile Messaging 2008 in Cannes Ken was recently awarded grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Open Society Institute (OSI), and has been short listed for two mobile industry awards for the development of FrontlineSMS. Between 2006 and 2007 he was based at Stanford University as a Visiting Fellow on the Reuters Digital Vision Program. He currently spends his time between Cambridge (UK) and Stanford University in California.
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About FrontlineSMS, Kiwanja.Net: FrontlineSMS is free, open source software.
Yaw Asamani
Founder and CEO of DooWapp
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About DooWapp: An API and App to add playable lyrics to any part of your message to express yourself with music you love
George Asamani
Co-Founder and COO/CFO of DooWapp
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About DooWapp: An API and App to add playable lyrics to any part of your message to express yourself with music you love
George Asampong
Co-Founder and CTO of DooWapp
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About DooWapp: An API and App to add playable lyrics to any part of your message to express yourself with music you love
David Marsden
Co-Founder and Acquisitions Director of The Technology Group
David Marsden is the co-founder and acquisitions director of The Technology Group. He is a former managing director at Admiral Solutions Ltd.
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About The Technology Group: The Technology Group is a managed communications provider that specializes in voice over IP, video, chat, and collaboration technologies.
Jonathan Marsden
Co-Founder and CEO of The Technology Group
Jonathan Marsden is the co-founder and CEO of The Technology Group. Prior to joining The Technology Group, Jonathan served as a director at Admiral.
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About The Technology Group: The Technology Group is a managed communications provider that specializes in voice over IP, video, chat, and collaboration technologies.
Jimi Ayoku
Founder of Globr messenger
Founder at Globr
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About Globr messenger: Chat freely with friends and family in any language.
Joseph Boyle
CEO & Co Founder of Salt Communications
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About Salt Communications: Salt is the first company to provide a holistic solution for closed encrypted communications between modern smartphone users.
Jasmin Ward
Co-Founder of Cribber
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About Cribber: Cribber is a communication platform.
Abhishek Mishra
Founder of Tring : Augmented Reality Messaging
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About Tring : Augmented Reality Messaging: Tring is a mobile app that allows users to send Augmented Reality messages to each other
Mark Hay
Founder, CEO, and CTO of Melrose Labs
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About Melrose Labs: Communication services inception, development and operation. Enabling and optimising communications. #CPaaS #SaaS #UCaaS #APIs
Kevin Ansiau
Founder of Kisapp
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About Kisapp: Kisapp is an app that helps users to protect and encrypt their personal data.
Andreas Constantinou
CEO & Founder of VisionMobile
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About VisionMobile: VisionMobile is the leading analyst firm in the developer economy.
Alex Everitt
Founder of Condelo
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About Condelo: Chatbot powered customer support for your website
Gary Dean
Founder and CEO of QUiZL
A serial entrepreneur with a background in technical project management. He also has spent over 20 years creating live video art under various pseudonyms. He is the designer and architect of Quizl and has a huge talent for UI/UX design. He has also recently graduated from the Founder Institute London cohort.
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About QUiZL: A live multimedia quiz app with speech recognition that enables users to turn their phone time into real prizes.
Tim Redgate
Co-Founder of EchoMany Limited
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About EchoMany Limited: The UK’s leading 1:1 personalised video platform.
Thelma Kalentzoti
Founder, Managing Director of Shoutcube
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About Shoutcube: Shoutcube is a chat app that will change the way the user communicates.
Richard Wheatcroft
Co-Founder of Yappback
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About Yappback: Yappback is an app that allows reaction based video messaging.
Martin Carfrae
Co Founder / COO of cheerapp
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About cheerapp: A realtime messaging app to facilitate contact, help, service and sales, anonymously, for smartphone users in close proximity.
Martin Carfrae
Co Founder / COO of cheerapp
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About cheerapp: A realtime messaging app to facilitate contact, help, service and sales, anonymously, for smartphone users in close proximity.
Andrey Abramov
Founder of Tetatet
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About Tetatet: Tetatet – Anonymous Messenger offers anonymous communication within Facebook friends. It also may be used as a normal messaging app.
Mark Sorsa-Leslie
CEO & Co-Founder of Beringar
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About Beringar: Beringar is a technology has revolutionised the way they live and work.
Max Mitchell
Creator, Founder of Crypter
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About Crypter: Facebook Chat Encrypter
Max Mitchell
Creator, Founder of Crypter
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About Crypter: Facebook Chat Encrypter
James Wheare
Founder of IRCCloud
Founder at IRCCloud
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About IRCCloud: IRCCloud is a modern, always-connected IRC client that works on mobile and the web
James Wheare
Founder of IRCCloud
Founder at IRCCloud
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About IRCCloud: IRCCloud is a modern, always-connected IRC client that works on mobile and the web
