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 Restaurants 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.
Anton Soulier
Founder & CEO of Taster
Anton Soulier is the Founder of Taster. He is a former Business Development, Business Operations Manager, Regional Manager, and Deputy General Manager France at Deliveroo. Mr. Soulier received a master’s degree in Finance at NEOMA Business School.
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About Taster: Taster is a food delivery company that operates dozens of restaurants that only exist on food delivery platforms.
Jason Torres
Co-Founder & CTO of Slerp
Jason Torres is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Slerp.
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About Slerp: Slerp is an e-commerce platform for the hospitality industry.
Nick Telson
Co-Founder of DesignMyNight
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About DesignMyNight: DesignMyNight.com is a nightlife discovery website.
Asad Khan
Founder & Owner Snowflake Luxury Gelato of Snowflake Luxury Gelato
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About Snowflake Luxury Gelato: UK producer, wholesaler and retailer of luxury gelato.
Kelu Liu
Founder & CEO of HungryPanda
Kelu Liu is the Founder & CEO at HungryPanda.
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About HungryPanda: HungryPanda is a Chinese food and grocery delivery company with extensive market coverage.
David Abrahamovitch
Founder & CEO of Grind
The first of the Grinds, Shoreditch Grind was born when David turned a stand-alone perfectly circular building perched on the edge of Old Street Roundabout, into an Espresso Bar. A UCL Economics graduate, David has extensive business experience in previous roles.
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About Grind: Founded in Shoreditch in 2011, Grind & Co. has since opened espresso bars, cocktail bars, restaurants and recording studios across London.
Peter Georgiou
Founder and CEO of Supper
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About Supper: Delivering London exceptional food.
Mohammad Khodadadi
Founder / CEO of SATIS.AI
Mohammad Khodadadi is a Director/Chief of data, Technologist, Entrepreneur. Mo is an accomplished technologist and entrepreneur with over 15 years of industry experience that includes building and managing large teams, designing complex AI oriented data architectures, and leading high-growth intelligence-driven businesses. His interests include applying artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts to health and biotech and developing cognitive ecosystems capable of contextual deduction from data for actionable suggestions. Prior to joining Babylon, he founded and ran um.ai, a food advisor that tracks/suggest what you eat. He was also CTO at Klappo, a semantic platform for food ingredients, enabling the development of applications that help people to make educated choices about what they consume. He completed his PhD in Computer Science, speciality in formal methods, and his MSC in Bioinformatic at The University of Manchester. He is also one of the first of 100 tech exceptional talent visa holders in the UK and the winner of sirius enterprenurship competition by UK Trade and Investment ministry.
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About SATIS.AI: Food that makes sense | Delicious, Nutritious and affordable, while green and fair
Alessandro Savelli
Founder, MD and CEO of Pasta Evangelists
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About Pasta Evangelists: Pasta Evangelists is freshly made by Italian hands every day.
Chris Rennoldson
COO, Co-Founder, Head of Operations and Finance of Pasta Evangelists
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About Pasta Evangelists: Pasta Evangelists is freshly made by Italian hands every day.
Finn Lagun
Co-Founder & CMO of Pasta Evangelists
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About Pasta Evangelists: Pasta Evangelists is freshly made by Italian hands every day.
Gary Goodman
Founder & CEO of Yumpingo
Gary Goodman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Yumpingo.
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About Yumpingo: Yumpingo is an internet company that specializes in customer engagement and analytics platforms designed for the Hospitality Industry.
Igor Svehla
Co Founder & CEO of Trakbar
Igor Svehla is the Founder at Trakbar .
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About Project 3 Mobility, Trakbar: Smart business intelligence and predictions for bars & restaurants
Jeremy Hibbert-Garibaldi
Founder & CEO of Collectiv Food
Founder and CEO at Collectiv Food .
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About Collectiv Food: Collectiv Food is an automated and sustainable food supply chain that provides businesses with transparency and lower costs of ingredients
Shane Lake
Co-Founder and Managing Director of hungryhouse
Shane Lake is co-founder and managing director at Hungryhouse.
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About hungryhouse: hungryhouse is a U.K.-based online platform for takeaway and food delivery that provides a wide range of cuisines and dishes.
Neil Potts
Founder of The Vurger Co.
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About The Vurger Co.: The Vurger Co. is one of the UK’s fastest-growing vegan food brands.
Rachel Hugh
Co-Founder of The Vurger Co.
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About The Vurger Co.: The Vurger Co. is one of the UK’s fastest-growing vegan food brands.
Tsewang Wangkang
Co-Founder of Embargo
Tsewang is the visionary. Tibetan by origin, born in India and raised in Switzerland, his background is multi-faceted. He studied finance at the University of Zurich and went onto work in London, Hong Kong and Switzerland for several, multi-national bulge, bracket banks. He has spent over nine years in Investment Banking at JP Morgan and UBS, where he led a number of major mergers and acquisitions as well as capital market transactions. Tsewang also established the regional franchise and promoted strategic equity solutions in Europe. As co-founder of Embargo, one of his key strengths is knowing how to lead the business, identify its needs, as well as find solutions. Since launching the business, Tsewang implements his high-level expertise to continuously drive innovation across all elements of the company.
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About Embargo: Beacon powered loyalty app and SaaS/CRM system for hospitality businesses and customers
B. Nick Popovici
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Vita Mojo
B. Nick Popovici is the Co Founder and Managing Director of Vita Mojo.
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About Founders Pledge, Vita Mojo: Vita Mojo’s menu allows anyone to eat for anyones’ individualized needs.
Stefan Catoiu
Co-Founder & COO of Vita Mojo
Stefan Catoiu is the Co-Founder and COO of Vita Mojo.
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About Vita Mojo: Vita Mojo’s menu allows anyone to eat for anyones’ individualized needs.
Christian Mouysset
Co-Founder of Tenzo
Christian leads our day-to-day sale, while managing our UK business. Prior to Tenzo, Christian founded a chain of restaurants and corporate popups based in central London . There Christian brought his software training to make his business more efficient. He is also an influential figure in London retail, founding Start Me Up, a group of 100+ hospitality and retail entrepreneurs. Christian studied Computer Science and Economics at the University of Cambridge.
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About Tenzo: Tenzo is a management platform that gives hospitality and retail businesses actionable insights from their real time data.
Izaan Khan
Co-Founder (Blockchain + Legal) of Dyne
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About Dyne: Dyne is building a digital hospitality platform to redefine the outdated experience at restaurants, bars, and cafés around the world
Jean-Philippe Chomette
Founder of Algonquin Management Partners
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About Algonquin Management Partners: Algonquin Management Partners operates hotels.
Ronnie Somerville
Founder of 5pm.co.uk
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About 5pm.co.uk, simpleERB: 5pm.co.uk is an online lifestyle site that provides free booking for restaurants, health and beauty spas, and daily 5pm Big Deals.
Dennis Collet
Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer of Orderella
Dennis Collet is the CEO and co-founder of Orderella. He is also the COO of Kaiser Advisory ltd. He earned his master’s degree at Copenhagen Business School and his bachelor’s degree at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
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About Orderella: Orderella is the leading mobile ordering and payment platform for the hospitality industry available in the UK.
Mike Hill
Founder of One Planet Pizza
Mike has set up and help run 3 successful businesses including a £500,000 turnover Customer Insight and Market Research company and a successful vegetarian restaurant. He has over 25 years’ experience at a senior management/Director level, working in the leisure, hospitality and food/beverage industry.
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About One Planet Pizza: One Planet Pizza is a frozen vegan pizza company.
Preeya Khagram-Nasim
Founder of HotBox London Ltd
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About HotBox London Ltd: HotBox is a barbecue restaurant.
Basit Nasim
Founder, Chairman of HotBox London Ltd
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About HotBox London Ltd: HotBox is a barbecue restaurant.
Adrian Maseda
Co-Founder & COO of Cheerfy
Adrian has worked for many years for large corporations like Nortel and Aricent Group in various Business Management and Sales roles. Adrian then became an entrepreneur: Co-Founder @ We2 (Social Wifi), Founder @ Protos (an advisory firm). Adrian is now focused is his latest project, Cheerfy. Adrian believes in using technology to solve problems and reshape how things work. In particular, he sees opportunity in the intersection between social and hyper-localised interactions in a mobile world.
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About Cheerfy, Protos Global Services: The new way restaurants sell post-COVID
Joel Braham
Founder of The Good Egg
Joel Braham is a Founder at Good Egg Restaurants.
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About The Good Egg: Good Egg Restaurants operates as a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner.
Krupa Patel
Founder of DeliveryCube
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About Delivery Club, DeliveryCube: Delivery Cube is a technology consulting firm that specialises in developing solutions for large multichannel retailers and e-commerce.
Rob Hall
Founder & CEO of Wriggle
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About Wriggle: A web and app marketplace helping people discover and transact at handpicked local food & drink establishments.
James Courtney
Founder and CEO of Lux Rewards
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About Lux Rewards, Lyfe: LUX is a rewards app that will connect fine diners with hand-picked local restaurants.
Simon Kelton
Co-Founder & Director of pepperhq
Simon is a relentlessly determined, passionate and ambitious entrepreneur, writer, film producer and angel investor with twenty-five years of broad-ranging creative and business experience. With an exceptional international network of friends, colleagues, investors and commercial contacts, Simon is able to combine his visionary creativity and communication skills as a professional writer to guide and sell his companies strategic goals and products. He has founded, financed and managed eight companies in entertainment, technology, publishing, event management and the snowsports industry. He has Master’s Degrees from Oxford, Stanford and UCLA and is a member of the British Academy of Film and TV. As a professional writer, Simon has published two books, written more than thirty screenplays for Hollywood including the British hit comedy EDDIE THE EAGLE starring Hugh Jackman and produced by Matthew Vaughn, and penned numerous articles for the likes of TIME, the Daily Mail, Sunday Telegraph, Harpers and Queen, and Worth.com. An avid and competitive sportsman, Simon represented Oxford University at golf, is a member of the Royal & Ancient G.C. and the Queen’s Club, has ski guided for the Ski Club of Great Britain, and taken part in the British and World Extreme Snowboarding Championships.
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About pepperhq: The Pepper platform supports white label apps for mobile payment, discovery, digital loyalty, social media marketing, and actionable data.
Raymond Blanc
Founder of Brasserie Bar Co
Raymond is responsible for the creative direction of the menus at Brasserie Blanc. He has been pivotal in the events that have launched the new restaurants to the public, representing the brand to the press and local community. He works with Executive Chef Clive Fretwell to ensure that the dishes are not only superb in quality and flavour but also use seasonal, sustainably sourced ingredients. Raymond is best known as chef-patron and chairman of Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, the two-starred Michelin hotel-restaurant in Oxfordshire. Raymond is a best-selling author, and his BBC television series have included the Very Hungry Frenchman and Kitchen Secrets. In 2008 Raymond was made an OBE and is one of only three Frenchmen ever to receive the award.
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About Brasserie Bar Co: Brasserie Bar Co operates within the premium casual drinking and dining market in the U.K.
Dominic Dumont
Founder of Keuken Ltd
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About Keuken Ltd: New take away concept opening in London in 2015
Hara Mihailidou
Founder of Todelli
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About Todelli: Todelli discover unique high quality fine food & drinks products directly from the makers.
Tristan Hogg
Founder and Managing director of Pieminister
Moved quickly from washing dishes to becoming apprentice chef at a Broxton hall hotel in Cheshire and then jumped at the chance of moving to London to set up the kitchen at Jon Simons (My business partner and Brother in Law) newly opened bar. Headhunted a few years later to work on music tours, became a chef to bands such as The Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams.
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About FareShare, Pieminister: Pieminister is a Bristol-based family business known for making award winning pies.
Jon Simon
Managing Director & Founder of Pieminister
Taking Pieminister from humble beginnings into a thriving business has been an incredibly enjoyable journey. With Pieminister’s focus in the UK’s vibrant and competitive fast casual dining sector we have had to think differently and be obsessive over our customers. Together with the rest of a team of very talented people, Pieminsiter has become a highly respected, market leader in high quality pies and a unique restaurant operator with exceptional food and service levels.
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About Good Sixty, Pieminister: Pieminister is a Bristol-based family business known for making award winning pies.
Faisal Haque
Co-Founder of Wrap It Up
Faisal Haque is Co-Founder at Wrap It Up.
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About Wrap It Up: Established in 2006 and operating in the growing healthy fast food market.
Emma Reynolds
Founder of Tonkotsu
Emma Reynolds is the founder of Tonkotsu.
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About Tonkotsu: Tonkotsu is a UK-based operator of ramen restaurants.
Daniel Rodgers
Founder & CEO of QikServe
Daniel is a serial entrepreneur involved in a number of ventures before seeing an opportunity to disrupt global hospitality with digital self-service. Daniel has delivered on market opportunities, such as kiosk, to ensure QikServe is on the digital pathways that lead to mobile self-service.
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About QikServe: QikServe is the enterprise platform for guest self-service in hospitality.
Dan Houghton
Co-Founder & Burrito Mathematician of Chilango
Dan has a first class degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University – and although Eric might have the finance degree he can’t compete with Dan’s mathematical genius. Dan used to work at Skype with Eric. Before that he worked in mobile marketing and content and was the founder of TextMagic, an online text messaging service. These days he’s full-time at Chilango of course, acquiring and opening new restaurants, reviewing the numbers, the finer detail of the food and operating systems, and generally making sure the wheels don’t come off.
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About Chilango: Chilango is an online mexican food ordering platform.
Alex Wolpert
Founder of East London Liquor Company
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About East London Liquor Company: East London Liquor Company is a distillery producing and importing a range of quality spirits including gin, vodka, rum and whisky.
Prithvi Dhanda
Founder, CEO of Sentiment Search
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About Sentiment Search: The next generation of review insights for restaurants.
Fiona Houston
Co-Founder of Mara Seaweed
Co-Founder & SeaEO passionate seaweed expert, she still loves to get her feet wet harvesting, when not running the business.
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About Mara Seaweed: Scottish company based in Edinburgh selling a range of native seasonal seaweeds of Scottish and Irish provenance.
Ben Portsmouth
Co Founder and CEO of Andromeda POS
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About Andromeda POS: POS , Digital Ordering and Cloud Services for Delivery Restauarants
Scott Simpkin
Co-Founder of Buzzer Feedback
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About Waggle-It: Buzzer is a customer feedback company which provides restaurant management with a high volume of private, specific and verified feedback
Dom O’Neill
Co-Founder and CTO of Buzzer Feedback
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About Buzzer Feedback: Buzzer is a customer feedback company which provides restaurant management with a high volume of private, specific and verified feedback
Murray McNicol
Founder/CEO of spoonfed
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About spoonfed: Spoonfed is a software-as-a-service catering software
Matt Pritchard
Product & Co-Founder of Waffle
Matt Pritchard is a Co-Founder at Sellar and Waffle.
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About Sellar, Waffle: Waffle is an intelligent Messenger chatbot that enables restaurants to maximise their revenue through dynamic pricing.
Rory Williams
Founder of Voodoo Chicken & Spice
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About Voodoo Chicken & Spice: Voodoo Chicken & Spice develops a tasty menu that aims to satisfy taste buds.
Ruth Dronfield
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Atlantic Kitchen
The most common question I am asked as the Managing Director of Atlantic Kitchen is ‘How did you get involved with seaweed?’This is a fair question as for ten years I was an Event Manager running large-scale outdoor events in London and around the UK. I was on the senior management teams that run Field Day, Bestival, Winter Wonderland, BST Hyde Park and I also ran my own little production company for more exclusive private parties and mini-festivals. But the roots of Atlantic Kitchen run far deeper. I was born to hippy alternative parents in London, who took me on marches and dressed me in corduroy dungarees and certainly didn’t cook ready meals. I was brought up on home-cooked food and deprived (to my profound annoyance at the time) of pop-tarts, stringy cheese and shop-bought cakes. I was definitely the only kid in my class who had crumbly wholemeal bread sandwiches instead of nice, neat white ones. My mum is vegetarian so I was exposed to vegetable-based meals of rice, stews, salads, curries, quiches, lasagna and bakes. I grew up with the assumption that a mainly vegetable, pulse and grain diet was healthy, sustainable and normal. So, when my friend Dawn told me about her idea to set up a seaweed business to promote good eating and living, something resonated. That was in December 2012.Since then we launched a range of three dried seaweed products (here), crowd-funded, done deals with brilliant suppliers in France, Spain and Ireland, launched a range of three soups with seaweed (here) and are now stocked in over 150 stores in the UK including Wholefoods, Planet Organic and Ocado. See here for more stockists.It’s a huge challenge and a great honour to run Atlantic Kitchen and share the wonderful word of seaweed and its’ myriad of taste and health benefits with the world.
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About Atlantic Kitchen: Atlantic Kitchen was set up in 2012.
Dave Thompson
Founder & CEO of Magictab
Dave Thompson is Founder & CEO at Magictab.
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About Magictab: MagicTab is a visual, interactive tabletop menu that makes food look beautiful.
Stephen Boyes
Founder and COO of Kurve Kiosks
As a devout technical engineer within IT businesses, I was thrown into the hospitality IT sector in 2000 when I acquired what later become known as, “EPoS Group”, growing it to become a thriving and well-known national player delivering solutions to household names including Chester Zoo, Parkdean Resorts, and Crussh. Following my successful sale and exit of EPoS Group (now re-branded Cunnighams Epos Group) in 2015, I’m now back in the hot seat as COO for Kurve, our vibrant self-serve and kiosk software solutions business which is shaping the UK’s adoption of self-serve across kiosk, online and mobile in the restaurant and hospitality sector.
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About Kurve Kiosks: Bringing the best-in-class self-serve solutions for quick service restaurants & the hospitality sector.
Martin Williams
Founder and CEO of M Restaurants
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About M Restaurants: M Threadneedle Street; our award winning, multifaceted venue, houses two restaurants: Grill & Raw.
Andrés Pérez Torres
Founder of Sfier
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About Sfier: Sfier is an intelligent management platform for bars and restaurants.
Johnny Smith
Co-Founder of St. Vibes
Johnny Smith is Co-Founder at St. Vibes.
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About St. Vibes: St. Vibes owns and operates restaurants and bars in London, United Kingdom.
Johnny Smith
Co-Founder of St. Vibes
Johnny Smith is Co-Founder at St. Vibes.
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About St. Vibes: St. Vibes owns and operates restaurants and bars in London, United Kingdom.
Isaac McHale
Co-Founder of St. Vibes
Isaac McHale is Co-Founder at St. Vibes.
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About St. Vibes: St. Vibes owns and operates restaurants and bars in London, United Kingdom.
Damian Hall
Co Founder of Apparier
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About Apparier: Apparier is a Pre-Pay premium dining experiences website.
Rob Martyniak
Director & Co-Founder of Meatcure Restaurants
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About Meatcure Restaurants: Meatcure is a restaurant that provides fast food and is located in Harborough, England.
Jeremy Roberts
Founder of New World Trading Company
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About New World Trading Company: New World Trading Company is a fast-growing pub and restaurant business headquartered in Knutsford, Cheshire.
Andy Chan
Co-Founder of Hotcha
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About Hotcha: Hotcha operates Chinese food takeaway and delivery stores in the United Kingdom.
Alex Philips
Founder of Advenjo
Founder at Advenjo
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About Advenjo: Advenjo Unveils A Social Networking Platform For Travel Enthusiasts
Omar Allibhoy
Founder of Tapas Revolution
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About Tapas Revolution: Tapas Revolution is a UK restaurant chain offering Spanish tapas cuisine.
Farid K
Co-Founder of KtchUp
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About KtchUp: KtchUp is your one-stop app to create a group chat with your contacts, vote for restaurants you would like to eat at, and book!
