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 Online Portals 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.
Julien Renard
Co Founder of Vetstoria
Julien Renard is the Co-Founder of Vestoria.
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About Vetstoria: Real-time Online Scheduling for Vets
Julien Poublon
Co Founder of Vetstoria
Julien Poublon is a Co-Founder of Vestoria.
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About Vetstoria: Real-time Online Scheduling for Vets
Andrew Black
Founder of Flutter Entertainment
Andrew Black formed Betfair in 2000, together with Edward Wray. The company came about after Black had an idea for a fairer way for people to bet against each other rather than with a bookmaker. He turned his idea into a reality, and in doing so created one of the biggest gambling sites on the internet.
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About Flutter Entertainment, Imagine Fashion Window Shopper: Flutter Entertainment is the world’s leading online sports betting and gaming operator.
Vikram Simha
Co-Founder and CTO of Pouch
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About Global Savings Group, Pouch: Pouch is a technology company that develops tools to save online shoppers time, money and hassle.
Jonny Plein
Co-Founder and CFO of Pouch
Jonny was a member of the University of Nottingham Enactus team for 3 years. During his time within the Enactus team, he ran run an international project in Cambodia, presented at two national competitions and help lead the team as vice-president. Jonny started Enactus Nottingham’s commercial ventures arm by running a student concert called UNIAID. This concert was his first hand experience at trying anything entrepreneurial himself. After University he joined EY on their grad scheme and completed his ACA. Whilst at EY Jonnys’ now co-founder came to him with the idea for Pouch, a free online tool (a browser extension) that automatically sources all the best available voucher codes and automatically displays them as you are shopping online, so you never need to search for a voucher code again. In January 2017 he left EY to work on Pouch full time. In only a few months Jonny and his co-founder managed to achieve quite a lot. They raised funds, won the Mass Challenge start up accelerator and have been featured in publications such as Forbes and The Telegraph.
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About Global Savings Group, Pouch: Pouch is a technology company that develops tools to save online shoppers time, money and hassle.
Kai Feller
Founder & CEO of Bark.com
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About Bark.com: A new better way to buy services online
Andrew Michael
CEO, Director & Founder of Bark.com
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About Bark.com: A new better way to buy services online
Richard Moross
Founder, President & CEO of MOO.COM
Richard is the founder and CEO of moo.com, one of the world’s fastest-growing print businesses. Launched in late 2006, MOO is focussed on disrupting the trillion dollar print industry, with its unique approach to design, technology and operations. This has allowed it to sustain industry-leading NPS, gross margin and top-line growth for a business of its size. To date, MOO has served millions of customers in nearly 200 countries and employs over 400 people across 6 locations in the UK and USA. Before founding MOO, Richard worked for the design company Imagination, other past companies also include sorted.com and the BBC. Richard served on the board of Seedcamp and was a non-Executive Director of Ladbrokes PLC between 2012 and 2016. In October 2016 Richard joined N Brown PLC as a Non-Executive Director. Richard has been featured in the ‘Wired 100’ and ‘Media Guardian 100’ lists, was named amongst the Telegraph Newspaper’s ‘1,000 Most Powerful People in British Business’, and was ranked in the Guardian Newspaper’s top 10 most influential people in digital media. Richard is also an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the Young Presidents Organisation.
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About MOO.COM: MOO.COM is an online print and design company.
David Toplas
Founder and Director of Vesta Property
David has a long track record of innovation in investments which balance social and commercial returns. He has created, built and invested in businesses and run institutional funds as well as established a charity and social enterprise. David enjoys his work, cars and playing hockey.
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About Mill Group, Vesta Property: Vesta (www.vestaproperty.com) is a data-driven marketplace for buying and selling residential investment property.
Avin Rabheru
Founder & CEO of Housekeep
Avin Rabheru joined Smedvig Capital in 2008 and is a Senior Associate. He joined from Roland Berger Strategy Consultants where he worked with senior management teams on corporate strategy projects, operational improvement initiatives and commercial due diligence across a range of sectors in Europe, North America and Asia. Prior to that, Avin worked in M&A at Citigroup and Rothschild. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford. He is currently a board advisor to The Smart Cube, myhomemove, PPC and Exchange Group, and previously worked with the teams at Streetcar and Clearvision.
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About Housekeep: Housework that works – brilliant local cleaners & tradespeople
Max Filippov
Founder of Airfair
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About Accel, Airfair: Airfair is an event platform that provides a virtual event toolkit that enables to engage an audience within an intuitive environment.
Alexander Eid
Founder and CEO of homie.rent
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About homie.rent, Yela: Homie is a tech startup that helps Londoners find great homes to rent.
Sami Eid
COO & Co Founder of homie.rent
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About homie.rent: Homie is a tech startup that helps Londoners find great homes to rent.
Louis Eid
Co-Founder and Sales Manager of homie.rent
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About homie.rent: Homie is a tech startup that helps Londoners find great homes to rent.
Paul Bennett
Co-Founder & CEO of PerchPeek
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About PerchPeek: PerchPeek uses AI to guide people through every stage of their relocation from search to settling in.
Oliver Markham
Co-Founder of PerchPeek
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About PerchPeek: PerchPeek uses AI to guide people through every stage of their relocation from search to settling in.
Anna Rasmussen
CEO & Founder of Open Blend
Anna Rasmussen is the CEO & Founder at OpenBlend.
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About Open Blend: The People Platform for People Managers. Our software facilitates coaching led one-to-ones to support an individual’s development journey
Patryk Pawlikowski
Founder and CEO of Shoplo
Patryk Pawlikowski is VP e-commerce at SumUp.
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About Shoplo, SumUp: Shoplo is an e-commerce platform that helps small businesses sell throughout the globe.
Julian Bourne
CEO & Co-Founder of Sellar
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About Sellar, Waffle: Sellar is the new trade ordering experience for breweries selling beer directly to trade customers.
James Powell
CTO & Co-Founder of Sellar
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About Sellar, Waffle: Sellar is the new trade ordering experience for breweries selling beer directly to trade customers.
Paul Warshaw
Founder and CEO of Greenrush
Founder at GreenRush Group.
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About Greenrush: Greenrush facilitates an online marketplace that enables consumers to connect with cannabis dispensary retailers.
Duncan Cheatle
Founder/CEO of Learn Amp
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About Founders Pledge, Learn Amp, Rise To, Supper Club: Learn Amp is an online learning and performance management platform.
Mark Copeman
co-Founder of Customer Thermometer
Having sold his half share of the marketing agency, Twist Media in 2006 and sold his video production agency, 8:45TV in 2014, Mark has moved away from the agency world and gone on to focus on growing his online business. Customer Thermometer was born in December 2010 and now has 1000’s of users all around the world, ranging from the likes of BT, Sonos and Reed Exhibitions, through to dozens of MSPs in the US. Mark founded the service with his business partner, Lindsay Willott and has grown the business organically, without investment. Mark is responsible for Customer Thermometer’s enterprise sales, whilst keeping an interest in developing content and writing around the subject of customer service – something he’s passionate about. With a good grounding in Internet marketing, he has been selling online for the last 10 years. Mark has now consolidated everything he’s learnt into building Customer Thermometer, but thrives on continuing to learn something new every day. Outside of work, Mark enjoys life in Bray, Berkshire (the home of the Fat Duck restaurant) with his wife, son and daughter. He loves to travel and run (when his knees allow) and likes to pretend he’s cooking for Gregg and John in a Masterchef competition, whenever he can.
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About Customer Thermometer: Customer Thermometer is a survey platform focused on real-time, actionable feedback from customers and employees.
Deepak Ravindran
Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer of Oddbox
Deepak Ravindran is the Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer at Oddbox.
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About Oddbox: Oddbox is a provider of fruit and veg box delivery service intended to reduce food waste.
Rupert Hunt
Founder of SpareRoom
Rupert Hunt is the founder of SpareRoom, the UK’s busiest flatshare site / app (and hot on the heels of Craigslist in NY too), which He launched in 2004 and grew into a multi-million pound business with zero investment and lots of hard work. Rupert Hunt is also a house sharer by choice. Through his own experiences (and over 10 years of hearing those of others) He passionately believe that living with the right people beats living alone. Rupert Hunt is on a mission to spread the word.
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About SpareRoom: SpareRoom is a flat and house share site with over 9 million registered users.
Yiorgos Nikoletakis
CEO & Founder of 100mentors
Yiorgos enjoys surrounding himself with his role models: educators & entrepreneurs. After having worked in 4 US states, Spain, Greece & China, “arguing like I am right, listening like I am wrong” is his favorite motto.
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About 100mentors: We empower today’s youth to consciously take their once in a lifetime decisions & prepare them for the workplace of the future.
Roddy Campbell
Founder of Vrumi
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About Vrumi: Vrumi frees microbusinesses, startups & independent outfits of all sorts from the burden of inflexible and costly conventional office rents.
William Sieghart
Founder of Vrumi
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About Vrumi: Vrumi frees microbusinesses, startups & independent outfits of all sorts from the burden of inflexible and costly conventional office rents.
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.
Akshay Ruparelia
Founder and Managing Director of Doorsteps
Akshay Ruparelia is the Founder of Doorsteps.
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About Doorsteps: Doorsteps is a UK-based online estate agents.
Will Paterson
Founder and Director of EdPlace
Will Paterson led the acquisition of EdPlace in 2011 and its subsequent re-launch in 2012. His working life started in corporate finance in the City of London. He left his finance career 7 years ago and started working online. In 2007 he co-founded and ran Plebble for four years before moving on to EdPlace. The extra support I got from those around him was invaluable through his school and university years. With EdPlace he hope to foster that same support for parents and children alike.
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About EdPlace: EdPlace is dedicated to empowering parents in their child’s education.
Myke Hurley
Co-Founder of Relay FM
Myke Hurley is a co-founder of Relay FM and that British guy you might have heard on podcasts. He has been talking into a microphone since 2010 and lives just outside of London, England with his sticker-covered MacBook Pro. Myke quit his full-time Marketing job in October 2014 to focus on Relay FM full time, and has since gone on to enjoy the pleasures of Aeropress coffee.
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About Relay FM: Relay FM is an independent podcast network that shares content created by its hosts and internet users on a weekly basis.
David Lester
Founder of Startups.co.uk
Serial entrepreneur David Lester has founded and run a number of successful businesses and uses his start-up experience to ensure their site offers you the advice you need to know to succeed.
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About citrusHR Ltd., Startups.co.uk: Startups.co.uk is an online platform that features small business advice and business ideas for startups in the U.K.
Phil Van Tenac
Founder of RTX – Routetrader
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About Ciptex, First Notification, RTX – Routetrader: RTX is the global voice, call centre and SMS exchange hub for 1000’s of telecom operators around the globe.
Salih Bosca
Founder of EtkinlikAlani
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About EtkinlikAlani: EtkinlikAlani is an online platform that allows the user to create and join any online events to expand the user’s horizon
Anita Lee
Founder of IVF Insight
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About IVF Insight: IVF Insight creates a platform of trusted in-vitro fertilization locations.
Daniel Watts
Founder & Managing Director of Aluminati Network Group
Daniel leads the Aluminati team and has overall responsibility for defining the company’s technical and business strategies and with his deep sector knowledge he leads product innovation. Daniel founded the company in 2002 when he graduated from Oxford with an honours degree in Computation. An expert in online engagement, Daniel is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and is in regular attendance at multiple CASE events per year. In his spare time Daniel enjoys the physical and mental challenges of basketball and has also coached the Darwin College ladies team to Cambridge championship titles for 4 consecutive years.
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About Aluminati Network Group: Aluminati Network Group provide online services and platforms to unite alumni, student and member networks.
Daniel Williams
Owner, Founder, and CEO of WIT Fitness
Daniel Williams is the Owner, Founder, and CEO at WIT Fitness Ltd
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About WIT Fitness: Itself as a unique, multi-brand fitness concept store.
Shannon Edwards
Founder of FromAtoSHE
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About FromAtoSHE: FromAtoSHE is a platform to discover women-owned businesses.
Nick Hayward
Co-Founder of The Companion
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About The Companion, The Narrative Digital Studios: The Companion operates an online platform for news and updates about films and television shows.
Thierry Clarke
Founder & CEO of InvestorConnected
Thierry Clarke is the founder and CEO of InvestorConnected. He is also the lead consultant of EBRD. He earned his degree at Queen Mary University of London.
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About InvestorConnected: InvestorConnected is an online community where entrepreneurs and investors combine their resources to build successful businesses together.
Robin Weil
Founder & CEO of Wedding Planner
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About Music Students for hire, Wedding Planner: Wedding Planner has helped over 275,000 brides to realise their dreams – they would love to help you to plan your BIG day.
Nik Wakelin
Founder of Gelato.io
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About Gelato.io: Developer Docs & Portal as a Service
Douglas Higgins
Founder & Director of Mujo Mechanics
Douglas Higgins is the Founder & Director at Mujo Mechanics.
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About Mujo Mechanics: Mujo Mechanics provides smart devices and intelligent cloud platform for a data-driven approach to musculoskeletal health.
Tom Garbutt
Founder and Community Manager of Pobble
Tom Garbutt is a Co-Founder & Community Manager at LendMeYourLiteracy.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Jon Smith
Co-Founder & CEO of Pobble
Jon Smith is a Co-Founder & CEO at LendMeYourLiteracy.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Simon Blower
Co-Founder & Operations Director of Pobble
Simon Blower is a Co-Founder & Operations Director at LendMeYourLiteracy.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Henry Smith
Co-Founder & Lead Teacher of Pobble
Henry has spent the largest part of his life inspiring children to take up their pencils and write. As an English teacher in rural India, a literacy coordinator at his school in Leeds and as a Co Founder of Pobble, his goal hasn’t changed much: to make writing ridiculously exciting.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Henry Dowding
CEO/Founder of Hang
Henry Dowding is the 18-year-old Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hang.
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About Hang: Hang is real-time meeting space booking platform that’s redefining how people meet.
John Mitchinson
Co-Founder & Chief Publishing Officer of Unbound
John Mitchinson is Founder @ Unbound.
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About Quite Interesting Limited, Unbound: Unbound is an online crowd-funded publisher that allows authors to pitch their book ideas directly to readers.
John Mitchinson
Co-Founder & Chief Publishing Officer of Unbound
John Mitchinson is Founder @ Unbound.
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About Quite Interesting Limited, Unbound: Unbound is an online crowd-funded publisher that allows authors to pitch their book ideas directly to readers.
Jinny Chivers
Founder of Cooking With Jinny
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About Cooking With Jinny, Lunar Aerial Imaging: Cooking With Jinny holds online cooking and baking classes for families and colleagues.
Mike Reardon
Co-Founder of Nexus Education
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About Nexus Education: Nexus Education operates an online platform that connects educators and education professionals with each other.
David Kovats
Founder & CEO of Collectorism
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About Collectorism: Collectorism is a global network providing a platform for collectors to showcase and exchange their items.
Richard Sadd
Founder & CEO of MindSauce
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About MindSauce: MindSauce is disrupting the consulting industry by offering world-class expertise on demand
Frederik Wagner
Co-Founder & Developer of Drafthound
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About Drafthound: Drafthound is an online platform for fantasy football gaming activities.
Chris McCann
Co Founder of Pitchbooking
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About Pitchbooking: Pitchbooking is an online marketplace that makes it easy to find sports facilites in your area.
Rebecca Yates
Founder of Rebecca Yates London
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About Rebecca Yates London: Rebecca Yates London is an online store for personalized notebooks, journals, typography, colorful prints, and many more.
Alan Moore
Founder & CEO of Taxworld
Alan Moore is a Founder & CEO at Taxworld.
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About Taxworld: Taxworld Ltd. is a highly innovative publishing company that is a leading supplier of tax legislation and commentary.
Julia Felton
Co-Founder of Everyclick
Julia Felton is a Co-Founder at Everyclick.
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About Everyclick: Everyclick is a search engine that helps users raise money for charity.
Julia Felton
Co-Founder of Everyclick
Julia Felton is a Co-Founder at Everyclick.
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About Everyclick: Everyclick is a search engine that helps users raise money for charity.
Kae Faeff
Founder and chief executive of itscollected
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About itscollected: Online waste collection marketplace based in London
Liam Gilchrist
Founder of Lexical Labs
Liam Gilchrist is the founder and chief executive officer at Lexical Labs.
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About Lexical Labs: Lexical Labs is an AI-powered platform that helps lawyers to review their contracts and generate a counter-proposal.
Maarten Wermers
Co-Founder of DriverHunt.com
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About DriverHunt.com: Help professional drivers find local jobs
Will Taylor
Co-Founder of DriverHunt.com
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About DriverHunt.com: Help professional drivers find local jobs
Jamie Snedden
Co-Founder of Hulah
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About Hulah: Hulah is an online personal travel guru for people who want incredible trips without the hassle of finding them.
Matthew Funge
Managing Director & Founder of Your Stand Builder
Matthew is the Managing Director & Founder of event technology company Your Stand Builder, and currently lives in London. He is a graduate from the University of Manchester who already has valuable experience of living and working in both the USA and France, in addition to various parts of the UK, which has provided him with valuable international exposure already. He is responsible for building and launching the Your Stand Builder platform in March 2019, following more than 5 years’ in an exhibition project manager role preparing 25+ worldwide events annually for his previous employer – an experience which directly led to the YSB idea being born. Matthew is passionate about making a difference in the global events industry, and is committed to continually exploring technological innovation. He has taken YSB from concept all the way through to execution and plans to build upon this in the future through gradually developing the service further.
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About Your Stand Builder: SaaS, online marketplace, web platform
Charlie Saunders
Founder of walkzee
Founder at walkzee
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About walkzee: The first online community connecting shelter dogs who need a walk to dog lovers looking for a walking buddy
Ed Henderson
Founder / Managing Director of Uni2
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About Uni2: Uni2 is the fastest growing student company in the UK.
Ed Henderson
Founder / Managing Director of Uni2
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About Uni2: Uni2 is the fastest growing student company in the UK.
Mohammed Abdulmajeed
Founder of I Give Online
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About I Give Online: Crowd funding online. Made Easy.
Mohammed Abdulmajeed
Founder of I Give Online
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About I Give Online: Crowd funding online. Made Easy.
James Morris
Founder of ParamountZone
James Morris is a Founder at ParamountZone.
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About ParamountZone: Paramount Zone, they have a wide selection of lifestyle accessories, all available to buy securely online with super fast delivery.
James Morris
Founder of ParamountZone
James Morris is a Founder at ParamountZone.
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About ParamountZone: Paramount Zone, they have a wide selection of lifestyle accessories, all available to buy securely online with super fast delivery.
Elspeth Briscoe
CEO & Founder of Learning with experts
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About Learning with experts: Learningwithexperts.com provides a structured virtual learning environment delivering vocational and hobby courses.
Elspeth Briscoe
CEO & Founder of Learning with experts
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About Learning with experts: Learningwithexperts.com provides a structured virtual learning environment delivering vocational and hobby courses.
