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 London based Founder operating in the Interior Design 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.
Mandeep Singh
Co-Founder of Trouva
Mandeep was previously an investor at BC Partners, one of Europe’s largest Private Equity funds, who owned a number of technology and retail businesses, such as Intelsat, Foxtons (where Mandeep was on the board), Phones4U and Petsmart. Prior to that Mandeep was a retail strategy consultant at OC&C and advised Arcadia/TopShop and DFS amongst others, which was where he first saw the impact that online was having on offline retail. During this time Mandeep was seconded to Asda Wal-Mart, helped launch their first small stores. Although he’d say Trouva was his first “start-up”, Mandeep set up his first business, a web development agency, from his bedroom when he was 15. Mandeep studied Physics at Cambridge University and has been interviewed about the future of retail by media such as BBC One (BBC Breakfast News) and The Sunday Times. In his spare time Mandeep is a judge for the Techpreneurs Entrepreneur of the Year awards and an Ambassador for Bright Mentors, which encourages entrepreneurs to mentor secondary school children.
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About Trouva: Trouva, the online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world
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Alex Loizou
Co-Founder, CEO of Trouva
Alex co-founded StreetHub after graduating from the 2012 Cohort of Entrepreneur First. He is an experienced iOS, Javascript and PHP developer, and studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cologne.
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About Trouva: Trouva, the online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world
Glen Walker
Co-Founder & Director of Trouva
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About Trouva: Trouva, the online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world
Jean-Christophe Chopin
Founder and CEO of BORN
A creator and innovator by nature, JC is an entrepreneur who has had a strong presence in online financial services, digital insurance and stock brokerage. He has a wealth of international experience with expertise in the US as well as vast European digital and brand management knowledge. JC pioneered E*Trade Europe and Verisign in the early days of the Internet, and later went on to invest in real estate, time pieces and luxury fashion. His passion for skiing and extreme sports also led him to launch the ‘Carre Neige’ ski insurance within the Savoie region. Most recently, he has married his online finance expertise with his experience in design and luxury brands to create BORN, a B2B global market-network that connects design-led brands with retailers.
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About BORN: BORN is the world’s first private B2B platform that connects a global network of design-led lifestyle brands and retail buyers.
Aneeqa Khan
Founder & CEO of eporta
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About eporta: Europe’s leading B2B commerce platform for the furnishings industry.
Jules Coleman
Founder & CTO of RESI
A key figurehead in her native Ireland’s tech scene – and named in the Irish Independent’s ‘30 Under 30 Shaping Ireland’s Future’ list – Jules Coleman believes in taking a hands-on, direct approach to life and business. In 2012, wishing to set up her own business, Jules spent six weeks teaching herself to code from a paperback book version of Ruby on Rails by Michael Hartl. Two months later she quit her high-powered job as a management consultant and, along with friends Alex Depledge and Tom Nimmo, built and launched Hassle.com. The determined manner in which Jules went about setting up Hassle.com has helped to make her a sought after speaker and commentator on a range of topics including coding, tech education, startups, entrepreneurship and women in business. Since Jules coded and launched Hassle.com the online cleaner booking platform has received $6 million in Series A funding and expanded to France and Ireland. It’s been named startup of the Year in the Tech City News Elevator Awards and listed amongst the Top 10 UK Disruptive Tech Innovators by The Times. Prior to becoming co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Hassle.com, Jules spent seven years working at PWC, Accenture and IBM. Originally from the Republic of Ireland, Jules studied economics at University College Dublin.
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About RESI: RESI produces design packages for homeowners and property developers.
Laura Simpson
Founder of My Bespoke Room
Laura was Strategic Retail Design Director at the high growth beauty SME Liz Earle and during maternity leave developed and launched My Bespoke Room. She had previously worked in senior leadership roles at Apple and L’Oreal.
A commercially creative problem solver by nature, she is passionate about female entrepreneurship, developing teams and thinking differently. She was featured on Sky news and invited to Downing Street to meet the PM in 2019 for International Women’s Day.
Laura and her Co-Founder Diana have built My Bespoke Room up to be the UK’s No.1 rated Interior Design Service and the #1 Interior Design Professional on Houzz UK. They’ve raised £2m in funding from angel investors and Laura says the business’ success is underpinned by their proprietary tech platform that automates 50% of a designers workflow and has API integrations with over 1.2m products. The tech has now been turned into a SaaS tool for other designers.
Laura received a 1st Class MEng in Product Design Engineering from the University of Glasgow. She has been entrepreneurial since a young age and holds a patent for a product she designed in her final year at University.
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About My Bespoke Room: The UK’s No.1 Rated Interior Design Service; PLUS SaaS tool for Interior Designers to streamline and run their own business.
Diana Greenhalgh
Founder of My Bespoke Room
Diana Greenhalgh joined My Bespoke Room as Co-Founder in 2013.
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About My Bespoke Room: The UK’s No.1 Rated Interior Design Service; PLUS SaaS tool for Interior Designers to streamline and run their own business.
Anatoly Alekseev
Founder of Decotick of Decotick
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About Decotick: We save people time and money on decorating their homes
Elena Corchero
Founder & Director of Lost Values
Elena is a former Research Associate on wearables at MIT MLE and Alumni of the Material Futures MA at Central Saint Martins in London. Her work brings science closer to people through the development of lifestyle consumer products using smart materials. “I use every day products as a vehicle to influence and empower smart consumerism. We are surrounded by intelligent devices yet being smart must also reflect being socially and environmentally committed. Innovation should not only be measured by the quality of our means but most importantly the real meaning behind what we create and consume” She presented her research at the MIT Technology Review Emerging Technologies Conference last October and became UK’s top 3 innovators of the year women in tech as well as 2n’d most disruptive business by Prince Andrew initiative Pitch@Palace. She has also recently been appointed as Director of Design Research at Room One Labs to define and explore the intersections between connected objects and virtual environments.
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About Lost Values: LOST VALUES is a Research Studio based in London.
Ioannis Pavlakis
Founder of Metis Seagrass
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About Metis Seagrass: Metis Seagrass creates eco surfaces for healthy interiors.
Alessandro Isola
Founder of Alessandro Isola
Founder at Alessandro Isola
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About Alessandro Isola: High end architectural and product design studio
