©Startups magazine. All right reserved
©Startups magazine. All right reserved
Owner of Bloom
Stephanie Melodia, named in the UK’s Top 20 Most Influential Female Founders, is the owner of brand marketing agency, Bloom – building early-stage, high-growth tech business with clients in the UK’s Top 5 Startups of the country. Bloom’s work has been featured in the likes of The Independent, Sifted, Startups Magazine and Startups.co.uk to name a few.
Stephanie is also the host of the founder podcast, Time to Bloom (Available on Apple Podcast and Spotify) and the Bloom Presents event series; an entrepreneur-focused series of biannual talks, including the sellout feminist panel events for International Women’s Day every March, and business/marketing sessions in September.
Stephanie is also contributing to Startups Magazine and has been interviewed by Tech.London, ComputerWeekly.com, Enterprise Nation, General Assembly, Creative Entrepreneur, Linkedin, Found & Flourish, SheAlmighty, Roundhouse, Tiger Heart, Authority Magazine and The Hunter Collective for her expertise and opinions on the fields of entrepreneurship, the London Tech scene, feminism, and marketing/creativity
Group Technology Evangelist at Harvey Nash Group
David started his career as a technology recruiter, and spent a decade exploring the role people play in shaping the sector, before being asked to step into the role of Group Technology Evangelist for the Harvey Nash Group; he is responsible for helping share the best thoughts and insight from acorss the Harvey Nash Group with the wider market.
A regular event speaker, host and moderator David regularly writes for industry publications, appears on and hosts technology-focus media channels and hosts the ‘Tech Talks’ podcast.
Tech Talks is a regular member of the Apple Podcast top 50 tech podcast chart, attracting thousands of listeners each month from a diverse community of tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. To date over 475 episodes have been published.
His voice and standing in the sector was recognised in 2018, with David being named Computing Magazine’s Digital Ambassador of the Year.
He has a passion for tech, sci-fi, Newcastle United and truly awful films.
Founder of Dreamweaver
From photography to exhibitions, book publishings, and Apple endorsements, Zac Des has become a go-to contact for some of the world’s most renowned brands. His popularity amongst London crowds can be accredited to his signature street style photography which promoted the launch of his book “A Chelsea Story.”
Since then Zac has gone on to host parties, exhibitions, fashion week events, as well as assist brands on various projects, always exceeding expectations. Zac later went on to found Zac Des Brand; which serves as a branding, marketing, and consultancy firm for UHNWI’s and their business interests.
In 2021, Zac debuted the long-awaited podcast, “Would You Like A Podcast” on Apple Podcasts. His latest project, Dreamweaver serves as a multifaceted creative agency working with a vast array of companies, individuals and brands.
Digital Marketing Consultant and Apprentice Finalist
Lewis Ellis is a digital marketing consultant born and bred in the heart of Manchester. In 2019 Lewis featured on BBC’s ‘TheApprentice’ making it to the Final Five in a bid to win Lord Sugars £250,000 investment.
Since the show, Lewis has returned to marketing and has decided to take the plunge and setup his own digital agency with a difference! Fed-up of the uninspired, tedious and quite simply, boring marketing modus operandi, Lewis aims to ‘shake things up’ and harness his naturally disruptive personality to inject brands with a more effective strategy that invites consumers into the business.
Lewis is also working on his side-project travel startup and has co-founded ‘Hiddin Travel’ with Luke, a friend that also used to work overseas prior to studying at university. This brand-new and stylish travel company targets the ever-evolving and complicated millennial/GenZ market now demanding more from their vacations.
Cooden Tax Specialists
Category Sponsor
We are a niche tax consultancy, founded by Simon Bulteel, an ACCA qualified accountant in 2013, to support businesses of all shapes and sizes to prepare robust, successful and financially rewarding claims for Research and Development Tax Credits. Simon has been involved in claims since 2005. Cooden’s first piece of work was to defend an InsureTech from an enquiry from HMRC, whilst at the same time increasing their claim. Since then, the growing team have worked with a number of Tech startups and scaleups operating within Cybesecurity, Payment Data, Virtual Reality Design and most recently a Global Positioning Start-up.
Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre
Supporting Sponsor
The Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre’s history dates back to 1870 where we started as a business desk in Guildhall Library. Fast forward to 2020, midst a pandemic we became the first point of contact for small business enquiries for the City of London Corporation.
Our Mission is to create and grow sustainable businesses in the UK by providing access to essential business data and tailored business support.
Our small business start-up support service is available to all start-ups and small businesses throughout the UK. We can provide you with access to specialist business information and market research. We also offer business support events and provide expert assistance to help you start and grow your business.
Instagram or @businessresearchenterprise
Twitter or @sbrec_
Anglia Unicorn
Headline Sponsor
Anglia Unicorn is an independent design engineering focused electronic component distributor with a made-to-measure service. We are a division of Anglia geared to helping companies access the resources and technologies needed to take a great idea from the drawing board to a finished, marketable product.
Whether you are a start-up, entrepreneur, university spin-out, technology investor or an established company looking to design and launch a new product, Anglia Unicorn is tailored to provide you with comprehensive engineering support, extensive supply chain expertise and access to evaluation hardware and software tools along with samples of the latest innovative technologies from our world class partners, all free of charge. Our company ethos is to provide a bespoke service that enables you to be at the forefront of the latest technology trends. We can help you to not just push, but totally redefine boundaries.
Anglia Unicorn understands that by carefully listening to your needs, ensures we effectively translate your ideas and then using our knowledge we can speed up the success of your tech design in every aspect. We offer support at every stage from design chain through to supply chain from day one to year ten and beyond. As the product moves from the design concept to the manufacturing phase we will be there asking the right questions and taking you through the product cycle, enabling you to take your idea from the drawing board to prototype stage then onto mass production.
Find out how Anglia Unicorn can help accelerate your product design and launch today, visit www.anglia-live.com/unicorn/
Author & Founder of Purposeful Group
Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL is a software delivery specialist, global tech startup mentor, author and speaker. She has published 5 books for entrepreneurs and SMEs, and has been recognised on the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector, and as a finalist for the BTA Lifetime Achievement Award, 2022.
Kay is the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group, an international community and centre for learning focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training which includes the Tech Startup Academy™, Freelancer Academy™ and Digital Careers Academy™ brands.
The company supports and empowers entrepreneurs around the world through its bestselling books, professional mentoring, and specialist workshops and programmes, and works on local and national programmes in the UK to support career builders and digital upskillers.
Operations Lead at Uber
Shammi Raichura is an Operations Lead at Uber where he is responsible for unlocking and operationalising growth opportunities for the UK business.
His current role as head of Cities puts him at the intersection between a company at the forefront of building technology changing the way we live, and the external business and policy enviornment evolving to meet its demands.
Investor Relations & Platform Manager at PropTech1.
Tzvete Doncheva is the Investor Relations and Platform Manager at PropTech1 Ventures, one of Europe’s first ESG compliant PropTech venture capital funds. She leads on fundraising and platform activities in non-German speaking markets, fostering connections with property investors, who seek to better leverage technology in their portfolios. Through her work, she helps to strengthen the fund’s brand across the continent. Her experience in VC includes being on the investment team at a supply chain-focused fund and in a platform role at the VC spin out of multinational real estate investment manager Round Hill Capital. Tzvete is a firm advocate for bridging the gender gap in venture capital and technology, a non-exec trustee at Girls in Charge and founder of a project, that aims to help tackle the issue of closed networks in VC and help increase female representation at founder and funder level.
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Liana is the is the Founder & Inspirer-in-Chief at Inspiration Space.
Known as the Inspirer-In-Chief to colleagues and peers, Liana has helped over 150 entrepreneurs transform their business dreams into realities.
A champion for women in business, Liana is on a mission to democratise entrepreneurship for the progress of all.
Founder of the LMF Network.
Sonya Barlow is an award winning entrepreneur, founder of the @LMFnetwork, author of Unprepared Entrepreneur, diversity business coach, BBC radio host and Linkedin Changemaker. Her efforts are focused on bridging the skills gap and creating inclusive cultures.
“Strategically Winging It” is her famous tagline as a result of three successful chapters of LMF Network in 18 months. Utilising social media, she has engaged an audience as far as ~60K with her charmingly witty remarks. All the while carrying her Pakistani heritage proudly, she has drawn attention to the social stigmas faced by the under-represented community of BAME. Having been raised amongst an average working class family, she has understood the importance of leading as a successful role model to encourage inclusion and stapled this to the forefront of all her business collaborations. Sonya is a multi hyphenated individual – sharing her expertise through consultancy, training, community building, workshop facilitation, a 5* podcast and articles.
Author & Founder of Black Women in Tech
Flavilla Fongang is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, an international and multilingual keynote speaker. She is the founder of 3 Colours Rule, an award-winning branding and marketing agency. Flavilla was awarded the “She’s Mercedes” businesswoman award by Mercedes Benz among women such as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. She is the author of “99 Strategies to get customers”. She is also the founder of Tech London Advocates – Black Women in Tech.
She published in October 2021 “The Voices In The Shadow”. A book that features stories of black women in tech and is distributed to secondary schools for FREE across the UK and Ireland. The Voices In The Shadow Volume 2 will be coming back in 2022. She is a judge at the AWS Software Startups Awards 2022. Flavilla Fongang is a recognised leader in marketing as she created the D.A.C. system and The Beyond Marketing Approach which have helped numerous brands successfully grow their business. Flavilla is the chosen brand advisor for BBC and provides actionable brand strategy advice.
She has been a keynote speaker for the most prestigious international events, such as AdWeek, HubSpot, DMWF, MozCon, AdWorld, Upgrade100, CTA, MarTech and many more.
Code Untapped CEO
Impact X Founding Member, Principal & CTO in Residence.
A tech founder with over 15 years experience in FinTech. Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital.
He is currently a Founding Member, Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.
He is the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events.
He is a former Co-Founder of Neyber a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial wellbeing, where he was the founding CTO and held numerous roles during his tenure including brand ambassador and NED.
Ez also advises a number of boards. He is an advisor to the board of UKITL (UK IT Leaders Network), Albany Group and the Venture Studio from Crisis who invest in, support and create ventures to end homelessness. Ez is also on the steering committee for Spring the centre of excellence for the Water industry.
Founder of Klowt.
Amelia Sordell, 31 is a speaker, start-up founder, and personal branding expert living in London.
Originally from Australia, Amelia kicked off her career in Public Relations before, by her own admission she discovered she was in fact “unemployable”.
Her desire to be in charge of her own career and live by her own rules led to launching her first business at the age of just 21. The womenswear brand she founded grew quickly in success and after just 12 months in business was stocked in 12 online and instore boutiques and had large retailers like ASOS courting to stock the clothes. Unfortunately, in year 2 Amelia lost everything. She was forced to clothes the doors on her business and that chapter in her life.
Amelia’s fast-growing agency, Klowt has already made a dent in the space operating on a 100% inbound model and working with Startup Founders to SkyBet’s leadership team. Klowt is set to be the agency in the personal branding space, and the business has big plans to build the personal brands of the next Elon Musks, Mark Zuckerbergs and Grace Beverleys.
Founder of Dream Factory.
Graham has spent the last decade in the world of startups. In his previous company, Startup Van, he interviewed over 3,000 founders face to face, producing the most viewed business content in Europe.
His latest venture Dream Factory is the only content creation house dedicated to founders which has exploded in popularity since it’s launch in September last year. Some of the best UK startups are Dream Factory members and regularly create content in Dream Factory’s film, photography and podcast studios.
Director of Climb Online & Apprentice Winner
Mark is an influential entrepreneur and self-taught digital marketing specialist and speaker, who won the BBC show The Apprentice in 2014.Mark is CEO of one of the UK’s fastest growing digital marketing agencies, Climb Online, which he launched with Lord Alan Sugar’s backing after winning The Apprentice in 2014. After winning The Apprentice, the company went to turning over £1.7 million in his first year of trading.
Founder of Brandable & Co.
Sallee is one of the UK’s leading people-brand experts, founder of award-winning strategy agency, Brandable & Co. and on a mission to make business more human. Professional experience consists of 20+ years navigating the world of high-level business and brand building. Sallee has held CEO and COO positions, headed up international projects and delivered brand strategy and advisory board roles to a high-profile client list.
Consultant for SMEs in Engineering, Science & Technology.
Now an independent consultant, Jeremy is perhaps best known in the industry as having co-launched the UK’s largest annual advanced manufacturing, technology and supply chain event, Advanced Engineering.
He has an extensive background in bringing together OEMs, SMEs, and startups to facilitate innovation in automotive, aerospace, medical technology, energy, and other sectors vital to the UK economy. He continues to contribute to Advanced Engineering and regularly curates its Enabling Innovation Awards, working closely with Innovate UK/KTN, Innovation DB, and Startups Magazine.
Before this, Jeremy spent over a decade working across multiple business units for FTSE100 giant RELX PLC (formerly Reed Elsevier), developing academic and corporate markets for information services including ScienceDirect, The Lancet, and Drug Discovery Today.
Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Fora
Fora is re-imagining the way a working environment can support ambitious, innovative and high growth businesses. The result is a portfolio of design led, premium workspaces that support the needs and ambitions of some of the most exciting businesses in the world, through driving productivity, wellbeing and collaboration.
Founded by Enrico Sanna and Katrina Larkin, Fora’s story began with the development of the first site in Old Street which opened in February 2017. Fora currently occupies 12 buildings, with secured pipeline for 2020 and beyond
A pioneer in the festival world, Katrina co-founded The Big Chill Festival in 1994. The event grew to become an internationally recognised brand. In the process, The Big Chill spawned an entire industry of similar events and boutique festivals in the UK. In 2013 Katrina began working with Brockton Capital Fund II L.P. on the redevelopment, rebranding and curation of Camden Lock Market, with great success. In 2014, Katrina joined Market Tech, overseeing 16 acres of Central London real estate.