As part of Techspark’s Top 50 list, we wanted to pull out some names from the full longlist of 250 names to feature. We’re talking about the special innovators that we expect to enter or rise up the list in future editions.

Thanks, as always, to TT50 partners Forgerock, Mettle and ADLIB.

 

Dr Zara Nanu

Dr Zara Nanu is the CEO of Gapsquare. Zara is an expert on how diversity and inclusion can shape more dynamic and productive teams and a more engaging and empowering workplace. She is an entrepreneur who believes business can generate social impact as well as revenues and profits.

 

Catherine Allen

Catherine led the creation of two of the BBC’s first VR experiences and now, as CEO of Limina Immersive, brings VR cinema experiences to thousands of audience members.

 

Brian Allen

Brian is the CEO & Founder, Rovco is a rapidly growing, innovative subsea technology firm developing new ways of working, and bringing ML and 3D imagery into subsea inspections.

 

Charlotte Randall

Bath based Charlotte is co-founder of StatsBomb, an industry leading Football event data company which combines  AI driven insight metrics and a state-of-the-art analytics platform.

 

Gavin Eddy

Gavin Eddy is the founder of  Forward Space, a managed workspace company providing innovative workspace to start-up and emerging businesses located in the South West. Gavin works closely with the University of Bath’s entrepreneurship programme and is a former SETsquared Business Mentor of the Year.

 

Nicola Chilman

Nicola Chilman is the co-founder of EZ Education who have launched DoodleMaths, a unique learning system for maths for children aged 4-14 years. It is available to download on the App Store, Google Play and KindleFire App Store.

 

Chris Sanderson

Chris founded Limber, an invoicing, payroll and pension tool for freelancers, solo-preneurs, gig workers and slashies. With our unique equity scheme, we help people live a happy, varied and sustainable worklife.

 

Paul Wickers

Paul is the founder of huggg, who are on a mission to allow everybody around the world to create little moments of happiness for others. Tiny acts of generosity, millions of times per day  Recognised by Forbes as one to watch in 2019

 

Joyann Boyce

Joyann is the founder of The Social Detail. She has worked with a range of organisations such as Bristol City Council, Black Girl Convention, SETsquared and Future Space; and is an avid advocate for diversity and inclusion partnering on projects with TechSPARK such as SHIFT to create diverse stock photography.

Harry Cobbold

Harry Cobbold is the founder and Managing Director for Haio, designing and building user-centred web apps, websites and brands for high growth companies. He was this years FutureSPARK winner at The SPARKies.

Methodology
 
After pulling down a 250 person longlist from the network, we whittled it down to a 100 person shortlist and eventually (with great pain) our TT50. We judged this list, with our partners, using 5 key criteria:
  • Local Impact – What have they done for the community locally, inspiration, events and connections
  • Economic Impact – What impact have they had through investing or employing people.
  • Global impact – What impact are they having globally in raising the region’s profile.
  • Reach – Public profile both in the ecosystem locally and wider.
  • Influence – How much can they shape things, can they mobilise a network? In short, how quickly would you respond to their email!

Congratualtions to everyone on TechSPARK’s Top 50 list – a huge shoutout to you all for making the tech sector in the South West what it is today! 

 

adlib Bath Bristol Bristol City Council Entrepreneurs featured ForgeRock founders Gapsquare Innovation Rovco TT50