Elizabeth Varley is the Founder and CEO of TechHub, the global tech startup community. TechHub works with over 750 tech companies all around the world to help them scale. Headquartered in the UK, there are TechHubs in five cities around the world: London, Bangalore, Riga, Bucharest and Swansea.
Elizabeth has been selected for Computer Weekly’s UKtech50 top influencers, the Evening Standard’s Silicon 60, the Debrett's 500, Vogue UK’s Generation Tech and Cosmopolitan’s Fierce 40 Under 40, among others. She has been a judge for many technology and business awards and is a sought-after conference speaker around the world.
Previously, she worked with small business advice site Smarta, with Germination on the SHINE unconference for social entrepreneurs, and headed the team for international charity festival Twestival London in 2009-2010. After copywriting, editing and senior content strategy and management roles in her earlier career, she ran editorial and content agency Online Content UK and the community for online content professionals, plus programmed and produced digital and tech-focused events for Chinwag and NMK.
She is committed to supporting the wider technology industry and was one of the founding steering committee members of the DigitalEve women in technology organisation in the UK and was a consultant with e-skills UK on a project to encourage girls to get involved in IT and new media.
Andrew leads TechHub's operations, growth and partnerships internationally, including TechHub's global relationship with Google for Entrepreneurs. He has worked with startups across Europe and launched TechHub Bangalore back in 2014. He also works closely with BT plc on the 'BT Infinity Lab' programme.
Before TechHub, Andrew was Programme Director at London First, the business group which works to make London the leading city in the world to do business.
Andrew lives in East London, is proud owner of a 1974 Mini Clubman and once had tea with the Dalai Lama.
Alastair is a Chartered Accountant with a broad range of financial experience at main board level in both listed and private equity backed companies.
Alastair trained with Coopers & Lybrand in Manchester and, over the last ten years, has specialised in working with a portfolio of early-stage technology ventures.
Ben Hookway has held C-level positions in three tech start ups in both the US and UK, gaining VC funding and achieving successful exits.
After moving back to the UK from San Francisco he settled in the Manchester area but spends most of his time in London, and makes sure he has regular trips to Edinburgh where he is originally from.
He now works with various companies on commercialisation, funding and strategy.
He is co-founder and Board Member of TechHub and retains an advisory role.
He is on the board of the Mayor of London's Digital Advisory Board.
Before TechHub, Daria worked in marketing for a New-York based innovation company, managed PPC campaigns for brands and agencies from 10+ countries at Adobe Marketing Cloud, and ran a partner programme at an award-winning digital publishing startup in London. She joined TechHub in 2014 as Community Manager for TechHub's largest location at the time, then managed London-wide memberships, then launched and ran TechHubs in Spain and Poland - all in the space of her first year. You could say she's TechHub's swiss army knife!
Daria’s an introvert, but hides it extremely well. She speaks four languages, has lived in Russia, Spain, the UK and US; and has travelled to over 40 countries, from Cuba to Uzbekistan. She's madly in love with food - cooking an average of 12 homemade meals a week, writing haikus to express her gastronomic love and doing the occasional weekend catering gig. Three of her favourite conversational topics are: experiments with personal productivity, cultural differences and the highs and lows of managing, motivating and empowering human beings.
When it comes to IT and technology he's a self-taught guy. He's learned everything he knows because it's his of passion - he loves learning and keeping up-to-date.
He also loves chocolate, Italian food and romantic period paintings, especially the ones with moonlight, caravel ships, pirates...
Feel free to speak to him about the internet, technology, computers, motors (he loves cafè racer bikes), latest Javascript frameworks, Node.js...
Before the days of TechHub, she worked as Finance Manager in a tech startup called Handmade Mobile Entertainment Ltd, which created apps for B list celebs and dating.
Originally from Namibia, Mel has been in the UK so long she might be British! You can always win her over with a bottle of Jäger & medium rare steak.
Some of Kamlo's previous incarnations have been as a Maths student, a manager of a live music venue, and also as Community Assistant right here at TechHub.
When he's not living it up at TechHub he spend his time writing content about London's queer scene. And when he's not doing that, he's normally singing, dancing, cooking or sleeping - or some combination of the above. He spent ten years growing up in Spain, and Harry Potter formed most of his childhood.
She was in luck - in January 2017 she found the fresh changes she was looking for. She applied for role of Finance Manager at TechHub, and surprise surprise, she got it! Combined with her love for sunshine, red wine and shopping, she found a winning combination!
Simonetta joined TechHub @ Campus London while searching for a life-changing opportunity. She is a coffeeholic Italian graduate in Communication & Marketing and in love with Life. She believes that the ways to improve oneself are endless and wants to try them all!
Memento Audere Semper!
(Remember to be always daring!)
Iulia joined TechHub in 2015 to strengthen TechHub's role in the London startup scene. She is well respected and passionate community advocate and connector.
Iulia manages our ecosystem outreach team in London which focuses on helping startups build their networks, teams and find customers. She also manages TechHub's programme team in London which hosts nearly 200 events per year designed to help entrepreneurs and developers grow their businesses.
Iulia joined TechHub after helping Startup Institute (US-based career accelerator) launch and build their community in London and before that went through TechStars London with the OP3Nvoice (now Clarify) team.
She's hectic about gigs and an epic dancer. You can often find her at startup events or having some amazing red wine/bubbles.
Maria leads on all things community related - from making sure the space is up and running to making sure our members make the most out of what TechHub has to offer.
Coming from a completely different background, Maria joined TechHub as a Community Assistant in February 2015 with little knowledge of the startup scene. It's safe to say that's changed!
She's addicted to pho and always loves a good philosophical chat. Fun fact: she has 6 names, half of which she shares with Portuguese vineyards - sadly, she does not own them!
Nicolette has a very a varied role, from changing the brand of peanut butter we buy to helping members build their investor teaser deck. She's here to do what she can to make TechHub members' experience as fruitful as possible. Being one of the front facing members in the team allows her to engage with the members on a full time basis!
Before TechHub she spent a couple of years traveling in Asia, testing out the working scene in London and getting drawn to tech by the fresh minds, ever churning ideas and exciting prospects of growth.
She's super dry and blunt, though also really relatable and easy going. Would pay for laughs. INTJ, oh and she loves the gym.
After living in many countries, and working for various business ranging from international corporates to smaller enterprises, Iryna has happily found home in the startup ecosystem and technology. Iryna believes that ideas, community values and limitless drive of entrepreneurs can and do change the world to the better.
Iryna helps TechHub members connect with the ecosystem and find opportunities for them to grow and scale up.
When not working, Iryna is most likely to be seen socialising or building new connections; and doing sports. Almost any sport, really.
Perdie has been working in the startup ecosystem for a few years after a life changing trip to Africa where she helped Ghanaian entrepreneurs set up innovative businesses, and fell in love with supporting entrepreneurs grow. She has a degree in Business Management, a Masters in Entrepreneurship, and has set up two businesses herself so understands the ups and downs of having your own business.
As TechHub's Programme Development Manager, she spends the majority of her time organising our member support programme, which helps TechHub members scale, fast. The rolling programme involves bringing in external experts to provide our members with support and advice to help them grow. Perdie also organises external events, including our flagship event #TechHubTuesday Demo Night (you can also find her hosting this!), and liaises with those interested in hiring TechHub'a event space. To get in touch with Perdie about the member support programme, or the event space, please email perdie.alder@techhub.com
As well as business, Perdie has an addiction to True Crime, and can talk for hours about her fascination with criminology.
Toby originally comes from a land down under, also known as Melbourne, Australia. Don't hold that against him, because his Aussie accent is as strong as his passion for the startup world!
With a background in social media and marketing, Toby has worked for a top Australian bank, a state police department and State Government.
Toby dislikes Piña Colada and speaks fluent Australian.
As a Community Assistant, Caetana interacts daily and often with our members to ensure that they are receiving excellent customer service, staying connected to the community, and making sure they are well informed of everything that's happening at TechHub.
Before TechHub, Caetana worked as a Community Manager at a co-living and co-working space called The Coalition in Barcelona and at Work.Life in Bermondsey, London.
Although currently focused on smart cities, innovation and sustainability, Caetana is a generalist learner and loves to know a little bit about everything. Fascinated by design thinking and creative strategy, her idea of fun is to research, brainstorm and think of solutions for global challenges. Other interests include history, philosophy, and kung fu.
Previously he served in various C-level positions, most recently at Livebookings, Europe's leading provider of online restaurant reservations. Prior to that, he led marketing, business development and EMEA sales for AeroScout, a global provider of Wi-Fi location solutions that was sold to Stanley Black & Decker.
Andris is also Investment Advisor for the Stockholm-based venture capital fund Creandum. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bsc in Management & Systems from City University.
Rentmama is a graduate of Denmark’s StartupBootcamp and the UK’s Ignite 100 programs. Gunars is also a co-owner and CEO of IT House, a Ruby on Rails web application development company.
He is a leader of the start-up community in Latvia, co-organising Open Coffee Club Riga and Garage48 events.
Gunars is also a member of Junior Chamber International and holds a Masters degree in Socio-Technical Systems engineering and a Bachelors degree in Information Technology, both from the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.
Ernests is CEO and Co-Founder of Reach.ly, a social media big data search tool. Ernests has spent the last 6 years working in social media and web projects as a co-owner of SIA SOON. In 2008, together with Reach.ly cofounder Kaspars, he built a recommendation engine for geographic places and more recently an affiliate-driven direct marketing hotel bookings site.
He is active in the Baltic rim and Nordic startup scene, organising events such as Garage48 in Riga. Ernests holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Ventspils.
Viesturs is also non-executive Director at start-up Petersoon, as well as Managing Director of TechVentures FMC, and mentor to various Baltic accelerator and incubator programs.
Viesturs earned his MBA from the Open University Business School and his MD from Stradins University.
Anna is a co-founder of FROONT, a responsive web design tool for designers, and a partner at berta.me and HungryLab.
Being a startup enthusiast with experience in marketing, advertising, graphic and web design, she has created and implemented communication strategies, brand development, marketing strategies, and client service management.
Anna has obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.
Davis is the Managing Director of TechHub Riga. He believes that a lot of potential still lies in the effective exchange of information, and TechHub is the go-to place for startups to extract synergies through cooperation.
Previously Davis helped young student companies grow at the business incubator of University of Latvia and organised useful events for young entrepreneurs.
Raimonds is the founder and Managing Director at Funderful, a peer-to-peer giving platform that helps make your community fall in love with your cause, reaching and involving more donors.
Prior to that he has developed his career in business consulting and corporate finance at Deloitte and Ernst&Young, having served 300+ transactions and numerous other consulting assignments, but he increasingly found his passion in helping non-profits fulfil their community potential by making donating fun and having the individual in mind rather than the needs of the organisation.
What started off as a hobby, has over time grown into a socially focused business, Funderful, helping some of the most prestigious European and US institutions fundraise.
Previously has gathered experience via involving in various projects connected to entrepreneurship, management and international communication.
Driven by inspiring people and exploring. Truly believes in NGO's power to make a difference. Since day one willing to manage community by nailing different projects and throwing awesome events. Spreading the word!
Daniel is the CEO of TechHub, and one of the most passionate people about entrepreneurship and supporting the tech community in Romania.
His past experience encompasses being Marketing Manager for the Post-Privatization Foundation, the first Romanian foundation devoted solely to entrepreneurship.
He's also part of the team that develops two important projects for Romanian entrepreneurship: School for Startups Romania and the Business Mentoring Program.
He coordinates all the events that happen at TechHub Bucharest and constantly works on strategically supporting the tech community in Romania.
Adriana draws her inspiration from the people who believe in their ideas and engineers them into reality. As a student in Engineering and Management, she's always getting involved in different projects and she was the Program Manager or IP Workshop (a summer camp for IT students).
She took a step further trying to build her own startup, PillBuzz, which was part of MVP Academy Class of 2014. She’s now chanelling her inner geek to manage and expand the community at TechHub Bucharest, while soaking up all the relevant knowledge in the area. Adriana loves reading, hiking, and she’s a declared coffee lover.
Matt is an eCommerce veteran with over 12 years experience selling stuff online. He founded JuraWatches, UK largest online luxury watch retailer.
His latest startup Veeqo recently raised £1.2m through crowdfunding.
Paul is a seasoned web entrepreneur with a proper grey beard! He’s a full stack developer with a working knowledge of BigData systems and is into cryptocurrency in all it’s forms (and loves to help startups grow). He is currently starting a new cryptocurrency venture called investor.one.
Originally from Swansea, Paul spent the last 17 years working on his own web companies in Bristol and London and founded TechHub Swansea because he wanted to see the South Wales scene grow and transform peoples opportunities, as he has seen in other cities.
Tim is co-founder and CEO of Mint Digital, a London and New York based digital agency and Europe’s most active startup studio.
Mint has helped clients from Tesco to Goldman Sachs develop digital products and has also developed and launched over 60 startups of it’s own.
Tim is Chairman of DeskBeers and an investor in Boomf.
Jen manages the operations, growth and many partnerships at TechHub Swansea.
She has a wealth of experience having moved back to Wales after spending the last 10 years in Bristol and London, where she has held a variety of roles. Operationally she has been responsible for opening and closing offices around the world, and strategically she has managed the client relationships and projects for a leading Digital Transformation Agency across a number of blue-chip companies and sectors.
Jen is passionate about growing the tech cluster in Swansea and creating a tech ecosystem around TechHub. It is such an exciting time to be working in technology in Wales. The fastest growing tech economy in the UK outside of London.
Sarah manages all meetings and event bookings for TechHub Swansea, alongside providing functional day-to-day support for the CEO, Jen Clay, and the growing community.
With over 8 years experience in creative and project management for global fashion retailers, Sarah has vast experience in event and exhibition setup and communications.
She is working alongside Jen to bring the events arm to life within TechHub Swansea, and is looking forward to the opportunities that it brings to the community and its members.
With an experience of over 20 years in Delivery, Competency Building and Operations- Manoj established the TCL India unit in August 2008 at Bangalore, India. TCL has been subsequently acquired by the Qualitest Group (October 2012) and now operates as its wholly owned subsidiary.
Manoj currently heads the Qualitest India unit as the Chief Executive Officer. He has taken active leadership in developing and enhancing the processes towards achieving the company’s Goals and Vision.
Manoj is currently the Co-Founder of Techhub Bangalore.
Sree is a Nuclear Scientist Turned startup enthusiast and is currently leading the operations at Techhub Bangalore.
He is passionate about startups and has donned various hats, from being an Entrepreneur, Mentor and Adviser to startups and SMEs. He is actively associated with the Indian startup environment for the last 7 years. Before joining Techhub he was the Lead Consultant with Essvee Consulting.
He is proud to be a student of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, the missile man of India.
He is always on the look out for new ideas on how Techhub should be shaping up in the Indian sub continent.
Vigneshwar is an engineer with over 3 years of work experience at Amazon and Ernst & Young.
He was a co-founder of a startup which he started during his college days and has always developed a keen interest in the startup environment ever since.
He’s a passionate traveller and loves adventure sports. He enjoys cooking and is always up for a long drive anywhere. A big foodie and an ardent coffee lover who’s always found trying out new places to grab a bite or a drink.
Mana is a part of the community team - she takes care of community messages, internal events, sharing opportunities and ensuring TechHubbers use their membership to their full potential.
She is an engineer with an interest for, as cliche as it sounds, taking up new things. She’s a dancer specialized in various Indian classical dance forms. She can speak over 7 regional languages in India.
She’s big fan of Biryani, enjoys spending time with dogs and has involved in various activities with NGOs. She does choreographing for small kids during her free time and can beat anyone in a quiz on Harry Potter or F.R.I.E.N.D.S
As dramatic as it sounds, he likes to call himself a "Vagabond" where he's on a journey to discover the unknown. He loves talking, walking, clicking photographs and everything of traveling.
London
london.techhub.com
Bangalore
bangalore.techhub.com
Riga
riga.techhub.com
Bucharest
bucharest.techhub.com
Swansea
swansea.techhub.com