Mentors

The following mentors will be available during the Launch48 event to assist the Launch48 teams.

Past Launch48 London mentors have been from:

Chris Muktar – WikiJob

In 2007, Chris founded WikiJob.co.uk – a website to help university graduates find their way in the world of work. In three short years it has grown to be the largest graduate jobs website in the UK. It now regularly attracts 300,000 visitors a month, employs several staff and is on target to make £500k in revenue this year.

He is currently working on a new online management tool called Mission Control.

http://www.WikiJob.co.uk

Eze Vidra – Google

Ezequiel (Eze) Vidra is a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Google and the founder of VC Cafe. He has 10 years of experience as senior product manager and business development Internet professional. At Google, Eze works on establishing new business relationships in the commerce space across EMEA.

Before Google, Eze was the Principal Product Manager of AOL Search in Europe, a Senior Product Manager at Ask.com in San Francisco, a Product Manager at Gerson Lehrman Group in New York and Team Leader at Shopping.com in Israel. In 2003, he also co-founded tech a startup in Israel and in 2005 he founded VC Cafe, a popular blog on early stage Israeli startups. Eze holds an MBA from London Business School and has graduated cum laude from his BA in Business and IT Management at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Israel. He serves as a mentor in several online incubators in Europe including Seedcamp, Springboard, Launch48, Lean Startup Machine and Oxygen.

@ediggs
http://www.vccafe.com

Harpal Singh – Fashiny

Harpal is a London based designer and entrepreneur who’s behind the success of a number of tech startups, including one later acquired for $42 million. He has been involved in designing websites and online apps, as well as conducting tons of usability tests for nearly eight years. He has worked for tech giants like Yahoo!, Nokia and Sapient, and international fashion brands like Brides, Elle, and Decor. He is a creative and innovative person, and well respected for his design skills, easy going personality and, of course, his iconic turban.

His everlasting love for fashion, beauty and lifestyle has convinced him to launch a new venture – Fashiny, an awesome place to collect all your fashion cravings and receive personalised recommendations in return.

Business: http://www.fashiny.com/
Personal site: http://www.harpalsingh.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/harpalux

Hugh Chappell – Investor

Hugh has worked in the IT and publishing industry since 1976. He worked for Apple Computer, Taxan (Europe) Ltd, he founded TrustedReviews.com in 2003 and acquired bit-tech.net in 2005

He has invested in Net Communities (network and publisher), Lovestruck.com (dating), and ParkatmyHouse.com (car parking). His non-executive Director roles include Time Out Group, Dennis Publishing and MyVoucherCodes.com.

Paul Dowling – Dreamstake

Paul is the CEO and founder of www.dreamstake.net which is a leading on-line platform for aspiring high-growth startup entrepreneurs. Our vision is to democratise the whole startup process by harnessing the web to link entrepreneurs with vital resources.

I have always had an interest in disruptive technology and business processes. I spent several years on the fringe of corporate life, introducing new products and services to the market.

My passion is to work with other people to create an environment in which talented entrepreneurs will get the recognition and success that they deserve.

Specialties: Networking, strategy, innovation, sales, mentoring, funding

http://www.dreamstake.net/

Rich Taylor – ParkatmyHouse

At the age of 12, Rich started programming on his computer in his bedroom and quickly developed a passion for it. Within a year he had co-founded and launched an online technology publication, bit-tech.net, which over the coming years became a popular and widely known destination for technology enthusiasts all over the web. In 2008, bit-tech.net had been acquired by Dennis Publishing and became a prominent part of their technology publications portfolio. During bit-tech’s evolution, it received investment from Hugh Chappell of TrustedReviews Ltd. Rich became lead developer at TrustedReviews which was acquired by TimeWarner in 2007.

In 2011, Rich joined ParkatmyHouse as their CTO. ParkatmyHouse.com is a BMW backed start-up aiming to help solve mobility and parking problems globally. Rich has a passion for building highly scalable, robustly architected internet systems. He also likes to ride motorbikes.

http://parkatmyhouse.com

Roy Tuvey – Investor

Roy Tuvey was the co-founder and President of ScanSafe, a market leading SaaS security company acquired by Cisco for $183M in 2010. ScanSafe had 3,000+ customers including GE, Shell and IKEA and strategic partnerships with Google, AT&T and Vodafone. 2Bn web requests were processed daily across 15 global data centres. Founded in the UK, Roy led the entry into the US market and spent five years in Silicon Valley. He is now starting a new mobile consumer venture from London, and continues to invest in startups in the UK, US and Israel.

Sean Kane – Springboard

Mobile and web entrepreneur passionate about tacos and bringing the power of social media to new markets.

Sean is half of Springboard, the startup accelerator program, and F6S the startup social network.

http://springboard.com/

Shahid Hussain – Kii Capital

Shahid works with Kii Capital, a San Francisco based VC which invests in the mobile space. He has previously worked as a digital agency director in the UK, and a product manager with a leading venture backed startup in silicon valley. His experience spans the technology spectrum, from cutting edge engineering deployments to managing some of the largest brands in the UK. He has spoken on social media and product management topics across Europe and the US.

Shahid is the author of “The No Bullshit Guide to Product Management”, available on Amazon. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and an MEng from Pembroke College, Oxford.

Web: http://shahidhussain.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/shahidhussain
Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/shahidhussain

Steve Kennedy – DBVu

Steve has been in the technology industry for over 20 years. Initially designing hardware and programming in the medical electronics industry, then a stint at Cellnet. After 5 years Steve joined a small start-up called Demon Internet in 1994 and helped it grow to the largest consumer ISP. Demon was consumed by Scottish Telecom to become THUS. Steve had a variety of jobs at Demon/THUS ranging from Business Development, Product Management/Marketing/Development, helping with PR, Media relations and Regulatory. The role before he left was Head of Product Futures which meant developing a 5 year product roadmap across the whole of THUS’ product portfolio.

Steve is also a director of UKEC Ltd which is the governing body for ENUM in the UK and CSO of DBVu Ltd a centralised database monitoring and performance analytics company. Steve writes for various sites and has been quoted in trade press (as an independent industry expert) and has extensive knowledge of mobile/ISP/telco and wireless. Steve is also an early stage investor, usually in technology companies.

https://dbvu.net