25 years of Startups.co.uk

Back in 2000, our founder, David Lester, launched Startups.co.uk with a goal to champion entrepreneurs and help them to avoid the mistakes he made in his own business journey. 

We’ve stuck to this mission by sharing the early origin stories of what are now some of the UK’s most valuable companies; often before anyone else was willing to give them a chance.

Below, we’ve organised thousands of these stories into one of the UK’s most comprehensive archives of new business history, spanning two and a half decades of blogs, interviews, awards, and first-hand accounts of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in Britain this century.

2000

The new millennium is a time of optimism for startups. The dot com boom arrives, but with ideas developing faster than the tech infrastructure, the crash comes quickly in March 2000. 

Startups.co.uk launches at this low point. As is often the case, however, the troubled trading environment provides an opportunity for innovative internet newcomers to thrive. 

Our Successful Entrepreneurs series begins to highlight these early winners, including JustGiving, Mumsnet, Moonpig and Lastminute.com. Moonpig founder Nick Jenkins tells us, “For a few years after the crash I’d look around and think: ‘When’s it my turn?’”.

In a script that has since almost entirely flipped, retail is thriving at this time. A fresh-faced Startups speaks to high street titans, such as the founders of Pret A Manger and Betfair.

2003

In 2003, we interview a 33-year-old Karren Brady, seven years before she joins The Apprentice. Also, Startups publishes our first Young Guns Index, featuring Innocent Drinks. 

Around this time, the first profile in our Just Started series, which celebrates new UK firms that are less than one year old, is published. 

Over the next two decades, Just Started will introduce the world to brands like Tide, Dash Water, Crowdcube, Ovo Energy, and even our 2025 Startups 100 winner, Lottie.

2005

In 2005, the UK gets its first glimpse at a new BBC TV show, and can never look at a row of black leather chairs the same way. Dragons’ Den airs on BBC Two on 4 January.

Series one features a host of soon-to-be six-figure business ideas including Startups alumni Pouch, Trunki, and a very young-looking Levi Roots, of Reggae Reggae Sauce.

One month later, the entrepreneur takeover of the silver screen is definitive after The Apprentice launches on BBC Two in February.

For series one, the winner is Tim Campbell, who will later return as judge. The Apprentice’s most successful candidate, Mark Wright, will later make the Young Guns Index in 2015.

2007

Steve Jobs’ turtlenecks dominate the headlines in 2007 after Apple launches its first iPhone. The unveiling will mark the most significant shift for the business world in years, introducing entrepreneurs to the smartphone and a whole new, mobile world for consumer tech.

Over the next decade, this ripple effect will help to birth some of the UK’s most valuable new businesses including delivery app, Deliveroo, runner-up in our 2015 Startups 100 Index.

2008

The UK suffers its worst recession since WW2, and GDP shrinks by 6% over six consecutive quarters. Like the dot com bubble, though, it provides fertile ground for innovators.

In the same year, we publish our inaugural Startups 100 Index, celebrating the 100 most disruptive businesses founded in the past five years. Beatthatquote.com, a price comparison website wins, and will go on to be acquired by Google in 2013 for £37.7m.

Two firms that will go on to become some of our biggest Startups 100 successes launch this year. Punk brewer, BrewDog and million-pound marketplace, Zoopla.

2010

In 2010, money transfer startup Transferwise (now Wise) is founded. It joins the startup scene in the same year as Instagram, when the reign of social media begins. 

The Startups 100 Index will soon be overloaded with smart ventures that capitalise on the wave, including a baby-faced Steven Bartlett and his firm, Social Chain. 

Instagram also provides a new route for the YouTube generation to monetise their following, meaning 2010 signals the beginning of the influencer craze. In our Young Entrepreneurs series, we highlight content creators like Zoe Sugg, AKA Zoella, and Alfie Deyes. 

2015

Midway through the decade, two challenger banking companies called Monzo and Revolut launch within just three months of each other. 

Both businesses will go on to claim billion-pound valuations and feature in the Startups 100 Index on multiple occasions, cementing the UK’s status as a fintech leader.

2020s

Startups.co.uk celebrates its twentieth anniversary with the Startups 20. Out of hundreds of firms featured on the site, we spotlight the 20 most influential from the past two decades.

The next 20 years look less certain though, as in March 2020, the first national COVID-19 lockdown sends every sector into a tailspin. 

High streets are forced shut, resulting in a decline they may never recover from. Offices are closed, and international trading halts. After Freedom Day in July, entrepreneurs undergo a slow crawl to recovery which, for some, has yet to end. 

UK innovation persists also. Startups continues to publish the Startups 100, and also unveils its Speaking of Startups podcast and weekly email newsletter, to report on future workplace and industry trends that will shape the next era for UK business.