Last year we revealed the most outstanding young entrepreneurs the UK has to offer. We didn’t think it would be easy or even possible to find a bunch to compare to the calibre of our ‘Class of 2003’. Yet while it was tough, we think we’ve achieved it.

Dan Somers
Age: 30
Company: VC-Net
Focus: Video conferencing
Somers has quickly established VC-Net, his second entrepreneurial venture, as a leading provider of global networking video-conference solutions. He puts success down to providing the highest possible quality service technology can deliver. Turnover in 2003 of £1.5m is expected to double this year, and Somers expects the company to expand internationally towards the US, in line with its clients’ increasingly global aspirations. The speed at which VC-Net became a recognised brand among blue-chip companies is Somers’ most satisfying achievement.

Angus MacKinnon
Age: 30
Company: Nowwashyourhands
Focus: Graphic design
After running his own graphic design studio and enjoying success as a director with design company Blueberry, MacKinnon teamed up with co-founders Neil Jeffries and Tim Spear to launch Nowwashyourhands in 2001. Taking the brand of a respected web designers’ portal run as a hobby by Spear, the business developed an impressive portfolio of clients including the BBC, Manchester United and Tesco and was named in New Media Age’s list of ‘respected design agencies 2003’. Year-on-year growth of 100% is expected to continue in 2004, building on last year’s turnover of £750,000.

Darren Epstein
Age: 33
Company: Cards Inc
Focus: Manufacture and distribution of trading and game cards
Inspired by a trip to the US, Epstein started Cards Inc in 1989. Through organic growth and several acquisitions in recent years, it is now a major retail force with a turnover of £19.9m to July 2004 – growth of 20% on the previous year. Epstein believes the keys to the company’s success have been its ability to react ahead of competitors to secure licences for new products, and the fact that it provides a one-stop-shop for collectors and retailers.

Seb Bishop
Age: 30
Company: Espotting Media
Focus: Pay-per-click search engine
Hardly a new face on the block, but it’s been an excellent year for Bishop’s Espotting. A 67% increase in turnover and the company’s first profitable quarter were followed by the merger with American NASDAQ-listed firm FindWhat.com on July 1. Now the largest independent paid-for listings provider, Espotting is valued at around $180m. It operates across three continents, has relationships with more than 100,000 online businesses and accounts for just under half of online marketing spend in the UK – £150m. As arguably the UK’s most successful young entrepreneur, Bishop continues to scoop endless accolades.

John Chasey
Age: 33
Company: Iomo
Focus: Mobile phone game developer
Started in 2000, Hampshire-based Iomo has developed a number of high-profile titles, including Bafta-nominated Scooby Doo, plus Tomb Raider, Thunderbirds and Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour Golf. Last year’s £750,000 turnover should reach £1.7m this year following the 25-person company’s success in having five of the top 10 titles listed in Vodafone’s most popular mobile phone games, and being voted best mobile studio in the 2003 Develop Industry Excellence Awards.

Nick McCulloch
Age: 28
Company: Nickknows.com
Focus: Broadband and technology
Nickknows.com has enjoyed 80% growth every quarter since its launch from McCulloch’s spare room in Bristol in 2003, and anticipates doubling its annual turnover to £1.2m this year. Despite being an online offering, McCulloch attributes much of the company’s success to its emphasis on offering excellent personal customer service and the ability to “pick up the phone and talk to someone”. McCulloch is busy ensuring the infrastructure
and funding is in place for continued growth and expects to turnover £2.8m in 2005.

Preet Chahal
Age: 35
Company: ihotdesk
Focus: IT outsource consultancy
With a client in the US already lined up, Chahal and David Horwood co-founded the business in 1999 with around£4,000 worth of investment, making it profitable from day one. Through purely organic growth the now 25 person company has a £1.8m turnover, a £400,000 increase on last year’s, and forecasts revenues of £10m by 2008. Chahal, who’s degree was in management and computer sciences, previously worked for JP Morgan, Nokia and ABN AMRO in technical and operational positions.

Jason Butler
Age: 33
Company: Jump
Focus: Property
Growing up above his parents’ fish & chip and pub businesses whetted Butler’s entrepreneurial appetite. Headhunted and made partner by accountants J Rothschild’s by the age of 21, Butler spotted a gap in the market for young house-hunters unable to afford deposits and had set up Homestarter Group PLC in Leeds by the time he was 22. Taken over by Jump Group Limited in January 2003, Butler remains MD and a 77.5% shareholder. With 30 branches in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire already, Butler intends to make Inner City 100 winner Jump a nationwide brand with the help of £8m in development capital funding. Turnover to April 2004 was £147.5m, up from a previous rolling turnover of £78m.

James Murray
Age: 34
Company: Alternative Networks
Focus: Telecommunications
Like childhood friend Al Gosling, Murray skipped university to get started in business. Alternative Networks was founded 10 years ago and now has sales of £45m – from £35.2m last year– which Murray fully expects to reach £100m in three years via acquisition, consolidation and expansion into Europe. “I had dyslexia while at school, and left with very few O Levels,” says Murray, proving, like Branson (also dyslexic), that a perceived hindrance need not necessarily hold one back.

Paul Hawkins
Age: 30
Company: Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd
Focus: Visual technology
If you’ve watched Test Match cricket or Wimbledon coverage in the past couple of years, you’ll have noticed a nifty little feature enabling the viewer to see exactly where the ball bounced and, in the case of cricket, where it would have gone. Still with only eight employees, but utilising a pool of freelancers, three-year-old Hawk-Eye has a £1.2m turnover-doubling from last year – and has been profitable since its second year after TV company Sunset & Vine backed development of Hawkins’ technology. Now working with Sony, the business has a beachhead to the Asian market.

Liz Jackson
Age: 31
Company: Great Guns Marketing
Focus: Telemarketing
Headquartered in Basingstoke, but with seven branches nationwide, Great Guns Marketing offers business-to-business marketing services. And after a steady start – Jackson set up the business in 1997 with just £5,000 in loans and a grant –things appear to be taking off. Turnover for 2003 was £1.5m and is expected to hit £2m this year, with plans for 16 branches by 2005. Perhaps more remarkable is the fact that Jackson is totally blind, having lost her sight the year she started the business. Earlier this year the company won the regional Customer Focus category in the National Business Awards.

Shaid Luqman
Age: 35
Company: Pearl Holdings (Europe) Ltd
Focus: Property finance
When MPs, Premiership football stars and prominent entrepreneurs want to build their property portfolios, they go to Luqman. The company, set up in 2000 and with bases in Manchester, London, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia, provides bridging finance in situations where banks would not be able to move fast enough. The pipeline of deals and finance toback clients’ purchases comes from the high-street banks however, with £150m from a syndicate led by Barclays Bank and a stepped drawdown of £500m for the next two years. Turnover to December 2004 should hit £30m, following £18m last year, with profits of £23.4m. Next year Luqman expects profits of £59m from a £95m turnover. This helps explain why one investment bank offered £350m for the business earlier this year.

Paul Ephremsen
Age: 34
Company: Ideal Promotions
Focus: Marketing
Ephremsen co-founded Ideal Promotions with Paul Soames immediately after graduating in 1993, with just £2,000. Eleven years on, their ability to produce campaigns that “locate consumers and engage them in branded conversations” has raked in £8.5m and created a workforce of 50 people. When we spoke he was ‘job swapping’ for the week on reception.

Richard Stubbs
Age: 34
Company: UK Explorer
Focus: Telecommunications
Started with Martin Hickman in 1998, Stubbs has developed UK Explorer into a leading supplier of internet connection solutions to hotels and airports. Turnover this year will grow by a minimum 80% from £747,000 in 2003. Stubbs insists success is down to providing high-level customer service. This is something he is focused on maintaining, as UK Explorer looks to double in size after securing £500,000 of funding.

Richard Freedman
Age: 32
Company: ACS Clothing
Focus: Kilt hire
In the six years since founding ACS Clothing with his father, Freedman has grown the company into the world’s largest supplier of kilts, with a turnover of £2.5m. With £2m of funding secured to finance further growth. Freedman is looking to diversify into new markets and recently launched a new brand, Taylor Rae. A company reliant on seasonal staff, Freedman would like to see the government both simplify employment regulations and offer tax breaks to help businesses grow.

Gary McWilliam
Age: 34
Company: The Hire Supply Company
Focus: Equipment hire
McWilliam’s Nottinghamshire-based business supplies equipment to the hire industry, including gardening, landscaping, site electrical works and climate control. While it was started in 1995, McWilliam didn’t come on board until 2001, taking the business from a £300,000 turnover to £2.7m in three years having revamped its product portfolio. Revenues should reach £3.1m this year and plans for expansion into Europe are underway.

Jef Richards
Age: 30
Company: Galleria RTS Ltd
Focus: Retail technology
Galleria is a 15-year-old retail planning technology business based in Cheshire, but since Richards invested and took the role of chief technology officer in 2002, the company had grown to a £3m turnover in 2003 and £4m in 2004. Next up are plans to make further inroads into the US, having already won some business there, as well as in Europe and Australia.

Matthew Bayfield
Age: 30
Company: Tree
Focus: Market research
Tree, started in 2001 by Bayfield and Steve Mattey and now employing 11 people, combines market research with data analysis and has already worked with the likes of Skoda, BMW, Canon, Austin Reed and O2. Its £1.4m turnover for 2004 will be virtually double last year’s total, and it projects a further 50% growth next year, with the business quickly carving a niche as a market research house that shuns the traditional ABC1 demographic models.

Simon Franks
Age: 33
Company: Redbus
Focus: Film, media and advertising
Former City trader Franks started $50m turnover Redbus in his spare bedroom, with a film distribution business. Six years on that business is one of the largest distributors in Europe and the fastest growing UK company, but just one of the business’s arms. Also under the Redbus banner are outdoor advertising, online media and production companies – all of which are profitable – with the latter responsible for Bend It Like Beckham. It also retains a part-stake in online DVD company Video Island.

Sophie Oliver
Age: 31
Company: Coco Ribbon
Focus: Female lifestyle
Started in 2002 with co-founder Alison Chow, the London-based boutique Coco Ribbon has proved so successful that Kylie Minogue made a personal visit to request that it stock her  latest lingerie range. After an initial injection of just £42,500, first-year sales of £434,000 are expected to grow to £700,000 this year. There are plans for more stores and online offerings and the launch of their own fashion, accessories and gift range. The pair are considering funding options to catalyse further expansion.

Chris Fung
Age: 31
Company: Crussh
Focus: Smoothie bars
Australian Fung was poised to return home to set up a smoothie bar before meeting Crussh’s founder James Liamont 18 months ago. Liamont convinced him to stay in London and run his chain instead – and it’s proved a wise decision for both parties. Under Fung’s guidance, Crussh has seen off a number of competitors and opened its ninth store. With turnover up from £1.7m to £2.2m, the company is expecting to break into profit before the end of the year and plans for three new stores are in progress.

Claire Page
Age: 34
Company: Whitewater
Focus: Marketing for charities
Page joined Whitewater in 1996 and led, along with herhusband Steven, a management buyout in 1998. Since then, she has overseen Whitewater’s introduction of a number of innovative products and methods that have revolutionised the traditional fundraising model. The company won the Direct Marketing Association’s UK award for innovation in 2004 and has increased turnover to £4.5m, with operating profits up 400% in the past 12 months. The company is now trialling another new fundraising concept in the US, with a view to UK introduction later this year.

Daniel Drury
Age: 33
Company: WebAbacus
Focus: Web analytics
When John Lewis, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung and TNT rely on the same business to make sure they’re making the most of their web investments, you know it’s doing well. Launched in 2001 as a stand-alone company, Drury was hired to run it, increasing revenues from £425,000 last year to £1.2m this. The technology identifies the most productive and profitable parts of clients’ sites as well as their failing areas. A 50% rise is predicted next year following venture capital and private investment of £1.2m last year. Drury has pedigree too, having previously set up and run another software business, Cognition Consulting, straight out of university in 1993, which he sold seven years later for £5.3m just prior to the dot com collapse.

David Williams
Age: 35
Company: Avanti Screenmedia Plc
Focus: Visual media
Avanti could be straight out of an MBA text book. In its eight years, former investment banker Williams has combined bank loans and angel finance with venture capital, and ultimatelya listing on AIM (the Alternative Investment Market). In total the company has raised £5m and grew last year’s turnover of £1.4m to £4.6m in 2004. The 65-person set-up is also doubling
profits year-on-year from placing screens in pubs, bars and high-street retailers, and made £564,000 from a £2.6m turnover in the nine months to December 2003, following the acquisition of competitor Translucis.

Dr Aydin Kurt-Elli
Age: 30
Company: Lumison
Focus: Business ISP
Edinburgh-based Lumison, formerly edNET, was founded by Kurt-Elli almost 10 years ago. However, he ran the business in order to work as a junior doctor, returning in 1999 and then resurrecting its fortunes. A £3m turnover is projected compared to £2.25m to September 2003, and it is forecasting further growth of 30% for the coming year. Within the group are web design and development agency Lightershade and voice-over IP business nPlusOne.

Graham Bucknall
Age: 33
Company: Adventi Ltd
Focus: IT support
Capitalising on the growing trend to outsource, Bucknall set up Edinburgh-based Adventi in 2002 to provide IT support for small and medium-sized businesses in Scotland. Last year’s £750,000 turnover to December is expected to more than double to £1.8m by the end of this year, and the company has already reached breakeven. Plans for the 36-strong
business include an imminent £2m acquisition using bank debt and an expected listing on the London Stock Exchange in the medium term. “The aim is to be a £20m turnover company within five years, with 300 staff,” says the ambitious Bucknall, who was previously brought in to run and raise finance for fund information portal TrustNet.

Al Gosling
Age: 33
Company: Extreme Group
Focus: TV and retail
Gosling started the business in 1995, while still in his early 20s selling extreme sports-based programmes to broadcasters. He then launched the Extreme Sports channel in a $20m joint venture with the programming arm of cable operator UPC and secured £2.7m in backing from highly successful entrepreneurs and serial investors Nigel Wray (Domino’s Pizza) and Chris Akers (Sports Internet Group). The channel now sits at the centre of a range of brands, including Extreme Drinks, Clothing and Retail. The 55-person business, formed in 1995, turns over £24m turnover – from £7.5m last year and Gosling has spent time recently on the fundraising trail, attempting to secure £16m to finance a Mobile arm. Opening high street stores and acquisitions are priorities for the next year or so.

Imraan Malik
Age: 28
Company: iBetX
Focus: Online betting
Still in its first full year of trading, iBetX has muscled its way into the thriving but competitive world of betting exchanges. Started with a £3m personal investment from Malik and cofounder Rocky Mirza, iBetX has grown by 90% from this time last year and is turning over £7-10m a week. Already on a par with the longer established Betdaq and Sporting Options,
iBetX’s is the world’s fastest-growing exchange.

Stacey-Lea Golding
Age: 30
Company: Premier Cru Ltd
Focus: Wine Investment
Golding, who at the age of 19 became the youngest qualified sales associate for J Rothschild Associates, quit the City to go into business with her mother in 1995. Started specifically to offer structured and manageable investments to people with little or no experience of fine wine, Golding has grown Premier Cru into Europe’s leading fine wine investment house. Turnover of £600,000 in 2003 is expected to exceed £1m this year, as the company looks to expand into US and Asian markets.