Smarta.com and our judges
What is Smarta?
Smarta.com is a business support and advice network for
start-ups, small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Smarta provides independent, entrepreneur-led support and is
backed by some of the UK's top entrepreneurs including Dragons'
Den's Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden.
By business people for business people, Smarta is the ultimate
resource for business how-to guides, features, exclusive video
interviews with leading entrepreneurs and is packed with helpful
tools and templates.
Visit www.smarta.com to access all this free
of charge and register your profile to start interacting and
exchanging knowledge with the Smarta network.
The Smarta 100 judges
To help us judge the Smarta 100 we've enlisted the help of five
of the UK's most respected entrepreneurs, all of whom share the
Smarta vision and who you can see interviewed at www.smarta.com/advice/videos:
Deborah Meaden - After starting and
running several of her own businesses in her 20s, Deborah
eventually took over her parents' business Weststar Holidays,
taking it from one to five holiday parks and catering for more than
150,000 people per year. She sold the company for £33m in 2005 and
joined the panel of Dragons' Den a year later, where her
notable investments have included YoudooDoll and Buggyboot.
Watch Deborah's
video interview on Smarta.
Michael Birch - Michael owned five
businesses before he and wife Xochi set up Bebo in 2005. The site
went on to attract over 40 million users, making it one of the most
popular social networking sites on the internet before being sold
to AOL in March 2008 for£420m.
Watch Michael's video interview on
Smarta.
Sháá Waasmund. Sháá is the founder
and CEO of Smarta. She was recently named in Management
Today's '35 women under 35', its list of Britain's brightest,
young business stars. Sháá has worked with likes of Sir Bob
Geldof and Sir James Dyson and previously started Mykindaplace.com,
which was sold to BSkyB in 2006.
Charlie Mullins - Charlie began plumbing
at just 12 and left school without any qualifications. He set up
Pimlico Plumbers in 1979, growing it into a multi-million pound
business serving a string of celebrity clients. Charlie recently
appeared on C4's Secret Millionaire.
Watch Charlie's video
interview on Smarta.
Sahar
Hashemi - Sahar turned her back on a career as a lawyer to
start the UK's first coffee chain, Coffee Republic, with brother
Bobby in 1995. After selling in 2001, Sahar wrote a
best-selling book, 'Anyone can do it', and launched Skinny Candy in
a joint venture with confectionary giant Glisten Plc in 2007.
Watch Sahar's video
interview on Smarta.