1. Beatthatquote.com

John Paleomylites
Launched in 2005, and winner of the 2006 Startups Awards, price comparison site Beatthatquote.com continues to plough, behemoth-like, past its competitors. February saw BTQ crowned the fastest-growing site on the web, with monthly figures for unique visitors growing by 1,165% - beating Facebook, which came second with a measly 781%. Serial entrepreneur John Paleomylites is ever the ambitious business owner: “There’s still plenty more growth that we are on target to achieve,” he says.

2. Monitise

Alistair Lukies, Steve Atkinson
When Alistair and Steve decided to launch Monitise, a system which allows its users to access their bank through their mobile phone, they had problems getting it off the ground. The pair quickly discovered that without a large amount of collateral, banks would refuse them, so they teamed up with tech giant Morse, who agreed to incubate them. “All of a sudden two guys with an idea and a good business plan were perceived as senior people in a £300m company with all of the things banks look for to be comfortable that what you’re doing is appropriate. That worked quite well for us,” says Alistair.

3. Zopa

Giles Andrews
The world’s first online peer-to-peer lending and borrowing marketplace was launched in 2005. Giles, the company’s current UK managing director, says building up trust with customers is essential. “When you’re involved in something as serious as people’s money, it’s difficult.” Giles says the recession is proving to be a ‘great opportunity’ for the business. “The credit crunch means the banks’ appetite to lend is diminished, which is great for us. As long as our lenders aren’t affected negatively, there’s no real need for us to worry,” he says.

4. Trustedplaces.com

Sokratis Papafloratos, Walid Al Saqqaf
Frustrated by their limited knowledge of London’s social scene, Sokratis and Walid came up with the idea of Trustedplaces.com, a social networking site for people who actually go out, in 2005. Hailed as one of the Guardian’s top ten dotcoms to watch, the site’s user numbers have quadrupled since September – an unprecedented rate of growth which, says Papafloratos, is down to his staff. “Our staff are the ones who drive the company. If you see what we’ve achieved, compared to similar companies, they have more money than us, but the reason we can compete is the people.”

5. Garlik

Tom Ilube and Mike Harris
Tom and Mike have been here before. They were among the founding members of Egg plc, the internet bank that floated on the stock exchange for a market cap of £1.6bn. Garlik is a move away from banking and taps into the concern over our digital identities. The company’s initial product, Data Patrol, crawls the web and produces an extensive report on users' digital footprint, advising on potentially harmful information and how it should be dealt with.

6. Steak Media

Oliver Bishop, Duncan Parry, Julian Walker
Having recently celebrated its birthday, the founders of online marketing agency Steak Media point out that they have grown from “three guys and one desk” to “three offices in three countries” – all within three years. Oliver, the company’s chief executive, was one of the three guys. After initial teething problems – “when you have three partners it’s never easy, but you learn to work together” – the company secured seed capital investment of £20,000, and now has a turnover of around £26m. “With online marketing, it’s not so much marketing as science,” says Oliver.

7. Yotel

Simon Woodroffe
Yotel opened its doors in July 2007, at Gatwick airport and soon landed at Heathrow too. Ex-dragon Simon came up with the concept of a Japanese capsule hotel back in 2002. Faced with the ‘conundrum’ of how to make the concept acceptable in the West, he asked the designer of the British Airways first class cabin to help. Last year was the 10th anniversary of YO! Sushi, the brand which made Simon a household name. Plans for the next few years include Yo! Japan, a fashion label and Yo! Home, luxury apartments.

8. Powerchex

Alexandra Kelly
Alexandra was made redundant just a few weeks before she’d planned to hand in her notice to start her pre-employment candidate screening service for the financial services sector. Her good fortune prevailed – turnover is approaching the million pound mark and the company has enjoyed phenomenal growth since it started in 2005. Current turmoil in the financial sector looks set to keep that growth going strong. Alexandra says she can barely keep up with the increasing amounts of office space needed. The 2007 Startups Awards judges were so impressed with what the company had to offer its clients (a five day turnaround for each candidate) they named Powerchex service business of the year.

9. SportStars

James Taylor
James started his children’s sports coaching business with the £1,000 gift he’d received from his parents on his 21st birthday. James says he was tired of reading stories about the ‘Playstation generation’, so set about getting kids active again with his own sports venture. Three years later SportStars was crowned overall winner at the 2007 Startups Awards. With current turnover standing at £1.2m, James has plans to roll the service out across the UK and eventually worldwide.

10. Plum Baby

Susie Willis
Launched by Susie in 2005 after she recognised a niche for nutritionally balanced baby food, Plum Baby has gone from strength to strength, ending 2007 with a turnover of £3.5m. Susie says one of her big challenges is beating off competition from bigger brands. “You have to be absolutely positive that your idea has as many identifiable ownership elements as possible,” she says. “I know the competition have tried to copy us, but they’ve done it half-heartedly, and they can keep on trying. We keep on innovating, and that’s what enables us to punch above our weight.