4. Trustedplaces.com

Founders: Sokratis Papafloratos, Walid Al Saqqaf
Website: www.trustedplaces.com

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.”