r/ukstartups

I've been trying to choose a business account for a new venture and it's been more confusing than I expected. every thread seems to recommend something different, and once you start comparing features, the just use x advice doesn't really hold up.....One thing that kept coming up for me was making tax digital. I noticed starling has mtd income tax filing built into the business account, which seems useful if you're trying to keep costs down and avoid paying for extra software. That definitely put it high on my shortlist.
I also looked at revolut, ANNA money, monzo business and Tide. They all seem to have their strengths, but it's hard to know what's actually worth paying for when you're just starting out and every monthly cost matters.
For those of u already running a business in the uk, what did you end up choosing, and if you were starting again today, would you still go with the same account?

I'm involved with 3 startups, 2 of which are institutional finance type plays in agriculture and nature markets, but I'm also co-founder for a consumer product brand for a clinical dose liquid collagen.

Our marketing angle is sports recovery and we have a branded polo team playing all season that makes for great looking social content

I need a cash injection for advertising and scaling globally, we are live in the UK and China via CBEC, and tried all the usual routes, government backed schemes etc and no finance company will make loans without cashflow. Chicken and egg.

Other than spamming angel investors on LinkedIn, I've got no other ideas on how to find investors.

Any good crowd funding options?

Hey everyone!

I'm a CS student and I've been building websites for small businesses and startups. Recently finished projects for a boxing coach, a dental clinic and a cleaning company among others.

If you or anyone you know needs a clean professional website, deployed within a few days, starting from £200 for a fully deployed one page site with everything set up.

Happy to show examples before you commit to anything. No obligation at all.

Quick idea I'm exploring — honest feedback welcome.

It's called Recall. You see something on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, wherever — you tap share → save to Recall. That's it. Same for photos, videos,screenshots, PDFs, notes, links.

AI automatically organises and categorises everything for you. No folders, no tags, no effort.

Then later you just ask for it in plain English:

"What was that restaurant I saved in Rome?"
"Show me my Spain holiday."
"Find my insurance documents."

It also catches important dates buried in what you save — insurance renewals, passport expiry, flight check-ins, subscriptions — and reminds you before they sneak up on you. That alone has saved me from a few late fees in my head already.

Nothing built yet. Just trying to find out:
→ Do you lose track of things you save too?
→ Would you actually use this?
→ what would make it indispensable for you?

Be honest, even brutally 🙂

Hi all,

I'm on a career break after 10+ years in senior roles (set up the project management & product function at a startup through acquisition; most recently VP at a deeptech consultancy working with clients from early-stage startups to FTSE100).

I'd like to give some time back to the startup community. Whether a one-off chat, a couple of hours a week of advice, or getting more hands-on if there's a specific gap I can fill, I'm open minded and flexible.

My background spans product/project management, ops, commercial & BD, and scaling teams, in both delivery and strategy. This has been mostly in embedded software and hardware, but the skills transfer across sectors. Main strength is taking high-risk, uncertain, early-stage product or tech development (including in regulated industries) and getting it over the line and out of the door.

Happy to have a no-pressure, no obligation chat to hear what you're building, where you're stuck, and what help I can give. Happy answer any questions here or DM me if that could be useful to you.

I am a Rust Developer with 2-3 years of experience, I am looking to network with people that have experience in making physical products, or have a basic understanding of 3d printing and PCBs.

Looking for a technical co-founder to build a UK-based mobile app. I’m not an expert developer, but I understand products, AI tools, marketing and user research. Looking for someone who’s passionate about building something from the ground up. Happy to chat and share more over a call.

Hi everyone,

Over the past year we've been building COPA One, an AI accountant designed specifically for UK businesses.

We're now looking for around 20 business owners to test the platform before we officially launch.

All we're asking is that you:

• Create a free account
• Use the platform as you normally would
• Let us know what you like, what you don't, and what could be improved

As a thank you, we'll send you a £30 Amazon voucher once you've completed a short feedback call.

The platform is currently completely free, including all Pro features, while we're in beta.

You can try it here:

copaone.org.uk

Once you've had a chance to use it, just email hello@copa.org.uk with the subject "COPAOne Beta Feedback", and we'll arrange a short 20–30 minute call.

We're genuinely looking for honest feedback. If something is confusing, broken or missing, we'd much rather hear that now than after launch.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help us build something better for UK businesses.

Following on from my previous posts in here about trying to build an AI grant writing assistant that doesn't output generic corporate fluff... I wanted to start by saying a massive thank you to everyone in this community who joined our private beta and sent over feedback. Your input over the last months genuinely shaped the entire platform, and we couldn't have built this without you!

When Innovate UK announced their big overhaul to how grants work, rumors started floating around about shifts toward interview-led scoring and revamped assessment models. As someone who has spent the last year building and tweaking software specifically aligned with Innovate UK’s evaluation frameworks, I genuinely thought that months of development work was about to be rendered obsolete.

The irony of Innovate UK unintentially destroying a fledgling startup is not lost on me! But luckily that reality never materialised.

I spent the last few days doing a deep dive into the new assessor guidance for the newly launched competitions (like Breakthrough Next Wave) to see what had actually changed compared to the old SMART format.

The good news? It’s mostly business as usual. The core underlying requirements haven't disappeared. But there are definitely a few interesting shifts in how they are evaluating projects now:

1. A distinctly "VC-Style" focus on the team
Under the old SMART format, team details were lumped together into a broad delivery question alongside project management and risk registers. In the new format, Innovate UK has elevated "Team and Resources" into its own standalone 10-point scored question. And, for the first time, they require a dedicated 2-page PDF appendix exclusively summarising the key people. It feels much more like a VC pitch deck team slide, where who is building the project is given equal weighting to what is being built.

2. Deconstruction into 10 questions (from 6)
Instead of 6 broad questions, the application is now split into 10 distinct sections. For example, "Potential Market" is now split into two independent sections: Market Awareness (drivers & UK position) vs Outcomes & Route to Market (business models & commercialisation). Each section requires much more specific, targeted data rather than high-level summaries.

3. Work Package costing & subcontractor scrutiny
Project management and risks now have their own dedicated sections and individual 2-page appendices (GANTT chart and Risk Register). On top of that, applicants now have to explicitly break down the exact financial cost of every single work package and provide heavy justification for why subcontractors are critical rather than doing work in-house. ZenGrant scoring rubric already required these details, but it's interesting to see them specified in the question now.

4. A sneaky 43% increase in total written content
While individual questions are now capped at 400 words each (under the old SMART calls, major sections like Innovation or Impact allowed up to 600 words), the new 10-question layout actually increases the total narrative length significantly. The old SMART scored sections totaled 2,800 words; the new layout requires 4,000 words. You are writing 1,200 more words in total, but you have less room in each section to explain complex technical ideas, forcing extremely dense and concise writing. Oh and if you actually want to find the word counts, you need to begin an application in the portal. Why aren't they listed on the call pages and docs?!

Combining your beta feedback with these new Innovate UK evaluation frameworks gave us the kick up the backside we needed to rebuild our core scoring engine and officially launch. ZenGrants is now live as a full platform, with features designed specifically for these stricter rules:

• Strict assessor rubric: The Discovery Assistant evaluates your inputs through the lens of a strict Innovate UK assessor, starting from a critical baseline and looking specifically for concrete data, quantified targets, and risk management before giving a pass mark.
• Transparent score deductions: Instead of just giving a black-box percentage, it shows you a breakdown of what gaps and weaknesses exist in your current draft so you know precisely what's lacking.
• Defer gaps to Deep Research: If a question requires heavy market analysis or details you do not have on hand, you can now defer it directly to the Deep Research stage. This waives the warning in Discovery so you can focus on your core plan.

We have officially transitioned out of private beta and launched ZenGrants as a paid platform! But as a huge thank you to this community for supporting the build from day one, I want to give back.

If you are currently writing or preparing an Innovate UK grant and want to test out the new and improved engine, send me a DM and I’ll activate a full 2-week free trial for your account.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us get to this point, and good luck with the new grant rounds!

Hi everyone,
I’m Ryan, a 20-year-old founder based in the UK. I’m looking for a technical co-founder or future CTO who would be interested in helping me build a software company from an early stage.
The company is called Noxki, and the first product I’m developing is Solaknox, a software platform for UK solar installation companies.
The aim is to bring quoting, roof design, customer management and project workflows into one platform. Many solar installers still rely on spreadsheets, separate systems and manual processes, which can make quoting and managing installations slower than it needs to be.
The long-term vision includes:
Solar quote and system calculations

Satellite roof mapping and panel placement

Customer and lead management

Editable proposals and pricing

Survey and installation workflows

Customer communication

Compliance and project tracking

I have already created a website and an early interactive demo to show the idea and customer journey. I am not a software engineer, but I have been using AI coding tools to develop the concept and understand what needs to be built.
I’m looking for someone who:
Has experience with full-stack web development

Is interested in SaaS, renewable energy or start-ups

Can help make technical and product decisions

Is comfortable joining at a very early stage

Wants to build a real business rather than work on a short freelance project

Is reliable, ambitious and willing to speak directly with potential customers

This would initially be a co-founder opportunity rather than a highly paid position. Equity and ownership would need to be discussed carefully based on commitment, skills, responsibilities and what each person contributes.
I’m also open to developing the idea together. I do not expect someone to simply build everything I have already planned. I want a technical co-founder who can challenge the idea, improve the product and help decide what the first realistic version should include.
My strengths are the product vision, learning the market, finding potential customers, gathering feedback, sales and building the business side. I’m looking for someone whose technical strengths complement mine.
I understand that an idea alone is not enough. My intention is to validate the problem with solar installers, build a focused MVP, find pilot customers and develop the company properly.

Please message me if interested would love to talk 

I keep seeing founders say they’ve “validated” an idea because a few people liked it, joined a waitlist, or gave positive feedback on LinkedIn.

That feels useful, but not always strong enough to make decisions on pricing, positioning or who the first real customer segment should be. I’ve been looking at more structured research options too, including Vision One B2B market research service, because proper customer interviews or surveys seem harder to fake than polite feedback.

For UK founders, what level of validation would you trust before spending serious money on build or launch?

Hi all,

My partner and I built a platform for a new approach to networking based on serendipity. Once a month you're matched with one other female founder in the UK for a 30-minute virtual coffee. No pitching, no event, no group chat that goes quiet. Just one conversation.
It's a paid subscription (£4.50/mo the price of a coffee cup).

I am not looking for validation but for reasons you'd say no:

-If you've tried to find founder peers before, what did you actually do, and what went wrong?

-What would stop you subscribing: the price, the random match, virtual-not-in-person, monthly being too rare?

-Does "matched with a stranger" sound exciting or stressful?

-Regarding the landing page: in five seconds, is it obvious what you get and why you'd pay? Where exactly do you bounce?

We are focusing on female entrepreneurs for now but we have plan to expand so we would still be interested from feedback from other people.

Thank you for the support, Christy and Alex

ps: head to www.gosip.chat if you want to have a look at the platform.

https://preview.redd.it/bblszdlse8ah1.png?width=1706&format=png&auto=webp&s=b064206f9c9af0dd59b5644d2880e2b20d871f7c

Hey!

I'm learning brand identity design.

I am looking for 5 UK/EU small businesses to use as case studies.

If you'd be happy for me to review your branding let me know.

📍UK/EU businesses only

Looking for Cofounder
Sweat Equity Only
Startup Ready

Hey everyone. I’m a solo developer from the UK and I’ve spent the last year building a full live music SaaS ecosystem called Playlistr. This isn’t an idea or a half finished MVP. It’s three fully built, deployed and branded apps that are live right now.

Playlistr LIVE lets crowds interact with artists at gigs.
Playlistr Connect is a simple and clean artist booking platform.
Playlistr FanCam lets fans upload and view event photos instantly.

All three apps are live on their own subdomains with proper UI and UX. The product side is done. I can design it, build it, deploy it and maintain it. What I can’t do is the marketing and sales side. I don’t have the budget for ads or agencies and I’m not naturally wired for outreach.

I’m looking for someone who actually enjoys the growth side. Someone who likes talking to venues and artists, building partnerships, doing outreach and getting a product in front of people. If that sounds like you, I’m open to bringing you in on a sweat equity basis. You take ownership of the marketing and growth side and you get a real stake in the company.

If you want to join a project that’s already built instead of starting from scratch, send me a message and I’ll share the links so you can check everything out properly.

Cheers.

I'm working on a novel drone concept that has significantly longer flight times and increased payload capacity.

The prototype is built and flying, I'm in the process of potentially getting a patent on aspects of the drone.

I'm now looking towards potential seed funding (likely we'll have the smallest possible MVP but will need CAA approval which will take time and money).

Likely via a VC as our 2-3 year roadmap to full CAA approval will cost somewhere between £1.7m and £2.5m across the 3 years (expensive software engineers, expensive aeronautical engineers, CAA compliance specialists, etc.)

I'm trying to get a good estimate on how much money we need before we get funding.

Conscious that we need to make sure the company is structured properly and for that we'll need a decent accountant and decent solicitor, with experience in launching "deep tech" start ups.

How much does that cost, roughly, and what/when so you need to pay.

If there is anyone on here with real world experience it would be good to hear your story/costs/timelines/payment deadlines in relation to receiving funding.

Also, anything else I've missed/not thought about?

Thanks in advance.

Hey guys! I'm a founder myself who has been in multiple businesses, like SaaS for offline retailers, designer furniture manufacturing and Restaurant. And i'm visiting UK in the next month and wanted to explore the startup culture of UK. What people are actually building? Is it D2C, B2B, Hardware, or more concentrated towards AI? Hoping to explore and learn more.

Hi all, I'm starting an ai-native tech company in east anglia to work on a very interesting and impactful problem.. I'm looking to meet with local software developers and to build my network in the area. Could anyone help with any intros? Thanks!

I run an established small model railway ecommerce business in the UK and I’m researching a possible ticketed visitor attraction in York built around model railways, hands-on exhibits, learning, family visits and retail.

This is not a software or trendy tech startup and it is not pretending to be one. It would be a physical premises-based business with capex, staffing, seasonality, rent, fit-out costs and all the awkward realities that come with visitor attractions.

The concept has some obvious strengths:

• York is already a strong visitor destination
• railways fit the city’s identity
• model railways have multigenerational appeal
• there is potential for tickets, retail, workshops, memberships, schools/groups and events
• I already operate in the specialist model railway market

But I’m trying to be clear-eyed about the weak points:

• it may need around £500k external funding
• it probably will not deliver venture-scale returns
• angel investors may like the idea emotionally but still reject the return profile
• grants, sponsorship, debt, community finance or a CIC-style structure may be more appropriate than straight equity
• the founder-risk is real, because the current business still needs running

I’m looking for challenge rather than encouragement.

For a niche physical attraction like this, what would make it investable?

What evidence would you expect before taking the funding case seriously?

Would angels be the wrong target unless they are strongly mission/hobby aligned?

And what funding route would you explore before giving away equity?

Hi!

I'm Peet, founder of TEKKA Finance (Companies House 17109250), and I'm looking for a few beta testers :)

Quick version of what we do: if you were a higher-rate taxpayer (£50k+) on a workplace pension at any point in the last 4 tax years, there's a good chance you're owed pension tax relief you never claimed. Most "relief at source" schemes only add the basic 20% automatically — the extra 20% that higher-rate earners are owed isn't automatic, and if you never filed Self Assessment you almost certainly never claimed it. It averages around £1,756 a year, backdatable four years.

Why I'm posting here: as a founder you're probably not eligible on today's income (those pesky VCs asking us to keep our salaries low!) — but a lot of us were engineers, PMs, or other salaried employees before you started up, and that window is exactly what's claimable. The relief from a job you left two years ago is still sitting there.

How it works: we check your scheme qualifies, calculate what you're owed, and prepare the claim. You sign and submit it yourself, and the repayment goes straight from HMRC to you — we never handle your money. Our fee: 10% of whatever you recover, nothing if you recover nothing, no upfront cost. Our first alpha testers are already seeing the money turn up in their accounts :)

What I'd like from a beta tester: ~30 minutes to run the process and tell me where it's confusing or doesn't earn your trust. I'd rather you tell me what's broken than be polite.

You're likely a fit if you were employed (PAYE) on £50k+ in the last 4 years, paying into a workplace or personal pension (Nest, Aviva, Scottish Widows, L&G and similar), and never claimed higher-rate relief. Not sure which scheme you were on? Checking that is part of the job.

Start here: https://tekka.uk — happy to take questions in the comments too.

I'm a former CTO and chief architect from the financial sector, and have just finished doing a few years as a VC. I've been working on TEKKA since March, we got our first clients in 3 weeks and our first revenue after 3 months.

Happy to chat on here about how I built my system and how I'm going to market.

Cheers!