Steve Shinn - Managing Director

Steve has been developing online products since 2000, and has played a major role in the development, project management and product development for several major brands including Teletext Holidays, Travel.co.uk, Virgin Holdays, Laterooms.com and Plusnet.

Steve's belief is that a number of established brands have failed to use new technology to improve user experiences, and knows that users are discerning, choosing only the best service with little brand loyalty. He believes that the team he has constructed to launch locallycompared.com, coupled with the correct planning and execution, will develop LocallyCompared into the country's most comprehensive and detailed business information site.

Steve has managed to fit in travelling to 21 different countries, sometimes in style, but mostly not.

Steve's Specialties

Web development, taking calculated risks, being tenacious, making the right decision.

Andy Mitchell - Product Director

Experienced in executive, strategic, technology and sales roles; Andy has been working at the forefront of Web-based product development - and supporting the growth of small to medium sized companies - for nearly a decade.

Fresh from university, Andy produced a bespoke factory management system to provide the logistical foundations for Dakin Flathers' growth from a small, high quality manufacturer with zero IT infrastructure to one of the largest and most efficient industrial blade producers in the world. Soaked with an entrepreneurial spirit, he then went on to found - and earn his first scars from - the award-winning Meecard, before doing more experimental work with new products like GTDInbox, which still enjoys a reputation amongst 100,000 users as a highly innovative system for helping professionals completely manage their daily deluge of email.

Andy is most experienced in crafting and getting implemented the detailed and expansive vision of what the product will be, and then making sure it continues to serve the market.

Rumour has it he once drove an autorickshaw 3000km from Kolkata up into the lower Himalayas, in the monsoon, outmanoeuvring a very angry monkey, before handing what remained of his chariot to a local school.

Andy's Specialties

Product Strategy, Product Design, R&D, Business Development, Promotion and Marketing

Matt Grest - Software Development Director

Matt has worked at the front-line of Internet software development since 1999. He was part of the core team that took Plusnet (a UK Internet Service Provider) from £6m turnover in 1999 to an eventual £67m acquisition by BT in January 2007.

Matt played a lead role in the design and implementation of the UK's most sophisticated ISP provisioning and CRM platform. A methodology of automation and customer self-serve created a platform that made PlusNet the most profitable major ISP in the UK market on a per customer basis.

Matt comes from a technical background with a broad knowledge of Open Source, specifically LAMP, technologies. He has successfully managed multi-million pound project and departmental teams on a range of internal and customer facing projects both at PlusNet and elsewhere.

Matt has successfully completed several offshore transformation projects over the past 3 years at Plusnet and elsewhere; taking existing UK based processes and skills and moving the workflow to newly created offshore teams in India and Poland. As a result of this particular work he has extensive knowledge and contacts around the world in this area.

Matt has a "can do" reputation and is a motivational leader, with the ability to solve a business problem with the appropriate technology and process.

Matt's Specialties

Offshore software development, managing large multi-disciplinary project teams, process automation, product design.

Peter Felter

Peter founded Sovereign Oil together with Graham Burgess in October 2003. From 1991 to 2002 he was a partner and head of the Energy Group at Clyde & Co, the international law firm. He was also previously Chairman of Cliveden Petroleum Co. Ltd and MOS International Plc. He has regularly commentated on energy and financial matters on Bloomberg and the BBC.

He is a qualified Advocate with a LLM from Copenhagen University and obtained his PhD in International Financial Law from Cambridge University.

Peter brings a great deal of experience to the team, and advises on commercial, legal and financial matters.

Peter's Specialities

Company Law, Financial Law, Copywrite Law, Business Processes.

Philip Clarke

Philip is a partner in Leigh Saxton Green, Chartered Accountants.

Philip's Specialities

Company Accounting for Internet Businesses