Who exactly are The “Alliance of British Entrepreneurs”?

The “Alliance of British Entrepreneurs” are a grassroots totally real and definitely genuine group of concerned startup founders and successful entrepreneurs.

Who have, allegedly, spontaneously been promoted by, supported by, and seem to be associated with, many of the usual outlets and same group of people based at Tufton Street SW1.

They keep appearing in the press, supposedly representing “SMEs” and “Entrepreneurs” according to their website. Their twitter account is full of sarcastic Farage-style trolling and bitterness.

People working for the IEA and associated Tufton Street based lobbyists recommend them and seem keen to cite this “Alliance” as a good place to start to get a real feel for what British business really thinks.

They like to write open letters, demanding hard brexit, that are conveniently published in places like the Telegraph, Westmonster and on various dodgy IEA connected outlets. Always demanding a hard, no deal, angry brexit.



(Check out some of the Alliance’s letters here, or here).

But just who are these 200+ signatories?

Who are these “Entrepreneurs” that go against the grain of pretty much every other startup founder, or employer, outside a handful of loudmouths? We know who the Wetherspoons man, JCB Tory Donor guy and that Singaporean vacuum company are, but who are these real “entrepreneurs”?

We went through the list of signatories, because why not. And no one else seems to have looked into it.



Turns out the grand “Alliance” of “SMEs and entrepreneurs” is partly a collection of random fakes, one man bands, dormant companies, shell Ltds, that do nothing and have no website.

One founder, Tom Bohills, is an employee, a lawyer in the City (so not an entrepreneur). He wrote an article in an IEA front (BrexitCentral) claiming that the “Alliance” will “continue to lobby so British business to once again take its place at the top table of global trade.”

Sounds very grand.

Make up your own mind if the highlights from the signatories we’ve found below will ever take up “a place at the top table of global trade“, or if that is an absurd piece of manufactured, deceptive, Brexitballs by sinister think tanks working to deceive people.

Here are the top 9 (why not) realest, most genuine, definitely not fake, Brexit loving “entrepreneurs“:

1.Geoff Oborne,Owner, Geoff Oborne Gardening Ltd, West Sussex

First things first, there is no such company.

Geoff Oborne Gardening Ltd doesn’t exist.

Geoff appears to be a gardener, the “Alliance” may or may not have made up a fake Ltd company for him, but it certainly stretches credibility to think that this £10/hour sole trader gardener is what the the public might think of as an “entrepreneur”.

He posts stuff about WW2 A LOT. As well as saccharine American “We love our troops” US military stuff on Facebook, on a daily basis, though.

2. Rachael Furness , Director, Hitvo Ltd, Cheshire

Hitvo ltd sound like a successful startup, they’ve been around for 7 years after all (founded 2013).

Impressive.

This is their website:





Hitvo Ltd has assets of £579 and was listed as “Dormant”, i.e. not trading, at companies house in 2017.

Special bonus Entrepreneur!



The “Alliance” includes David Furness, as a separate signatory. Presumably the husband of Rachael Furness of dormant Hitvo Ltd.

He runs “Rapier Star ltd”.

It also seems to be an empty basically dormant company.

Good way to bump up the signatories though, there seem to be quite a few husband and wife “entrepreneur” teams with separate “companies” in the list.

3. Jason Mark Rutter,Managing Director, Jason Mark Rutter Ltd

Jason Mark Rutter is managing director of… Jason Mark Rutter Ltd.

Jason Mark Rutter Ltd has no filed accounts, no website and was incorporated in 2017.

Rutter’s twitter account cryptically says he’s “managing director of a private ltd company”.

Yeah, me neither.

Jason Mark Rutter is named in this Daily Star article about viagra as a UKIP parliamentary candidate though.

Sounds like another “Entrepeneur” ready to take his place at the “Global top table of trade” to me!

4. Phil Valori, Tom Bohills and Edward Harden, “founders” of JustSeats

The three ‘founders’ of JustSeats are the very same people behind the Alliance.

JustSeats.org’s website has an outdated SSL certificate. It doesn’t rank in Google for it’s own brand, “JustSeats”. The website is “under construction”:

These three “entrepreneurs” are actually not businesspeople, they are employees.

One works at Spectra FX another is an in house lawyer in the City, the word “entrepreneur” is a stretch, to say the least.

As for their JustSeats…business… it reports an impressive turnover of £0.00!



As the Alliance say, time to take that seat at the “Global Top Table of Trade!”

5. David Pilsworth,Author, New Novelist

Is this “entrepreneur” a “New Novelist” or an “Author”?



Who knows. Who cares.

His Linkedin says he’s retired.

His CV also says he’s living in Switzerland not the UK.

He’s a fellow of the “Bosnian Pyramid foundation”.

He has also completed a “Pyramid Power Course”.

What is the “Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation”?

It’s a theory that Bosnian “pyramids” (or hills, to non-entrepreneurs) were actually made by aliens, or perhaps ancient humans.



It’s what scientists and experts have called “A cruel hoax” and has been totally debunked by experts as a load of nonsense.

The European Association of Archaelogists are concerned about damage being done to genuine archaeological sites: a medieval Bosnian capital, Roman fortifications, and some even more ancient remains are being damaged by the weirdo conspiracists, digging stuff up.

So naturally, retired, novelist, new author, “entrepreneur”, Pilsworth posts stories on Linkedin about how he digs up the earth in Bosnia to prove ancient aliens made some hills in Bosnia.

Another totally normal, definitely real, “entrepreneur“.

Seems perfect for the Alliance!

6. James Bromley, Director, One Ten OneHundred Ltd, Aberdeenshire

What is the confusingly named One TenHundred Ltd?

No idea.

We can’t find out, because there’s no website. It was incorporated in 2017.

The first micro (tiny) company accounts came out 6 months after the Alliance’s first letter.

So is One TenHundred Ltd the next global success story like Facebook or Wetherspoons?

Well, their accounts report an average number of employees of: “Nil“.

So who knows. There’s still time before Brexit?

7. Mark Wheatley

Common Councilman, City of London

Kevin Dowd

Professor of Finance and Economics, Durham University,

Daniel Hodson

Signing in a personal capacity

Danny Corrigan

Signing in a personal capacity

Sandra Dangoor

Signing in a personal capacity

Manuel Alsoni

Signing in a personal capacity

Lord Flight

Former shadow Conservative chief secretary to the Treasury

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Some more interesting and creative interpretations of the word: “entrepreneur” by the Alliance.

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8. Matthew Snowden,Independent Artist, Matthew Snowden Art

An artist from Wales.

So not an entrepreneur at all.

Nice paintings though.

9. John Davies,Owner, Manufexl, West Glamorgan

Does John Davies exist?

Who knows.

What is Manufexl?

No one can find out, it has no website, there is no Manufexl ltd.

Mr Davies and his invisible company keep getting added to pro-Brexit lists of “entrepreneurs” though.

Sign him up to the Alliance!

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Edit: Mystery solved!

Manufexl actually appears to be “Manufex Ltd”, without the L. (Intentionally faked or just incompetent?).

Manufex Ltd no longer exists, it is now called Catalyst Enterprise Consultants Ltd. It changed name in 1997.

John Davies resigned from Manufex / Manufex Ltd / Catalyst Enterprise Consultants Ltd

….in 1998.

Sign him up to the Alliance of British Entrepreneurs! Ready to “take his place as the top table of Global Trade!”

10. Geoff Townley, Commercial Gas Consultants

The Alliance’s “Chuck Chequers” letter was published in the Telegraph in October 2018.

Geoff Townley’s “Commercial Gas Consultants” had been a dormant company for 4 years already by that time.

In fact, a year before the letter was published, Geoff had submitted an application to dissolve it, in Oct 2017.