Dealchecker.co.uk<\/a>. Secret Escapes is the UK’s largest private sales site for luxury travel, with over 25 million members globally. Last year, Secret Escapes closed its series C round of funding, led by Google Ventures and existing investor, Octopus Investments. Outside of the UK, Secret Escapes operates in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and the USA.<\/p>\nPrior to Secret Escapes, Tom worked in product management and marketing at E-Trader Group and and online ticket exchange service Seatwave. He started his professional career with four years in marketing, strategy and business development at eBay UK. Tom is widely regarded as a formidable product marketeer and all-rounder and cites his objectives as injecting fun into booking hotels and “sending people on great holidays”. His ideal day at work is an even split between strategic discussion and execution.<\/p>\n
Tom has a BA in experimental psychology from the University of Oxford. His favourite hotels are the Olde Bell in Berkshire and the Mill House Inn in East Hampton, New York.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Valentine, 35, has been chief operating officer of Secret Escapes since April 2015. Prior to this, he had been managing director since he co-founded the company in 2010 with Alex Saint and Troy Collins of Dealchecker.co.uk. Secret Escapes is the UK’s largest private sales site for luxury travel, with over 25 million members globally. Last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":48369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,211],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judges","category-judges-2016"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Valentine, 35, has been chief operating officer of Secret Escapes since April 2015. Prior to this, he had been managing director since he co-founded the company in 2010 with Alex Saint and Troy Collins of Dealchecker.co.uk. Secret Escapes is the UK’s largest private sales site for luxury travel, with over 25 million members globally. Last […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"headline\":\"Tom Valentine\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\"},\"wordCount\":210,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Judges\",\"Judges 2016\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\",\"name\":\"Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":390,\"caption\":\"Tom\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Tom Valentine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/\",\"name\":\"Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\",\"description\":\"The UK's No.1 service for starting a business\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\",\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Startups Team\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/author\/thestartupsteam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","og_description":"Tom Valentine, 35, has been chief operating officer of Secret Escapes since April 2015. Prior to this, he had been managing director since he co-founded the company in 2010 with Alex Saint and Troy Collins of Dealchecker.co.uk. Secret Escapes is the UK’s largest private sales site for luxury travel, with over 25 million members globally. Last […]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/","og_site_name":"Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","article_published_time":"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":390,"url":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"The Startups Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Startups Team","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/"},"author":{"name":"The Startups Team","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60"},"headline":"Tom Valentine","datePublished":"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/"},"wordCount":210,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg","articleSection":["Judges","Judges 2016"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/","name":"Tom Valentine - Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-09-13T15:26:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-18T15:26:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Secret_Escapes_TV-head-1-1.jpg","width":640,"height":390,"caption":"Tom"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Tom Valentine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/","name":"Startups Awards by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","description":"The UK's No.1 service for starting a business","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60","name":"The Startups Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c8cd68a78d325e8bbe4f764947a9052a9f89e15edf1385ad33bf583be4d8962?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Startups Team"},"url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/author\/thestartupsteam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/startups-awards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}