{"id":672,"date":"2012-10-03T02:33:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T02:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/?p=672"},"modified":"2021-05-18T17:13:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:13:23","slug":"tom-valentine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Tom Valentine, <\/b>31<b> <br>Company:<\/b> Secret Escapes <br><b>Web:&nbsp;<\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.secretescapes.com\">www.secretescapes.com<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Even the most luxurious hotels don&rsquo;t like having empty rooms. It is this plain fact that makes Secret Escapes, founded in 2010, such a great proposition for both customers and hotel and holiday suppliers alike. Secret Escapes negotiates exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the UK and abroad at up to 70% off the price you&rsquo;d pay by booking anywhere else. The founding team has been able to bring extensive digital start-up knowledge and experience to the venture, with Valentine having worked at eBay and Seatwave, and co-founders Alex Saint and Troy Collins from Dealchecker. Investors have flocked to become involved, and include Octopus, Atlas Ventures, Robin Klein (Index), Alex Chesterman (Zoopla), Andy McLoughlin (Huddle) and Sokratis Papafloratis (TrustedPlaces).<\/p>\n<p>Since being named a 2012 Young Gun, Valentines&rsquo; Secret Escapes received a further &pound;8m investment from existing investors Octopus Ventures and Atlas Venture in a funding round led by Index Ventures. The company, which experienced an astonishing 1,400% growth in the 12 months prior to August 2012, is set to use the latest instalment to fund global expansion.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Valentine, 31 Company: Secret Escapes Web:&nbsp;www.secretescapes.com&nbsp; Even the most luxurious hotels don&rsquo;t like having empty rooms. It is this plain fact that makes Secret Escapes, founded in 2010, such a great proposition for both customers and hotel and holiday suppliers alike. Secret Escapes negotiates exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":42905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-of-2012"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns 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\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Valentine, 31 Company: Secret Escapes Web:&nbsp;www.secretescapes.com&nbsp; Even the most luxurious hotels don&rsquo;t like having empty rooms. It is this plain fact that makes Secret Escapes, founded in 2010, such a great proposition for both customers and hotel and holiday suppliers alike. Secret Escapes negotiates exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images.staging.startups.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"254\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\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\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"headline\":\"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\"},\"wordCount\":189,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Class of 2012\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2012\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\",\"name\":\"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg\",\"width\":254,\"height\":180,\"caption\":\"Secret Escapes: Tom Valentine\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/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\/young-guns\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Alumni\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/alumni\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Class of 2012\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/alumni\/class-of-2012\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/\",\"name\":\"Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business\",\"description\":\"The UK&#039;s No.1 starting a business resource\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\",\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@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\/young-guns\/author\/thestartupsteam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns 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\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","og_description":"Tom Valentine, 31 Company: Secret Escapes Web:&nbsp;www.secretescapes.com&nbsp; Even the most luxurious hotels don&rsquo;t like having empty rooms. It is this plain fact that makes Secret Escapes, founded in 2010, such a great proposition for both customers and hotel and holiday suppliers alike. Secret Escapes negotiates exclusive rates for luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/","og_site_name":"Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","article_published_time":"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":254,"height":180,"url":"https:\/\/images.staging.startups.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.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\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/"},"author":{"name":"The Startups Team","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60"},"headline":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes","datePublished":"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/"},"wordCount":189,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg","articleSection":["Class of 2012"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2012","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/","name":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes - Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-03T02:33:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-18T16:13:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/tom-valentine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/images-startupsv3.ecs.stg7.eu-west-1.mvfglobal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Secret_Escapes_174-copy.jpg","width":254,"height":180,"caption":"Secret Escapes: Tom Valentine"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/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\/young-guns\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Alumni","item":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/alumni\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Class of 2012","item":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/alumni\/class-of-2012\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Tom Valentine: Secret Escapes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/","name":"Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business","description":"The UK&#039;s No.1 starting a business resource","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60","name":"The Startups Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@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\/young-guns\/author\/thestartupsteam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.startups.co.uk\/young-guns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}