Andy Chatterley, founder of tech company MUSO, is 72nd on the UK Tech 100 list of the coolest people in UK tech compiled by Business Insider, the respected online trade magazine.
The list includes chief executives of start-ups, journalists, investors and PR people.
And Mr Chatterley (44) has been placed in front of such business luminaries as Lastminute.com founder-turned-investor Brent Hoberman, the co-founder and chief executive of car website Carwow, James Hind, and Baroness Lane-Fox.
‘It’s a brilliant thing and I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found out – there are some great people on that list,’ said Mr Chatterley, who is a Grammy Award-nominated record producer and is married to singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot.
The couple, who divide their time between London and Jersey, have co-written songs for international stars including Kylie Minogue, and Mr Chatterley added keyboards and synthesizer to Kanye West’s track Stronger – helping to catapult the tune to the UK number one chart spot in 2007.
He started tech company MUSO, which helps rights-holders tackle online piracy by helping them understand how it works, in 2009. ‘It’s providing a solution to online piracy – we understand and measure the audience and the piracy network,’ he explained.
In a statement on its website, Business Insider said it sorted through the biggest names in UK tech to compile the list.
‘We define “cool” as having done influential and interesting things – whether it’s getting a new job, raising money or something more off the wall,’ it said.
Mr Chatterley, whose wife is releasing her sixth studio album today [Friday], insisted that the recognition was for his ‘cool’ company and not himself. ‘It’s about the company doing something great or “cool” for the wider entertainment industry,’ he added.
His company monitors all major forms of piracy activity, including web downloads, public and private torrents, and streaming, across more than 200 countries.
‘We work with over 1,000 entertainment companies globally and actively protect their digital content online and provide insights, to help them understand exactly how their digital content is being consumed across the piracy networks and audiences,’ explained Mr Chatterley.
‘We tracked more than
191 billion global visits to websites hosting unlicensed content in 2016 alone.’
MUSO is based in London and has a development and operations team in Romania, as well as three satellite offices in Europe and America.
In June the company – which currently employs 32 people – raised £2.5 million-worth of funding from Jersey-based Harwell Capital.
Mr Chatterley said that aside from the service it offered, MUSO’s in-office vibe could also be classed as cool.
‘Although we work hard, we also encourage a fun environment for our team which includes table football and popcorn on tap,’ he added.
