"Your degree won't qualify you as a highly skilled worker"
An Advanced UK-issued degree, relevant to the appointment, may be an exception. But absent that, the general rule on "expertise" ~= you are the only person in the EU with such. Alternatively, if your appointment is at "Board Level" (Ceo, Director, etc.) there is an exemption, so you may qualify as a "co-founder" (if such an opporunity were to arise).
The devil is in details, however. Granular and somewhat varying year-to-year.