JP Lewin

Foundy

Head to one of the links in my profile’s *Featured* section to learn more about how we have transformed M&A through Foundy's AI agents and expert advisory service. 

When millions can be gained (or lost) during and after an acquisition event, it is vital that business owners and buyers surround themselves with the right deal flow, community, tools, and expert advisors that specialise in their market niche for their long term acquisition planning and transaction processes. Yet, the process has historically been riddled with inefficiencies, eye watering fees and fragmented processes that leaves stakeholders at a disadvantage.

Foundy offers 2 sell side products and specialist advisory services:

The first is long term exit planning (6 to 36 months from selling): 
1a.) Detailed business valuation report
1b.) Exit readiness score and growth roadmap packed with helpful step by step support and tools
1c.) Tailored buyer list with contact details and insights into how you can position your business to make it as attractive as possible for an acquisition. This has helped businesses unlock millions in additional value. 

Our second product is Deal Execution for business owners ready to sell in the near term
2a.) Centralised deal management portal enabled by AI
b.) Expert advisors, including Foundy's seasoned team and hand selected specialist from you (our client)'s specific industry niche. We will ready your business for sale, find buyers, secure higher acquisition offers and then navigate the end to end DD and legal document process.

On the buy side:
Our popular Buyer Essentials package grants buyers access to an exclusive business buyer community where they access a high profile network and valuable resources. It is designed to set them on a path towards a successful acquisition, including improving their access to quality deal flow, funding and more.

Head to Foundy.com to learn more

Founder and CEO

Focal

Foundy was voted in the top 3 companies out of 1900 (0.16%) that applied to competitive demo day called Focal. This was based on the number of upvotes pre-demo day and the number of meeting requests post-demo day.

S23 Alumni - Voted In Top 3 out of 1900 companies

Pavilion

Pavilion is a community-powered learning platform for B2B SaaS go-to-market executives and their teams.

Executive Member

Revenue Syndicate

Revenue Syndicate is a platform for B2B Saas leaders and angels to access a high-quality deal flow of investment opportunities. It was founded by leading experts in the market and has since become a 500 + member community.

Member and Angel Investor

ZWINGS

Zwings is a SaaS enabled marketplace. At the time of acquisition, we had 80,000 customers and retained major contracts for 4 consecutive extension periods, including one of the UK's most lucrative contracts. We repeatedly outcompeted companies with over 100x more funding than us in head to head tenders. I had a team of 16 staff which increased to 30 during the high season. 

We ran an M&A process after we were contacted by various prospective acquirers. In Q3 of 2022, the company was acquired by Zeus. The acquirer added Zwings' locations to their network of 45+ cities across Europe and Asia. In the year that followed the parent company's valuation doubled. 

I originally founded Zwings as a B2B SaaS electric transport solution provider for hotels and corporate offices. After COVID enforced lengthy stay-at-home orders and the hotel and commercial property markets were some of the worst affected, we had to quickly adapt. We made a successful pivot. We were able to onboard investors and skilled employees which helped us win and retain lucrative contracts. Our business model involved SaaS subscriptions and pay-as-you-go services. We built a streamlined operational model that involved a rotating team working 7 days a week around the clock to swap batteries in scooters and relocate vehicles for different geolocations relative to expected usage. 

We began receiving interest from various rivals and companies in the wider sector looking to acquire ZWINGS which led to our team initiating an M&A process. After a complex exit journey involving multiple bidders, Zwings was acquired for a deal comprising a combination of cash and equity. The M&A process was complex, drawn out and expensive and I have since met a lot of people that also experienced this with their exits. I learned a great deal scaling and exiting Zwings, both personally and professionally. Now, I am on a passion driven mission to drag the antiquated exit process into the digital age.

Founder and CEO (exited via M&A)

Urban Futures Podcast

I produced several podcast videos where I interviewed incredible leaders who are pioneering disruptive change in the transport and sustainability sectors and wider industries.

Founder and Host

Lektron Networks Power Controls

Between my second and final year at business school, I spent 2 months shadowing the founder of a renewable energy systems supplier. They specialise in electrical refurbishments inside hundreds of homes and offices across the south of England. I primarily supported the accounts team to help manage the company's finances. I gained a key insight into the mechanics behind reneweable energy and the wider cost and environmental impact of transitioning to greener systems.

Renewable Energy - Summer Accountant

CEO Foundy: sell & acquire £100k to £15m revenue businesses via Foundy.com's first of its kind AI powered acquisition portal | You no longer need 5 separate tools and 4 advisors, Foundy has all in one portal.

Warm Welcome! 👋 Considering selling or buying a company in the near or long term? Or maybe you want to help your community of business owners or buyers by referring them to Foundy.com and earning by doing so? Explore the links in my profile’s featured section to learn more.

1.) Business Sellers - Experienced advisory team + AI agents trained in historical acquisitions in your market to provide you the most optimal route to a successful acquisition

2. Business Buyers - Off market Deal origination and due diligence reports to find more deal flow and vet them more effectively. 

3.) Exited Founders -  Join our fast growing WhatsApp group for exited founders 

Deeper insights into our product:

1. **Industry-Leading AI**: This scans the entire internet to look for signals that indicate possible buyer interest for your business. We also centralise and streamline client’s growth and exit process, positioning you for the best exit deal.

2. **Specialist Advisors & Account Managers**: Our team collaborates with experts from each client’s market niche, providing tailored guidance and ensuring a seamless experience. 

We don’t compete with traditional advisors. Instead, we collaborate through a partner programme, sharing fees to tap into even the most niche buyer segments. Whether you're planning an exit soon or are already in the process, our tools, network, and advice can help you secure the best deal. Book a confidential call via our website or direct message me to give you free insights. 

**For Buyers:**  
Foundy.com offers buyers access to deal flow, networking events, due diligence tools, 1000 + lenders and educational resources to streamline sourcing and transactions. Meet M&A teams at publicly traded companies, exited founders, fund managers and acquisition entrepreneurs. 

**About Foundy.com** 
With over 14,000 self registered users, Foundy.com had modernised the M&A process. We used to operate a marketplace as our primary business model but we have learned that the best businesses don’t want to list on a marketplace, they want a specialist advisor that can empower them with the tools, knowledge, buyer network and support they need to successfully navigate the process. Our team includes M&A experts and seasoned entrepreneurs, all driven to modernise the M&A landscape on behalf of business owners across the UK, USA and beyond.

Let’s discuss your goals.  
[Book a Call: https://calendly.com/joe-7yw/30min?back=1&month=2024-03 

*(No recruiters, please)*

Foundy has overhauled the acquisition process for tech business sellers and acquirers. We are specialists in helping founders ready their business for an exit, including preparing their data room and finding relevant acquirers. Alternatively, founders and buyers can use our platform for free on a self-serve basis if they prefer. 

Buyer accounts include representatives of large tech companies, private equity and software aggregators as well as acquisition entrepreneurs and family offices. Sellers include founders of mostly profitable online businesses in verticals such as SaaS, fintech, mobile apps, marketplaces, eCommerce, Amazon FBA, Web3 and AI but we are very much open to hearing from companies in other sectors and industries, as well as distressed businesses. 

Alongside a range of digital tools and M&A advisory services, I am helping my team to produce podcasts, tutorials and blogs with the intention of delivering helpful insights and tips to company leaders, buyers and aspiring entrepreneurs on their journey to exit 💵

Join today by creating a free and anonymous account or sign up to our newsletter on https://app.foundy.com/sign-up

Joe Lewin

If you care about AI, this is today’s headline.

Disney just signed a 3-year licensing deal with OpenAI and is investing $1bn equity investment into the company.

Here’s what’s actually in the deal:

1. Users on Sora can generate short AI videos with 200+ characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars
2. The best fan-inspired clips will appear on Disney+
3. OpenAI gets exclusive generative rights for year one
4. OpenAI cannot train its models on Disney IP
5. No real actor faces or voices, with heavy guardrails around that

The context is what makes this so big. A few months ago, Disney and other studios were blocking Sora and calling it a “significant legal risk.”

So, yesterday they were firing off copyright letters to other AI giants.
Now today they’re OpenAI’s first major content-licensing partner and a $1bn investor.

Disney CEO Bob Iger is already saying this is about licensed use and respecting creative work, not replacing it.

Sam Altman gets capital and a flagship Hollywood partner at a time when model-training costs are exploding.

So you end up with this:

Disney is hedging the future of its IP.

 OpenAI is clearing a legal and commercial path for Sora.

Together they’ve just drawn a blueprint for how AI and big IP might work together.

What do you see this as most: a smart copyright strategy, a lifeline for OpenAI, or the start of a new AI/ entertainment playbook?

Joe Lewin 

AI Native Route To Sell & Buy Companies | DealFlowAgent.com | Helping business owners & Acquirers find one another through conversational AI and navigate through to completion 3x faster

Big news for UK business owners today! 🚨

The proposed exit tax has been pulled from Friday’s Budget plans!

Credit to the 150 plus Startup Coalition signatories. A clear example of what aligned voices can achieve.

The U turn helps, but the initial message still lingers... The proposal for a 20 percent charge on unrealised gains unsettled founders, investors and acquirers across the UK.

Removing it was the right call. The UK cannot afford policies that discourage innovation or investment.

Recent signals people in the market have been talking about:

- founders exploring relocation conversations
- investors slowing deals due to uncertainty
- advisers flagging valuation volatility
- sentiment becoming as big a risk as the policy itself

These are signals, not predictions. But they show why policy clarity matters.

the UK is still a strong ecosystem! Global interest has not disappeared. It's still Europe's hub for innovation, for now, and the 3rd largest market for small cap M&A globally. 
 
YCombinator just release the first company for their winter cohort and it is a UK startup! Plus, we've just raised capital from US based investors. 

The proposal is off the table for this Budget. Now the question is whether confidence rebounds.

What is your take? Does this move restore confidence, or has the damage already been done?

Picture shows an image of the budget announcement with the red briefcase. 

Most founders waste months on buyers who were never serious.

You get an inbound from a potential acquirer. Spirits are high. 
First call booked.
They’re “keen.”

You share numbers. Share plans. Share hope.

Then it drags for weeks or months, unnecessarily.
More calls. More emails. Hidden intent. Then
Silence.
Or “new concerns.”
Or... they never had funding.

This is what happens when signals get lost.

The hard truth: buyer calls are broken.
Too polite (especially in the UK). Too vague.
Too easy for time-wasters.

So we changed it.

We’re building one of the largest, fastest-growing living relationship graphs of active acquirers through our conversational AI, Sterling. He optimises for the 'signal to noise' ratio

Users know his voice is AI but they seem to be building genuine rapport with human (business buyers, some are even hosting long and regular calls with him. 

Sterling surfaces what buyers truly want, what they’ll never touch, and how serious they really are.

No one can fake that.
Time-wasters show in minutes, not months.

I’ve watched founders burn out chasing tyre-kickers.
Now deals move faster because buyers put their cards on the table early.

You can’t scale trust with hope.
You can scale insight with the right questions, asked early.

Want to see how Sterling separates real buyers from the rest?
Comment INSIGHT and I’ll share a high-level framework

thank you Timothy Armoo! Our buy side conversational AI is seeing a serious surge in interest in local service niches, including property services and healthcare. 

Our friendly AI agent, Sterling, is hosting human like conversations with buyers to hear about their nuance search criteria so that we can make warm intro's, where they can, to qualified deal flow. 

(think Boardy.ai or Jack & Jill but specifically for connecting buyers and sellers for small cap M&A.)

Dental, HVAC, Plumbing, Electricians, Emergency Services... and other future proof niches - all moving.

buyers are actively looking for profitable, healthy businesses in the 1-10 million revenue range with recurring revenue models and local defensibility.

if you're a business owner considering a move, whether retiring or moving to your next project, or a business buyer, let's chat.

Join The UK’s Biggest Live Event On January 10th In My Featured Section ⬇️

These businesses will never trend on Twitter.

But they make more than 99% of start-ups.

Everyone's chasing the next AI startup while plumbers are quietly banking £2M a year.
These businesses are insane, and often overlooked.

The pattern is obvious:

- Local service roll-ups
- Boring B2B software
- Unsexy recurring revenue
- Infrastructure nobody thinks about

Steal these business ideas before everyone else catches on. 👇


P.S. If you have a business and you’re thinking of selling in the next 6-24 months, I’ve got something for you. At DealFlowAgent, we help you strategise the path to your exit to get you the best price possible. Send me a message if you want to know more.

These 7 Boring Businesses Make Stupid Money

Tag a trusted operator or thought leader in either property services or healthcare – dinner on us.

Who are the well-respected people across these two verticals and sub-niches?

🏘 Property services: pest control, HVAC, roofing, landscaping, fire safety, solar, electricians, plumbing and data centres etc.

🏥 Healthcare: dental clinics, care homes, outpatient centres, vets etc.

Tag any of the following in the comments below:

 ✓ Service provider or operator
 ✓ Journalist or blogger in these sectors
 ✓ Thought leader on LinkedIn or Meta
 ✓ Anyone else with a strong network of business owners in these niches

If someone you tag ends up partnering with us, we’ll send both of you a dinner gift card for two, as a thank-you. 

Know someone who fits this? Tag them in the comments below.

If they might be in your network, a like or repost helps this reach the right people and might unlock a life-changing opportunity for them.

If that’s you, let’s talk.

The biggest discount on your exit rarely happens on paper. It happens in the first few conversations.

If you do not control the story early, you lose leverage in price and terms.

Preparation is clarity. Contracts, margins, team, and tidy process.

We help owners tighten that story and meet only serious, funded buyers.

I put together a private Home Services Exit Pack

Story Sheet, Buyer Question Set, Contract Visibility template, and the UK and US proof stacks on one page.

Using this pack helps owners tighten the story, reduce buyer pushback, and improve leverage in real negotiations.

Direct message me 'HS-Exit' and I will send it privately.


#HVAC #firesafety #pestcontrol #drainage #electrician #HomeServices #BusinessSale #MergersAndAcquisitions #ExitPlanning #DealFlowAgent

How to sell your home services business

Table for Ten

Built for investors. (We host monthly dinners for investors and some founders, DM for more)

Founded in 2024, Table for Ten is built around the theme of connections, relationships and people-first.

For years, the ecosystem has been riddled with backroom dealings, exclusive clubs and non-inclusive investments.

We're not changing that.
We're just different.

Co-founder - Operating Partner

Twinn Health

With Twinn’s advanced AI and MRI technology, you gain early insights into potential health risks like cancer, long before symptoms appear. Get ahead of the curve—because having the facts today means a healthier tomorrow.

Chief Revenue Officer

Squared

Squared - We make ​founders better ​fundraisers.


I also help with:

- Fractional COO/CCO (Paid)
- Startup Advisory (Paid/Equity)
- Idea to Revenue (Paid)

Clients include:
- TOSHI
- Bodo
- Evermile
- Klymb
- Deliverwize
- XeroE
- Voyage
- Cobi
- UProspr
- PediVan
- Hatch

Founder

UProspr

Connecting employers with talented people, without bias.

UProspr Language Bias Decoder helps you instantly decode hidden stereotypes in your text, catapulting your recruitment process towards true diversity.

The tool is perfect for recruiters, talent managers, and business professionals who want to make a difference.

Strategic Advisor

Cobi

Cobi, is your personal money guru, one that is a tap away living on your smartphone to help you understand your money and spend it wisely. Achieving financial independence is challenging and not understanding money makes that 10x harder, Cobi is here to make financial journeys simple and help you enjoy the things that matter most to you along the way.

Hatch Enterprise UK

Hatch Enterprise supports underrepresented entrepreneurs to develop the knowledge, confidence, and skills needed to launch and grow a business. They do this through delivering workshops, events, and 1-2-1 volunteering support, connecting entrepreneurs in a vibrant supportive community, and building networks and partnerships with other organisations who share our vision.

Operations Consultant

Jumpstart

Mentor

City, University of London

Professional Mentor

Curve Club

Curve Club is the only private members club exclusive to founders. Backed by prominent angel investors and launched in 2023, Curve is an exclusive community of high calibre founders and investors looking to stay ahead of the curve.

Founding Member

Operations Nation

Operations Nation (ON) is a community-powered digital ecosystem designed to showcase the people, systems and processes that power our businesses and make the world go round. The Community Advisory Board assists ON with bringing the ON Community to the next level and making sure that the community leaders always serve in the best interest of the group. 

As members of the Board, we 
- Give feedback on the day-to-day running of the community, along with ideas for the future and how to implement them
- Share our thoughts and perspectives on making the community work even better for everyone
- Advocate for the community and connect them to the ON Team
- Assist in sharing information with the community
- Provide our support and knowledge on specific projects

Community Advisory Board Member

Hey! You listened!

I'm Rayan 👋🏼

This is how I spend my weeks:

- I have breakfast with founders and investors
- I advise early stage startups at a board-level (for equity)
- I advise early stage startups on a practical level (for £250/month)
- I am building the future of angel investing (see Table for Ten)
- I help founders understand how to become better fundraisers (see Squared)
- I host 1:1 founder retreats just outside London (They're £1.5k - ask me about them)

And solve bunch of other things. Just message me, I'm usually responsive.
Please don't DM decks, use https://www.tableforten.ventures/apply-now to submit.

ps. You can also probably get my attention if you talk about CrossFit 🏋🏻‍♂️ or Yoga 🧘🏻‍♂️

Rayan Bannai

I lay there in a pool of sweat.

Another hot vinyasa class. Brutal instructor. 
All I could think of was what would £1k do for one founder today..?

I hosted 10 founders today (3 that no-showed..) for a practical fundraising breakfast.

When they signed up, they didn't know this.

But yesterday, I made the decision to up the stakes.

One will walk away with £1k.

A nano-sized angel ticket.
but an intent, none-the-less.

The 90min breakfast saw us breaking down:

- to co-founder or not. Why investors use it to de-risk, but also why there should be. 
- fund dynamics and metrics. Why funds behave the way they do and how you can use this understanding to your advantage. Metrics are good, they can also kill your chances.
- advisors and shares. When the timing is right or wrong, how much equity is too much and the mistakes of moving too fast on advisors. 
- thinking of your investors as a map, not a list. I've gone on about this for ever, always happy to explain to those interested.
- be human.

A massive thank you to all everyone who made it this morning:

Nimi Singh - The Table App
Tarek Moursi - Better Sundays
Ojasvi J. - Cauldron
Billy Holmes - Sigh
Anoop Antony - NeuroX
Anh Duong Nguyen - Nimi

No decision like this is easy. No matter how small or big.
I'm giving today's investment to Tarek from Better Sundays. 

I'll break down some of the dynamics that went through my head as a separate post. 

(here's hoping Tarek doesn't tell me his valuation is £20m.)

Breakfast with Founders


-------

Thank you as ever to Vestd for supporting my series!


If you're a founder keen to meet, I'd love to have breakfast with you in London. Link to waitlists are in my featured section. Naturally, I can't meet with everyone, but I'll always try to make time to speak!

Rayan 🎈

Are you about to fundraise? 
I usually host breakfasts for founders to sit back and share stories.

This time I'm focusing in on early fundraising.

I've got 10 spots at my signature Table for Ten - Breakfast with Founders in King's Cross on the 11th December.

Stuck at the first part of your journey?
Don't know what valuation or how much you should raise?
Struggling to reach your investors?
Don't know if you should cold reach or look for intros?

This is for you.

Sign up in the comments!

ps. This is not for service providers or consultants.

A marketer might think they know how to retain customers... but a neuroscientist might prove how.


And here's the thing.

Loyalty programmes have been dying a death... but FANKS to Alex Revill, they might have a place going into 2026.

Alex is one of those rare founders who is obsessively curious.
He'll ask questions. And he'll follow up with 'why though'.
Almost borderline uncomfortable. Because I had to think.

It's probably what took him from his journey studying the brain, to pharmaceuticals - a little stint at urban fertility at Zinc to eventually come round to ProblemKit and now, FANKS.

An IRL-first loyalty platform that makes generosity easy. 

We spoke about:

- IRL events and communities. Is this something hosts are doing to be authentic or as their full time gig? Does the essence of create mechanisms and funnels for IRL change its purpose in the first place? The question really looked at challenging the balance of rewards vs experience. 

- Demand generation as a means to market. It's very easy to go out and build the perfect product. Alex's focus? Proving demand. No calendly links, no sales cycles. And how does he do it? He turns up to a pilates class, he asks the hottest brands how they do it, he becomes a user of his own product. I'll let Alex release the good tip on call to actions.

- Product market fit. Especially in an IRL-first world, where the signal is simple. People show up. People stay. People return. If this doesn't happen, there is no fit. There is no market. There is no product.


Thank you as ever to Vestd for supporting our series!


-----


If you're a founder keen to meet, I'd love to have breakfast with you in London. Link to waitlists are in my featured section. Naturally, I can't meet with everyone, but I'll always try to make time to speak!


Breakfast with Founders 🥐

I've just upped the stakes on tomorrows breakfast.

One founder will walk away with £1000 towards their raise.
I've never met any of them before.
I have little to no context about their startups.

It's a nano-ticket, but it's an intent towards a founder. 

Angel investment is about taking risks in the people you have a good feeling in. 
I've realised sometimes being too measured has been my downfall.

Being measured in an asset class which in effect can't really be measured.

I'm sure there won't be much movement on the waitlist at this stage, but I'll drop the link again in any case someone does jump in.

So tomorrow, I'm putting my money and breakfast where my mouth is.

Founders, remember. 


It's not the quantity of your interactions, it's the quality.

You can send 1000 sh*t emails or you can send 50 really good ones.
You can go to 100 pitch events or you can network really well at two.
You can download lots investor lists, or you can curate a really good one.

When I think of the founders I remember, I remember their interactions.

Clear, thoughtful, intentional.

The ones that made every time count.

They are the winners.

British people don't brag, but there's one thing some do brag about.


How much they drank.

It's like some competition. 
How much they spent on booze.
How wasted they got as a result.
How they felt the next morning.
The fact they kept drinking the next day.
How craaaaazy it all was.

This is such a powerful trait, that could be directed to other use.

Now imagine we replaced alcohol with our startup during a fundraise.

Brag about it.

I wrote about this recently and the impact it can have on startup progress and fundraising, particularly when a lot of it is down to narrative, momentum and how confidently you tell your story.

If you can brag about a hangover, you can brag about your traction.

And here's the thing.
If we applied the same energy we do after a night out, founders would move twice as fast.

'How much I drank' becomes how many customers you spoke to this week.
'How wasted I got' becomes the hardest problem you solved.
'How I felt the next morning' becomes what you learned and what you fixed.
'We kept drinking the next day' becomes consistent progress and visible momentum.
'How craaaaazy it all was' becomes the story of how you're building something worth backing.

Use the same comfidence.
That same storytelling energy.
That same enthusiasm you somehow have after bottomless brunch.

If you want investors to believe in you, you need to give them something to remember. 

Brag responsibly.
Brag strategically.
But brag.


ps. Drink responsibly.
pps. I'm hosting an intimate breakfast on Thursday for founders that are raising. Link in comments or DM me.

taplio

The Battle

Joe Lewin

Rayan Bannai

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taplio

The Battle

Joe Lewin

Rayan Bannai

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joe Lewin's LinkedIn Performance

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