Matt Jonns

The Lightning Group

The Lightning Group builds digital ventures with startups, investors, and SMEs - combining product, capital, talent, and AI to drive growth.

Over the past decade, we’ve launched 100+ digital products, backed 40+ startups, raised millions in funding, and built high-performing teams that take ideas from zero to scale.

What began as Founder + Lightning - a product and capital partner for early-stage startups - has evolved into a wider platform of connected services:

🔹 The Lightning Group, a digital studio built for ambitious SMEs 
🔹 Founder + Lightning - our early-stage studio, investment, and fundraising arm

What The Lightning Group Offers

1. Digital Strategy & Product Execution
The Lightning Group works with founders and leadership teams to shape digital product roadmaps, validate ideas quickly, and launch AI-powered platforms built for growth.

2. Fundraising & Capital Advisory
Through Founder + Lightning Capital, we raise and syndicate rounds - connecting startups with angels, family offices, and VCs, as well as investing via our own fund. 

3. Flexible Talent & Offshore Delivery
We scale engineering and product capability through embedded specialists and offshore teams - fully aligned to internal tools, processes, and culture.

4. AI Discovery & Implementation
From automation to AI-first product design, we define and build AI use cases that drive efficiency, unlock margin, and set companies apart.

5. Venture Studio Design
We advise investors, corporates, and family offices on how to structure, launch, and operate high-impact venture studios - with real-world operating experience behind every recommendation.

Who We Work With

* Startups preparing to launch or raise


* Scaleups looking to modernise or move faster


* Investors and family offices building new ventures


* SMEs rethinking digital and AI strategy



If you’re building something bold - or investing in those who are - let’s talk.

Founder & CEO

Umbrella Music Academy

Founder

Umbrella Music

Founder 

Investing in, and building, tech companies with non-technical founders | Founder and CEO @ Founder + Lightning

I build and back ambitious ventures - with product, capital, and talent.

It started with helping to digitise my family’s business 15 years ago. Since then, I’ve worked with 40+ startups to turn ideas into scalable companies - raising millions and launching dozens of products along the way.

That journey led to Founder + Lightning and now The Lightning Group - a group of connected services that help startups, scale-ups, and corporates move faster and smarter.

What we do: 

• Strategy and product development that gets you to launch and beyond 
• Access to capital and investor networks
• High-performing, flexible talent (onshore + offshore)
• Designing and building venture studios 

If you’re looking to raise, launch, or scale - or you’re just figuring out where to start - feel free to reach out.

https://www.founderandlightning.com


(Formerly ucreate.it)

We partner with ambitious, Non-tech Founders and equip them with the team, tools, expertise and scale to build highly successful technology companies

100+ team - 25 portfolio companies - £100 million + valuation - £30 million + raised 

Our offices are in London, Cardiff, Chandigarh and Kraków

It’s cliché but I can’t stress enough: 

If things are tough, do anything but give up ! 

I’ve seen companies come back from the very brink. 

Days from bankruptcy and they land a client or an investor finally comes through. 

I’ve seen a business survive in cockroach mode for over a year, that is now Series A and working with S&P 500 companies. 

Your job is to be relentless and believe in your vision when no one else will. 

Your job is to just put one foot in front of the other. 

And the key is to be humble. You may need to accept defeat in some areas, pivot off an idea or even go into cockroach mode while you figure things out. 

I know it sounds easy. It’s not. 

But, whatever you do. Don’t give up. 

Do you agree ?

#buildingabusiness #businesssurvival #founderlife #startups

Venture Studio Founder & Startup Investor.

Apple, Netflix, Starbucks...

Are you a founder? Are you looking to raise? 

On the 23rd of September, you could potentially raise up to £1m SEIS/EIS funding with Helm ! 

Helm (formerly The Supper Club) is running an Investment Day, where you’ll pitch to 15 seasoned angel investors, and they aren’t just writing cheques. 

They are experienced founders and operators who have built, scaled and exited businesses. They know what it takes to build something from nothing and smart capital is absolutely invaluable! 

At F+L Capital, we invested in companies that have pitched on this day– the calibre has been fantastic and the day is perfectly set up to showcase your business in its best light. 

You have three weeks to apply:  

🗓️ Deadline: 11th September
 🔗 Apply here → https://lnkd.in/eNHmt42c

If you’re raising your first round and experience as well as capital, this is your chance ! 

👇 Apply to pitch now
https://lnkd.in/eNHmt42c

#fundraising #angelinvestors #investment #angelinvestment #startups

Amazon makes £200 billion from one simple feature.

"People who bought this also bought that."

35% of their entire revenue. From recommendations.

Think about that for a second. A recommendation engine that knows customers better drives more sales than their entire logistics network, their Prime service, their marketplace fees combined.

Here's what's mental about this.

Every established business has just as good (if not better) customer data than Amazon does for their specific industry. 

You know your customers' problems, their buying patterns, their seasonal needs. You've got years of transaction history, support tickets, interaction data.

But most businesses present this information like it's 1995. Long lists of products. Generic categories. Make customers hunt for what they need.

But your customers are telling you right now: 

65-75% of them say they'd buy more if the experience was personalised to them. They're literally asking for what you could easily provide.

The difference between a website that shows me 500 cameras versus one that shows me the 3 cameras perfect for my specific needs? That's not just better UX. 

That's better business.

What's happening right now: Your customers are asking ChatGPT instead of navigating your website. They're getting generic answers when you have specific, proprietary insights about their exact situation.

Conversational AI powered by your data is a huge opportunity. Imagine customers messaging your business like they message friends. Natural conversation that surfaces exactly what they need based on everything you know about them.

If you're not figuring out how to make every interaction dramatically more personalised, you're missing out on Amazon-level revenue opportunities.

What customer data are you sitting on that could transform how people buy from you?

#personalisation #AI #customerexperience #data #ecommerce

AI or not… this is still one of the best ways to build a business in 2025

(and it’s exactly how many of our portfolio companies got started!)

1/ Identify a problem. Even better if it’s in your industry or nearby. A boring problem. One people deal with daily but never fix.

👇

2/ Start researching. Speak to the people facing that problem. See how they currently cope. Ask them what they need most and what would make their life infinitely better.

👇

3/ Solve it manually first. Offer it as a consultancy or service, either solo or with a small team.

👇

4/ Learn and keep learning. Pay very close attention. Use this stage to do constant user research before you’ve sunk serious money into tech.

👇

5/ Once there’s real demand and revenue, add tech. Build the smallest possible product. Automate what you can to cut man hours and make things smoother.

👇

6/ Keep it lean. Build steadily. Don’t get trigger-happy. Iterate, speak to customers, grow your audience, and focus relentlessly on making their lives easier.

👇

7/ When the model is working, go for growth properly. Raise capital if needed, invest in senior hires, expand distribution, and push to scale. At this stage it’s about discipline and speed: professionalising the business so it can grow far beyond the founder.

👇

Who have you seen build a company like this? I'm always keen to find more examples.

#startups #buildingbusinesses #startuplife

Airbnb designs 11-star experiences they'll never deliver.

Here's their framework: 

Design for the impossible, then work backward to what's achievable.

The scale works like this:

⭐ 1-star: Knock on door, no response. Terrible experience, refund me.

⭐ 5-star: Host lets me in. Expected experience. Fine.

⭐ 7-star: Host welcomes me, shows me around, gives me wine and a card. Personal touch, better than a hotel.

⭐ 9-star: Host knows I like surfing, provides surfboard and car keys. Plus surprise booking at their favorite restaurant.

⭐ 11-star: David Attenborough personally welcomes me to an unexplored cabin in an ancient rainforest for a two-week wildlife adventure.

Most businesses stop thinking at 6-7 stars. "We'll be slightly better than expected." 

That incremental thinking kills breakthrough experiences.

The 11-star framework forces 10x thinking instead of 2% optimisation.

Here's what's changed: AI makes previously impossible experiences achievable at scale. Every Airbnb could get a voice-recorded personal message from Brian Chesky. 

Or David Attenborough. 
Or Morgan Freeman. 

Completely personalised, completely automated.

That seemingly impossible 11-star experience you could design might be buildable today.

The drive to create experiences 10x better rather than 2% better is crucial for meeting the expectations users now have. They're comparing you to their best experience this week, not your direct competitors.

Even if you can't deliver David Attenborough personally, the act of designing for that level forces breakthrough thinking about what you could actually build.

What would your 11-star customer experience look like?

#experiencedesign #innovation #customerexperience #productdesign #AI

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