Matt Jonns

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 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


Founder & CEO

(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

Startups don’t die because the idea is bad. 

They die because the founders run out of energy.

I’ve seen it too many times.

Smart team, real problem, good product… but the founders are burnt out. Physically, emotionally, mentally done.

And once that happens, it’s hard to come back.
Momentum fades. Decisions slow down. Doubt creeps in.

It’s easy to forget that energy is a resource. You can’t run at 110% forever - not without a cost.

The founders who last are the ones who learn to pace themselves. Not lazy. Just smart about when to push and when to protect the engine.

No one talks about this early on. But staying in the game is often the difference between success and “almost”.

Venture Studio Founder & Startup Investor.

If you’ve spent all weekend thinking about one difficult decision, you’re probably a founder.

Most people switch off on a Saturday. 

Founders rehearse difficult conversations in their head.

Just don’t forget - you’re not the only one carrying that weight !

Support for founders isn’t just funding.

It’s belief when the numbers still look bad.

I’ve seen it first hand over the years… Those early months when revenue is thin, confidence wobbles, and everything feels fragile.

The support that matters most rarely comes as a big cheque.

It’s someone saying, quietly, “You’re not mad. This is hard.” Or making an intro at the exact moment it’s needed. Or sticking around when the metrics aren’t pretty yet.

Sometimes it’s an early team member who takes a risk on you.

Sometimes it’s a first angel who backs the person before the business.

Sometimes it’s a customer who gives honest feedback and a bit of patience while you figure things out.

That kind of support doesn’t show up in pitch decks or press releases. But it’s often the reason a company survives long enough to find its feet.

Belief compounds just as much as capital.

Who was the first person that really backed you as a founder?

You can’t outsource conviction.

You can hire salespeople. Bring in advisors. Get warm intros and polished decks.

But if you’re not the one who believes (deeply !) it shows.

I’ve seen founders try to delegate the hard conversations early on. Pitching investors. Closing customers. Delivering tough news.

It never lands the same.

Because early on, people aren’t buying the product. They’re buying the energy. The clarity. The sense that you see something they don’t yet.

That can’t be faked. And it can’t be handed off.

You have to carry it - especially when the numbers aren’t there yet.

That’s what earns belief.

Over the last decade I’ve spent most of my time working with early-stage founders.

When you sit close to companies at that stage you see a lot. 

- The pressure founders carry.
- The decisions they have to make with incomplete information.
- The persistence it takes to keep going when things aren’t obvious yet.

Every so often you come across founders quietly building very solid businesses in industries most people aren’t paying much attention to.

Operationally strong, capital efficient, and often in industries that VC’s tend to overlook. 

Those are the types of companies we now spend most of our time investing in and building. 

They’re businesses that already have real revenue and customers, but where better technology - and increasingly AI - can unlock a very different level of growth and create substantial upside for the founders and investors. 

If you’re an investor interested in that type of opportunity, or a founder building a business that fits that description, please get in touch.

Every founder has a make-or-break moment.

It’s rarely dramatic.

More often it’s a quiet fork in the road where things could easily have gone the other way.
Most founders don’t realise when they’re in that moment. It usually just feels like a bad week.

A few famous examples:

Airbnb (2008)
The founders were weeks from shutting down. Investors kept saying no.

So they designed novelty cereal boxes - Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain - and sold them online for $40 each just to stay alive.

It raised about $30k. Not life-changing money.
But it bought enough runway to get into Y Combinator.

Without that strange survival move, Airbnb probably dies in 2008.

FedEx (1973)
The company had about $5,000 left.

They needed $24,000 just to buy fuel so planes could fly the following week.

Founder Frederick W. Smith flew to Las Vegas.
He played blackjack all weekend.

He came back with roughly $27,000 - enough to keep the company alive long enough to raise more capital.

Instagram (2010)
It started as a complicated check-in app called Burbn.

But the founders noticed something in the data:
Users ignored almost everything except the photo feature.

So they deleted most of the product and rebuilt the app around fast, simple photo sharing.

That ruthless simplification created Instagram.

Netflix (late 2000s)
Netflix was still a thriving DVD-by-mail business.

Streaming looked risky and barely worked.

But leadership could see where the world was going. So they invested heavily in streaming - even though it meant slowly undermining their own DVD model.

For years the two ran side by side. That decision reshaped the company.


Closer to home, I’ve seen founders:

- Narrow their ICP when growth was finally starting to work
- Turn down a big contract because it would take them off strategy
- Delay hiring and do the work themselves for another year
- Pause growth to rebuild the product properly
- Focus on one thing that worked instead of ten things that might

None of those decisions look heroic at the time.

They just look like slowing down when everyone else is speeding up.

But they quietly change the trajectory of the company.

If you’ve built a company, you probably know the moment I’m talking about.

What was yours?

Doing anything is hard. So you may as well make it a big thing.

Starting something from scratch takes energy - whether it’s a tiny side project or a business with real ambition.

You’ll still have to figure it out. You’ll still hit resistance. You’ll still be up late thinking about it.

So if you’re going to put in the work… 

Make it count. Make it something that stretches you.

Something you’ll still care about when it gets hard (because it will).

I’ve seen founders play small - and still get overwhelmed. And I’ve seen others go after something ambitious - and find an extra gear because it mattered.

The effort’s coming either way. Might as well aim for something that moves the needle !

How can it still take 2.5 hours to complete a simple task in 2026?

It took me that long to add two people to a British Airways flight recently..

Multiple logins. Error messages. Dead ends.

We talk about AI, automation, transformation. Yet basic workflows in major organisations are still painful.

The bar has moved. Customers expect simplicity. Not friction.

The companies that win won’t just “add AI”.
They’ll simplify the entire journey.

It’s easy to give advice when you’ve never had to make payroll.

Of course, there are some brilliant investors who’ve never built a company.

But there are plenty who give advice that sounds perfect in theory… but doesn’t survive contact with reality.

It’s easy to spot problems from the outside.

Harder to let someone go when you hired them yourself.

Harder to launch something that isn’t perfect because the clock’s run out.

Harder to carry the weight of a team relying on you.

Context matters.

If you’ve never been in the arena, it’s easy to underestimate the pressure.

Theory is useful, but scar tissue is much better.

The best teams I’ve seen are slightly too small.

Not comfortable. Not bloated. Just stretched.

When teams get too big too early, things get sloppy. Meetings expand. Ownership blurs. Standards soften.

When the team is lean:
– Decisions get made
– Priorities are clearer
– Waste shows up quickly

It forces discipline.

I’ve seen businesses become more productive after reducing headcount, not increasing it.
Growth doesn’t automatically mean bigger teams.

Sometimes it means tighter ones.

Nothing sharpens the mind like a curveball !

You think you’ve got a plan. Numbers look fine. Team’s aligned.

Then something shifts.

A client pulls out. A deal stalls. Investor pulls out. A key hire doesn’t work. A regulation changes.

And suddenly you’re making decisions under pressure.

Founders grow the most in those moments. Not when things are smooth. But when they’re forced to think clearly, quickly, without perfect information.

You don’t find out how strong your business is when it’s calm. You find out when it bends.

What’s a curveball that forced you to step up?

Sometimes the bad months turn into bad quarters.

And you still have to lead. You still have to show up with clarity.

Make decisions with limited data. Keep the team focused - even when you’re not.

I’ve seen this happen in more businesses than I can count.

Pipeline dries up. A big deal slips. One thing breaks and knocks everything else out of rhythm.

And as the founder, there’s no real hiding. You carry the pressure. You take the calls. You try to stay steady -  even when it feels like you’re losing control.

This is the part of leadership that doesn’t get posted. The bit between the wins. The days when you’re just trying to keep the wheels turning long enough for something to land.

Most companies go through it. The good ones find a way through it.

Joe Binder

I lead the Executive Branding division at The 10 Group, helping corporate leaders raise their profile and communicate with real impact. 

Before joining 10, I founded WOAW, the UK’s first personal branding agency, where I built brands for entrepreneurs like Sara Davies MBE, Tej Lalvani and Stuart Trevor, and trained teams at companies including NatWest Group and TikTok. 

My focus now is bringing that founder-led approach to the corporate world: helping executives show up authentically, build influence, and use their voice to drive commercial growth.

Founder

WOAW’s new CEO: Freddie Paxton. 

I'm running the Paris Marathon on 12th April 2026, raising money for Campaign Against Living Miserably.

I ran my last marathon in 4 hours and 24 minutes. I'm going for sub-4 this time, which means cutting off 24 minutes. 

I'm under no illusions about how much work that involves, and training has been tough. 

The longest so far was 16K over the weekend. 

I was meant to run 8K of it at marathon pace (5:40 mins per km) but only managed to do 5K at that pace...

So, there's lots of work to do if I'm going to keep that speed up for 4 hours. 

... but this isn't just about the running.

I'm raising money an incredibly important cause. 

Every day in the UK, 18 people die by suicide. 

CALM's helpline receives around 28,000 calls every month, keeping trained listeners available day and night for people who need them most.

Every donation, big or small, helps make sure someone who reaches out gets answered.

You can find the link to my fundraising page in the comments.

Any donation, big or small, would be much appreciated.

See you on the other side of 42K...

Wish me luck !

Helping corporate leaders stand out on LinkedIn | Exec Branding Lead @ The 10 Group

Really proud of the work my colleagues have been doing on Eat Well Play Well: Grassroots Edition.
 
Episode 2 saw the team partner with Marks and Spencer to visit Reddish North End FC in Greater Manchester, bringing Jill Scott and M&S Exec Chef Russell Goad to the club to explore how better nutrition can support players, parents and coaches at grassroots level.
 
The idea is simple but the impact is real - giving clubs the tools to make healthier choices without adding to the pressure that volunteers and coaches are already under.
 
Grassroots football is where most people's love of the game begins. It's good to see work that takes that seriously.
 
Great stuff from the team! CC: Oli Miller, Dylan Heller, Anna Bradley, Ellie Stone, Gemma Frizelle, Dave Horner and James Maniscalco Boyes.

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