We love watching start-up & scale-up successes. There’s nothing more inspiring than seeing an idea flourish, teams succeed, and people pushing boundaries.
The hidden story behind those successes and scars, though, is just how much of the “figuring it out as you go” is really needed.
When it comes to finance, there’s no question. It’s none. Having clarity on finance & commercials is critical, and with early decisions being big decisions, a wrong step may have long-lasting effects.
Founder stories
“I gave away too much equity”
“We raised at the wrong value”
“We burnt through cash too quickly”
“I didn’t have visibility of our numbers and made the wrong decision”
These scenarios are commonplace but avoidable. They only scratch the surface of the challenges you’ll face whilst trying to manage finances as well as a million other things yourself.
We want to address Founders' needs from day 1, to remove the guesswork so you don’t uncover easy-avoidable problems when you reach a certain size, event or breaking point, only to find that the damage is already done.
You’re not alone. The conundrum all Founders face as they scale is how to build the right quality of team and systems around them, whilst conserving every penny they can. Senior experience is expensive and all-too-often outsourcing doesn’t deliver value.
Instinctively, we all know that “cheap” is not “best value” when your business is at stake. But it’s hard to weigh up when you’re doing it alongside the hundreds of other decisions you have to make each week. High quality needn’t be unaffordable - if you only pay for what you need.
Helping to solve the key problems
- How do Founders get the mix of finance experience and day-to-day affordability?
- How do Founders build a scalable back-office cost-effectively?
- How do Founders sleep easier at night knowing finance is taken care of?
Traditionally this is easier said than done. The issue is, outsourced accountants lack day-to-day knowledge, full-time, senior experience is expensive, finding and recruiting a cheap superstar is pure luck or takes time and implementing systems can be time-consuming, expensive, and filled with risk.
Founder + Lightning Financial
A Founder-focused financial platform to get you from idea to exit.
We now provide affordable financial resources that scale up or down with you, creating a cost-effective, scalable, back-office that supports you as you need it.
With the shift toward resource-on-demand, the need for information at our fingertips, and the advent of Xero’s ecosystem of solutions - the modern finance function and team has evolved and can be deployed in weeks, not months or years.
Founders can now access their own custom-built finance team. An offering built specifically for high-growth start-up & scale-ups in mind. Your own experienced, mix and match team to scale with your Tech.
Building the modern finance function
Time is of the essence - tech platforms can be built in months, even weeks. Processes and systems are built for scale, and the right tools are so accessible and cost-effective that there are no longer huge barriers to building the perfect back-office. Your finance team can now be as scaleable as your tech.
Tech Founders need to get the critical financial & commercial support with accessible and scalable expertise. The question of "How to build the modern finance function?" is more important than ever; the answer is now pretty simple. By providing a menu of simple plug-in systems, a scalable team, and on-demand expertise, we’ll do it for you.
These key services bring a highly effective modern finance function - one that blends an experienced CFO for specialist support as needed, several days of a bookkeeper for the day-to-day, and a simple menu of automated finance systems to choose from - to you.
Take control... and delegate
Building a modern-day finance function is now quick, easy and affordable. Choosing from the menu of options we offer, you can match your business aspirations with the amount and type of resource you need. This places you in control, safe in the knowledge that your finance function can evolve over time, alongside your tech; de-risked and without continuing major investment.
Whether you’re just starting out, preparing to raise investment, already on your journey, or just curious about how this could benefit you, email us and we’ll be glad to help.
Would you like more information before getting in touch? Take a look here.
