Week 01Foundations
Week 01 — Foundations
How startups actually work.
- 01Finding problems worth solving
- 02Customer discovery & validation
- 03Business models that make sense
- 04Defining the MVP — and what not to build
The BlackNight Group · Applications open
Bring the idea.Leave with a company.
A startup accelerator for technical founders. We match you into a team, teach you to build in a 3-week intensive — then build the best ideas with you: product, marketing, investors, launch.
Scroll to enterEst. 2026 · London, UK · £0 to joinEst. 2026
Manifesto
Manifesto
Most people talk about starting a company. Few ever ship one. TBN is a closed room for the few — hand-picked, matched into teams, and backed to build your own idea all the way to the first customer.
The accelerator
How it works, step by step.
From your application to launch day and investors — this is exactly how TBN works.
- 01 — Apply5 minutes
The signal.
A five-minute application: who you are, what you’ve built and how you like to work. No CV needed — the founders read every one.
- 02 — Selection & matchingIn person
Meet us. Meet your team.
Shortlisted applicants are invited to an in-person selection meeting. Then we match you into a balanced team — engineering, design, product and growth.
- 03 — The Intensive3 weeks
Three weeks. Zero fluff.
Three weeks of hands-on sessions with the founders: how startups actually work, how to build an MVP with modern AI tools, and how to launch.
- 04 — Pitch DayPitch Day
Your idea. Our table.
Your team pitches its own idea to TBN. We pressure-test it with you — problem, market, product, path to revenue — and pick the ventures we back.
- 05 — Build, launch, raiseAll the way
Built together.
Selected ventures get the full TBN engine: we build the product with you, market it, launch it, introduce you to investors — and take you to San Francisco.
Now open
Applications are open for Royal Holloway, University of London.
Chapter 01 starts on campus. Apply in five minutes — solo or as a team, with or without an idea.
Chapter 01 · Egham, Surrey
The intensive
Three weeks that change the trajectory.
Every lesson is applied the same week. You don’t watch startups get built — you build one, next to people who do it for a living.
3 weeks · selected founders only
- Week 02Build
Week 02 — Build
Ship the MVP.
- 01Product architecture that scales later
- 02AI-assisted development, properly
- 03Design that earns trust on day one
- 04From prototype to production
- Week 03Launch craft
Week 03 — Launch craft
Put it in front of people.
- 01Positioning & the landing page
- 02Pricing without guesswork
- 03Marketing & distribution
- 04The pitch and the demo
- After week 03Pitch Day
Pitch Day
You pitch your own idea to TBN.
- The strongest ideas move into build — product, brand, launch, marketing and investor readiness, side by side with the TBN team.
Opportunities
After Pitch Day, the real work starts.
Selected ventures don’t get a certificate. They get the TBN engine — the same people, playbook and network we use on our own companies.
01 / 05
- 01After Pitch Day
We build it with you
Product, engineering and design, side by side with the founders. Your MVP becomes a real product.
- Product & architecture
- Engineering support
- Design system & UX
- 02After Pitch Day
We market it with you
Brand, content and distribution — we help you find your audience and speak to it properly.
- Brand & identity
- Content & social
- Growth experiments
- 03After Pitch Day
We launch it
A real launch to real users: positioning, launch plan, press and the first customers.
- Launch strategy
- First users
- Feedback loops
- 04After Pitch Day
We find your investors
Narrative, deck and demo — then warm introductions to the investors who fit your company.
- Pitch & deck prep
- Warm introductions
- Round strategy
- 05After Pitch Day
We take you to San Francisco
A founders’ trip for selected ventures: meet investors in person, walk the campuses of Apple and Google, and see how the best teams build.
- Investor meetings
- Silicon Valley campuses
- The TBN network
And we stay in the room — long after launch.
What TBN brings
Not a course. An unfair advantage.
The TBN engineSelecting talent…
TalentTeamsVentures
EngineeringDesignProductGrowth
engineers
Engineers in the room
You build next to people who ship production software. Not slides. Not theory.
launch
Lessons → launch
Everything we teach, you apply the same week — on your own product.
free
£0
£0 to join
No fees. No tuition. We only win when you do.
brand
Brand & design
Identity, product design and a launch site that looks like it already raised.
gtm
Go-to-market
Positioning, pricing, content and distribution. Real users, not friends and family.
investors
Investor-ready
Narrative, deck and demo — and the right introductions when it’s time.
network
A bench of builders
Your cohort becomes your co-founders, first hires and first users.
Built by the founders
We don’t just teach it. We’ve built it.
Companies the TBN founders have built and run. The playbook you’ll learn comes straight from here.
- 01 · Agency software
Inverta
£50k+
monthly revenue
Agency OS — one AI-powered operating system for marketing and content agencies.
Agencies run on a stack of borrowed tools that were never built for them. Inverta replaces them with one brain: a custom, AI-powered operating system that cuts software costs and fits how each agency actually works.
- 02 · AI for clinics
Omelia
24/7
voice + WhatsApp agents
The AI front desk for medical and medical-tourism clinics worldwide.
WhatsApp and voice AI agents with human-like conversations — answering every call, replying on WhatsApp and booking the diary, day or night. Easy to set up, with onboarding built in.
Also built by the foundersAriaBrain OS
Industries
All of tech. From robotics to apps.
If it’s technical and ambitious, we want to see it. These are the fields we build in.
- 01
AI & machine learning
- 02
Robotics
- 03
Software & SaaS
- 04
Mobile apps
- 05
Developer tools
- 06
Fintech
- 07
Healthtech
- 08
Climate & energy
- 09
Hardware & IoT
- 10
Edtech
- 11
Consumer & marketplaces
- 12
Cybersecurity
The group
Start in the night. Rise into the light.
Two houses, one path. The BlackNight Group builds your company with you. BlackLight Capital backs the ones that break out.
Live now
01 — Startup accelerator
The BlackNight Group
The BlackNight Group is a startup accelerator for technical founders. We put a team around you, teach you to build in a 3-week intensive — then build the best ideas with you: product, marketing, investors, launch.
- Matched into a team
- 3-week intensive
- Built with you to launch
Coming soon
02 — Venture capital
BlackLight Capital
BlackLight Capital is The BlackNight Group’s venture capital arm. Get accepted, build with us through the coming year, and the ventures that succeed get extra investment from BlackLight Capital.
- Follow-on investment
- Only for BlackNight ventures
- Opening soon
- 01Get acceptedApply and join a cohort
- 02Build with BlackNightTeam, intensive, launch
- 03Succeed in year oneReal users, real traction
- 04Raise from BlackLightExtra investment to scale
Team
Meet the founders.
We’ve been building companies since university — twelve businesses built and run between us. The BlackNight Group is how we accelerate the next generation: the ideas, the teams and the execution.
- 01 · Co-founder
Atlas
Marketing & Growth
Business, Marketing & Finance
Head of marketing at TBN and the founder-builder behind Inverta and Omelia. Atlas has taken companies from zero to real revenue — Inverta to £50k+ a month — and runs growth, brand and go-to-market for every venture we back.
- 02 · Co-founder
Alessandro
CTO
Computer Science
TBN’s CTO and the technical side of everything we build. Alessandro leads architecture, engineering and AI across the ventures — and makes sure every team ships real, production-grade products.
- Businesses built & run, combined
- 12
- Monthly revenue, combined
- £100k+
- Founders: growth + engineering
- 2
Who it’s for
You can come withan idea.
We’ll bring the structure, the technology and the execution.
For
- People who build at 2am because they can’t not.
- Engineers who want to ship something real.
- Designers and operators who think like founders.
- Anyone with a half-finished project and unfinished business.
Not for
- Certificate collectors.
- Idea tourists.
- Anyone waiting for permission.
The ledger
The facts. Nothing else.
- 01 — Weeks, intensive
- 03
- 02 — Teams per cohort
- ≤10
- 03 — To join
- £0
- 04 — Chapter live — Royal Holloway
- #01
- solo or team — we match you
- you pitch your own idea
- the best ideas get built with TBN
- every application read by the founders
Locations
Where it happens.
TBN runs in person — one campus at a time, with the people who’ll actually build. Selected ventures travel with us to San Francisco.
Chapter 01Live
Royal Holloway
University of London
Our first chapter. A Build Night on campus: bring an idea, a skill or just curiosity — leave with a team and a plan.
Event
Build Night — date TBA
Location
Egham, Surrey
Founders’ trip37.7749° N, 122.4194° W
San Francisco
California, USA
The founders’ trip for selected ventures: investor meetings, Silicon Valley campuses like Apple and Google, and the people building what’s next.
Chapter 02
Next campus — announced soon
Faq
Questions, answered.
Anything else? Apply — and ask us in your application. We read every one.
No. Some of the best founders arrive with nothing but skill and ambition. During the intensive you’ll find — and pitch — your own idea.
Not necessarily. We’re looking for engineers, designers, operators and marketers. Everyone builds, though — and we’ll show you how modern teams ship with AI-assisted tools.
Nothing. There are no fees and no tuition. We invest our time, expertise and execution.
Yes. Apply on your own or as a team — we match people into balanced teams either way.
The intensive runs for three weeks and it’s meant to be intense: sessions, build time and check-ins. Exact schedules are shared with selected founders.
You pitch your idea to TBN. The strongest ideas move into build — we work alongside you on product, brand, launch, marketing and investor readiness.
You’re the founder. If we build your idea together, we formalise the partnership properly — terms are shared transparently with selected founders.
Atlas (marketing & growth) and Alessandro (CTO) — founders who’ve been building since university, with twelve businesses built and run between them, including Inverta and Omelia. Chapter 01 starts at Royal Holloway.
Yes. Selected ventures get investor preparation and introductions, and join the TBN founders’ trip to San Francisco to meet investors in person.
You’ll receive an email with the location and time of your first selection meeting. From there, we’ll be in touch about teams and the intensive.