An AI-powered web platform that translates complex financial models into actionable, data-backed business strategies for non-finance founders
Founders experience “analysis paralysis” when making financial decisions such as hiring and managing burn. Although financial data is available, it is fragmented and not structured for comparing options or understanding tradeoffs between growth and survival. This leads to slow, uncertain decision-making and often results in delayed hires or inefficient spending.
Build an AI-powered financial planning assistant for startup founders that transforms external data (e.g. banks, payment systems, accounting tools, Slack) into actionable recommendations for runway and hiring decisions, replacing fragmented workflows with a single decision system.
The project helps non-finance founders turn complex financial data into clear, actionable guidance for strategic decisions such as growth, efficiency, or fundraising. It replaces manual analysis with AI-generated recommendations and decision support, enabling faster and more confident action.
We reviewed existing financial planning tools, ranging from spreadsheets to enterprise FP&A platforms and reporting apps. The analysis revealed consistent gaps:
The main difficulty is not accessing financial data, but translating it into decisions under uncertainty - especially when tradeoffs between runway, hiring, and growth must be evaluated quickly.
The strategy shifts Lumina from a reporting tool into an AI decision assistant for founders. Instead of showing financial data, the system turns it into clear recommendations and what actions to take next. The goal is to help users move from financial data → understanding → action.
The system connects directly to banks, accounting tools, and payment platforms to pull live financial data. This removes manual input and creates a single, up-to-date source of truth. Clear sync status and data freshness indicators reassure users that recommendations are based on the latest available information.
Instead of presenting raw analysis, the system translates financial data into decision-ready insights. It highlights implications of key choices such as hiring, spending, or cost reduction, and surfaces the most relevant actions to take next.
Founders stay in control of decisions. The AI provides suggestions with clear reasoning, but users can adjust assumptions, explore alternatives, or override recommendations.
The interface keeps the experience simple by default. High-level recommendations are shown first, while deeper financial details are available only when needed to review or validate a decision.
Lumina is an AI-powered decision system designed to reduce uncertainty in financial planning. Rather than exposing founders to raw financial data, the platform transforms live business data into explainable recommendations that support strategic decision-making.
The dashboard prioritizes focus by showing the company's situation at a glance. It features high-leverage KPIs like runway & burn multiple, AI recommendations, and major financial movements. By moving from passive data visualization to active financial navigation, the dashboard keeps critical health indicators front-and-center to prevent operational drift.
The Actions module bridges the gap between insight and execution. It provides AI-driven recommendations tailored to the company’s specific strategy. This ensures that every task is prioritized to match current goals, such as rapid growth, operational efficiency or fundrising, guiding the founder toward the next logical step.
The Scenarios module lets founders stress-test business assumptions against live financial data. By modeling "what-if" outcomes - like hiring velocity, revenue drops, or funding delays - founders make decisions based on clear projections rather than speculation.
The module tracks capital readiness metrics and investor relations. The dashboard monitors KPIs like Growth Velocity and Gross Margin against top-quartile benchmarks. AI-driven "Valuation Drags" identify specific risks to your valuation, while the Virtual Data Room organizes due diligence assets. It also maintains a comprehensive Investor Pipeline, ensuring founders stay in control of every conversation with potential backers.
The AI assistant acts as an on-demand strategist, processing complex queries regarding business operations. The interface accepts natural language prompts to support decision-making. It generates structured assessments and execution plans based on live financial data, providing rapid, data-informed responses to critical business scenarios.
Replaces static tutorials with real-time, task-based navigation. Instead of reading documentation, users learn by executing core actions (e.g., connecting data sources, configuring initial risk thresholds, generating the first runway report).
Instantly generates stakeholder-ready reports derived directly from your financial data (e.g., Scenario Sensitivity Forecasts, Monthly Investor Updates, Burn-Rate & Runway Assessments). Safely structures raw numbers into professional documentation for board meetings or strategic planning.
Instantly exports refined datasets to CSV or Excel. Ensures full data ownership and eliminates vendor lock-in, allowing users to leverage their data anywhere.
Allows users to manually add, remove, and reorder widgets to fit their specific workflow. This keeps the interface clean and predictable while ensuring the dashboard adapts to the founder's immediate operational needs.
