An Ornithopter, an Easel and The Vitruvian Man

THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM

What is an Ornithopter, an Easel and The Vitruvian Man Doing Here?

They all relate to Leonardo Da Vinci – our mascot and the

representative of three archetypes that we relate to at

Forward Partners

A R T I S T

A C H I E V E R

I N T E L L E C T U A L

A C H I E V E R

CHARACTERISTICS

Are  competitive  by  nature

Masters  of  endurance  and  hard  work

Push  the  limits  and  challenge  convention

Challenge  themselves  to  get  better  all  the  time

A R T I S T

CHARACTERISTICS

A  keen  eye  for  things  that  others  cannot  see

Intensely  focused  (can  do  detailed  work  for  hours  on  end)

Master  of  perspective  (can  see  things  from  many  points  of  view)

Curious  about  the  world

I N T E L L E C T U A L

CHARACTERISTICS

Wisdom

Intelligence

Clarity of thought

Rational decision making

O u r t e a m a s p i r e s t o b e l i k e

D a V i n c i

6 T H I N G S W E L O O K F O RI N O U R S E L V E S

We Succeed TogetherWe Execute With Skill And Pace

We Share Our KnowledgeWe Get Better Every Time

We Have The Courage To CreateWe Enjoy Our Journey

6 T H I N G S W E L O O K F O R I N O U R S E L V E ST H E D E T A I L

Camaraderie  is  a  quality  which  is  at  the  core  of  any  successful  team.  

For  us  it  is  about  having  a  common  sense  of  purpose  and  the  belief   that  we  succeed  bigger  when  we  pull  together.  We  share  the  commitment  and  discipline  needed  to  achieve  excellence  and  we  respect  each  other  and  the  different  qualities  we  bring.

Whatever  the  project,  big  or  small,  we’re  in  it  together  as  a  team and  we  only  succeed  when  our  companies  succeed.

W e S u c c e e d T o g e t h e r

“If  everyone  is  moving  forward  together,  then  success  takes  

care  of  itself”

Henry  Ford

We  work  in  an  environment  where  information  is  fluid  and  ever-­‐changing,  and  where  procrastination  costs.  It’s  important  that  we  make  informed  decisions  as  a  team  quickly  and  execute  with  both  the  speed  and  quality  needed  to  help  our  partner  

companies  succeed  faster.  

We  discuss,  decide,  delegate  responsibility  and  move  on  with  a  clear  sense  of  purpose  and  determination  to  achieve  our  end  

goal.

W e E x e c u t e W i t h S k i l l A n d P a c e

"The  most  effective  way  to  do  it,  is  to  do  it”

Amelia  Earhart

With  vast  amounts  of  experience  within  our  team,  we  know  a  lot  about  what  it  takes  to  build  successful  digital  startups.  But  we’re  also  smart  enough  to  know  when  we  don't  know.  That's  why  we  constantly  seek  to  learn,  understand  and  share  our  

knowledge.  

Each  member  of  our  team  truly  lives  this  value.  Since  we  were  founded  in  2013,  we’ve  distilled,  designed  and  refined  our  own  methodology  for  building  a  startup  and  have  shared  it  with  the  

world  -­‐ www.thepathforward.io

W e S h a r e O u r K n o w l e d g e

“You  can  only  achieve  optimal  performance  by  the  

aggregation  of  marginal  gains.  It  means  finding  1  per  cent  margin  for  improvement  in  

everything  you  do”

Dave  Brailsford

“The  only  thing  to  do  with  good  advice  is  to  pass  it  on.  It  

is  never  of  any  use  to  oneself.”  

Oscar  Wilde

We  strive  to  improve  ourselves,  our  ways  of  working  together  and  the  ways  in  which  we  work  with  our  partner  companies  

every  single  day.  

Constant  improvement  and  learning  allows  us  to  provide  the  best  support  for  startups  both  now  and  in  the  future.  

W e G e t B e t t e r E v e r y T i m e

“You  can  only  achieve  optimal  performance  by  the  

aggregation  of  marginal  gains.  It  means  finding  1  per  cent  margin  for  improvement  in  

everything  you  do”

David  Brailsford

A  creative  approach  and  the  courage  to  tread  our  own  path  is  at  the  heart  of  the  Forward  Partners  ethos.

We  champion  creativity  across  our  business,  from  the  products  we  build,  the  user  experiences  we  create  and  from  within  the  

partner  companies  that  we  invest  in.  

We  were  founded  to  be  more  than  your  average  VC  and  have  challenged  established  approaches  and  industry  status  quos  

from  the  beginning.  We  are  proud  to  do  things  a  little  differently  to  achieve  unique,  creative  and  successful  solutions  

that  break  new  ground.  

W e H a v e T h e C o u r a g e T o C r e a t e

"Creativity  takes  courage.”  

Henri  Matisse

Our  journey  is  about  much  more  than  the  destination  we’re  travelling  to.  

Along  the  way  we  make  sure  we  enjoy  our  work,  celebrate  our  victories,  recognise incredible  performance  and  rise  to  each  challenge  

we  face.  

We  support  each  other  in  day  to  day  projects,  stand  alongside  one  another  in  each  decision  we  make  and  take  time  to  foster  our  

relationships.  

This  mindset  breeds  true  team  spirit,  work  satisfaction  and  trust.

W e E n j o y O u r J o u r n e y

“Happiness  is  a  journey  and  not  a  destination"  

Buddha

L I V I NG  OUR   VA LU E S

We Succeed Together

Our company and personal objectives are decided as a team and we use tools to link and track all of our objectives.

Da Vinci was an expert at many different things – the same goes for our team. Everyone owns their functional area and

takes responsibility for their area of expertise.

We display our vision and mission around the office to constantly remind us of the journey.

We use bonus.ly to recongise and promote great work.

We all have lot’s of Forward Partners SWAG.

We Execute With Skill And Pace

We love sharing ideas with the team but we also need to get on and work effectively. All meetings are time-boxed, assigned an

owner and given follow-up actions.

We’ll try new methods, tools and processes but we always check them against our commitment to quality and pace.

We use dashboards and data to measure and track our work and use the insight to help guide us to better results faster.

Every Monday we have breakfast together where we run a retro on last weeks activity complete with data, dashboards and

discussion. We also decide on the actions for the week ahead.

We Share Our Knowledge

Everyone has the chance to write an article on The Path Forwardand blog on the Forward Partners website.

Everyone has the opportunity to host a roundtable on a topic of their choice and sharing their findings on our blog and with the

team.

We encourage and support everyone to speak at, attend and organise events – we want to help you build your brand.

Everyone can expense a non-fiction book but we would love it if you shared a short review with team once you finished reading it.

We Get Better Every TimeWe test everything that can be tested.

We capture all of our learnings in our Start-up Playbook.

We encourage real-time feedback and use tools to help us deliver it effectively and in a constructive manner.

We run retrospectives on all of our projects.

We regularly find time to learn more about each other in our Thursday Lunches together.

We support on-demand learning with company accounts to e-learning platforms.

We Have The Courage To Create

We have mood-boards around the office to instill design thinking into as many of our projects as possible.

The Office is a space for inspiration so we invite a series of guest curators to exhibit their exhibitions in our office.

We celebrate our failures as much as our success because we can always learn from our mistakes. We show projects that went

well and also share what didn't’ work so well.

We Enjoy Our Journey

We celebrate all of our success – publicly.

Da Vinci needed inspiration, and we do to – our office is regularly updated with a new theme.

Monday breakfasts, Thursday lunches, Friday Beers with Peers, daily snacks and drinks – all part of the Forward Partners week.

Monthly socials connect everyone in the room, both Forward Partners’ team and our partners.

We measure our happiness every day and keep an eye on the office mood by taking a pulse check every week.

We have no formal dress code.