Forward Partners

£200k – £400k

E-commerce.

Business plan only, Product/Service ready to launch

The venture arm of Forward Internet Group, investing funds from their own balance sheet.

“We provide entrepreneurs a unique combination of investment, people, robust methodologies and office space. Our team can help find product-market fit, the first customers and the first hires.”

Within ecommerce, Forward Partners look for the following themes: – Companies with amazing products building their brands predominantly online – Companies building strong brands around new buying experiences – Software companies building tools and services for the next wave of ecommerce leaders We often ask founders to capture their ideas in a Business Model Canvas and then discuss the Canvas in workshop format to tease out key assumptions and get a feel for working with each other. We are also looking for opportunities where we can actively help the entrepreneur with our in house product, design, development and marketing experts. It’s helpful if we can understand the problem, market landscape and the proposed solution. Even at idea stage we expect the research to be solid.

First contact with an entrepreneur over email, preferably with a short overview (pitch deck or one pager) attached so Forward Partners can evaluate. If they think the company may be a good fit, a first meeting will be set up. – The first meeting is a chance for the entrepreneur to share their vision, customer understanding and their own capability. Forward Partners would usually go through a pitch deck and the questions at this stage will be looking to build a high level view of the opportunity. In advance of the second meeting Forward Partners often send through some specific questions that would help them understand the opportunity better. This gives the entrepreneur a chance to research additional material and prepare accordingly. There’s usually at least two members of the investment team present at the second meeting. After the meeting the investment team will discuss whether to progress to the final stage of the decision process – the workshop session. The entrepreneur is asked to prepare in advance a lean canvas that states all of the key assumptions on one page. Within a day or two of the lean canvas workshop they’ll be discussing whether to make an offer or to pass on the opportunity. Using the output from the lean canvas workshop Forward Partners ask the entrepreneur to present a proposal of what the first 2 months look like. – Deal closed. Forward Partners aim to take 8 weeks from first meeting to money in the bank.