The Fund
Foreword is an early-stage micro-fund investing in and supporting mission-driven founders throughout their initial chapters. We invest globally and at the earliest possible stages.
About the Team
The fund consists of the founder, Dec, and is backed by an incredible and mighty community of founders, operators, and investors, who act as an extension of the team.
Dec started his career in the early days of Web Summit, where he led all things VC-related. Here he got to build a global network of all the top investors and founders while helping scale operations across Dublin, Lisbon, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. He’s also a founding member of Web Summit’s venture fund, and also spent time as an expert-in-residence at Europe's top seed fund, Seedcamp.
Foreword invests at the pre-seed and seed stages. The earlier the better! It is never "too early" to start a conversation.
We can also invest at Series A and beyond, but that is typically when an existing relationship with the founder or co-investor exists.
Investment Stage
Investing between $50K and $100K.
We can invest larger amounts but generally at later stages, through an SPV structure alongside our community of LPs.
Check Size
Foreword is always on hand to help the founders we back. We invest like angels, so we tend to be super reactive to the founder’s needs and never waste their time. We like helping with:
Fundraising: Bringing other investors in, helping companies find their lead investors, as well as being a partner for future funding rounds.
Network: Using Foreword’s relationships to help with hiring, early users, customers, and founder peers.
Product feedback: Helping with early product strategy and acting as a sounding board for founders.
Hiring: Capitalising on the vast Foreword network and community to support the portfolio with all things talent related - we have recruited engineers, VP of Sales, Heads of community, and more for our growing portfolio.
Community and events: Using Foreword’s unique experience to help companies plan their community strategy and maximise their exposure across key events.
Founders: Foreword’s investors and portfolio are an extension of the fund. They help Foreword’s companies with sales, growth, leadership, hiring, and product feedback.
Portfolio Support
Never! Our check size is similar to an angel investor, so we tend to co-invest alongside a larger fund. That said, we often are the first to commit to a round and work alongside the founder to bring in a lead investor, angels, and help with structuring the round.
Lead Investor
While mostly focused on Europe, Foreword invests in companies globally. We have no geographic restrictions and have a growing portfolio outside of Europe, including the US, Columbia, Israel, Mexico, Egypt, Canada, etc.
Geo is never a reason to not get in touch!
Geographical Focus
Foreword invests broadly across B2B and consumer.
We back mission-driven founders who are intent on capitalizing on a technological shift or behavior they were uniquely positioned to spot. Take a look at our existing portfolio for guidance, but we’re investing across and between fintech, crypto, enterprise software, AI, marketplaces… and beyond.
Industry Focus
Foreword is lucky to have the support of 80 LPs, mostly of whom are successful founders, operators, and investors from all sectors and stages. This community operates as an extension of the fund and is there to support the wider portfolio when needed.
This community consists of a diverse group of founders and operators from leading companies like GitHub, Pipedrive, Sorare, TravelPerk, Zalando, Delivery Hero, Pointy, Ryanair, to professional footballers and World Cup winners, to many of the top funds and GPs across Europe and the US.
The Foreword Community
Usually found somewhere in Europe. Dec is typically based between Berlin and London, while also spending much of his time in Dublin, Lisbon, and the US throughout the year.
The Foreword Community is global but largely located across Europe and the US.
Location
dec@foreword.vc or DM on twitter