Skip to contentSkip to footer
      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      Forward Financing

      Engaged Employer

      Forward Financing reviews

      4.8

      96% would recommend to a friend

      (288 total reviews)
      avatar

      Jason Mullins

      99% approve of CEO

      97% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Forward Financing has an employee rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars, based on 288 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Forward Financing employee rating is 33% above average for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      288 reviews
      1.0
      Oct 10, 2016

      SBA

      Small business advisor
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Office Location, lunches on Friday, quarterly events, company-sponsored sports/jerseys, expanding industry type, fast-paced,

      Cons

      A seemingly 5 star place to work throughout the interview process, with a shiny business model that is packaged to seem too good to be true as a solution for small business owners looking for working capital with an enticing startup vibe. So wrong. Once you are hired, you undergo two weeks of training which is essentially intelligible to a kindergarten finger painting class. My original team was wonderful with lots of 'A' players from great schools and backgrounds only to be reduced to numbers and deals on the white board in the office. Most of my peers were overqualified for their positions and worked below under-qualified 'D' managers that had no real concepts of the product or the client. Underwriters and upper level managers are the real false prophets of the company, it is a shame that they reduced the company to its bare bones and kept these people. Outlook is not good. Not to mention, a word of the wise to the client, DO NOT do business with this company unless you plan to go into the red. Any smart business owner would see a warning flag with this company charging upwards of 40% over a one year period. This company assures that it is trying to help you grow your business, however assuming they have any fiduciary responsibility could mean your business going underwater. For working capital loans, turn to OnDeck, Lending Tree, Circle, etc, they are the real MVP's. Sooner than they realize, banking regulations will expand into this industry and start stress testing, iit is not going to be a pretty picture and everyone will be better off because of it.

      avatar
      Forward Financing Response
      9y
      I am very sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at Forward Financing. As CEO, I take personal responsibility for every colleague’s job satisfaction and I apologize if you were not happy with your experience at the company. We started our company in 2012 with the goal of helping small business owners get financing to grow their businesses. Since then we have done over $100 million in financing and are extremely proud of our achievements. We find nothing more rewarding than customers thanking us for getting them funds to finance payroll, inventory, expansion etc., even after their local banks have rejected them. You can see our customer satisfaction in the 100+ 5-star reviews on TrustPilot, an independent, third-party review site. In addition, we have consistently maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Our customers’ high satisfaction ratings notwithstanding, we are committed to offering our employees a rewarding work environment with growth opportunities, consistent learning and challenges – all while enjoying the company of bright, motivated and ambitious colleagues. We are extremely proud of the A team we have assembled across all functions. We are a fast-growing company and while growing, we did make some mistakes. As a result we had to let go of some of our colleagues earlier this year for no fault of theirs. As someone who hired each one of them, it was incredibly painful for me and a bitter, yet important learning experience. Clearly your experience at Forward Financing was less than optimal. I do wish you had brought this to my attention so that I could have tried to make it better. As you know, we have an “open-door” policy, there are no offices for management and we try our hardest to have an open dialogue. Still, I want to thank you for your time here and wish you the best in your career. Justin Bakes
      1.0
      Oct 27, 2021

      Smoke and Mirrors

      Software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      On the surface, everything appears to be fantastic, with substantial benefits and promises.

      Cons

      The staff is not open to new ideas, and they don't have a product to sell; instead, they have an army of underwriters manually approving loans for small businesses. Despite the promises, it is not mission-driven. They haven't been able to come up with any examples of small enterprises that have used the loans to expand and grow over time.

      avatar
      Forward Financing Response
      4y
      Thank you for sharing your feedback. We believe in the power of small businesses and the impact they have on our communities, which is why we have a growing library of customer success stories that discuss how Forward Financing helped them overcome an obstacle or seize a growth opportunity. Every person at Forward Financing makes an impact on our mission to help our small businesses reach their full potential. Since you mentioned that you no longer work at Forward Financing, we hope that you find the passion for helping your customers succeed as our team here does. All the best, Forward Financing
      1.0
      Oct 6, 2016

      Started off good, but once you look past the fake smile it's a sweatshop.

      Small business advisor, which means business development
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      As long as you did well you can take time off. Free food every once and awhile. Xmas gifts I liked the CEO

      Cons

      Where to start... They worked the entire sales team to the ground. 200 calls a day is what's expected, calling people who can't afford another loan. CRIPPLING BUSINESSES! Never listened to anything the people selling had to say, like maybe be competitive in the ever-growing market? or let us outsource deals that their programs were not competitive with? Just because a few sweat shops in NYC tell you your calculator is good does not mean it actually is. They hired to fast and made huge changes that literally made it almost impossible to sell. Towards the end I truly felt like not a single manager cared about my well being. Pay was the worst.

      avatar
      Forward Financing Response
      9y
      Thank you for your review and acknowledging some of the perks and good things we offer employees (weekly lunches, flexible work hours, etc). There are many more you didn’t list such as gym memberships, monthly outings, etc, which I think are also important to highlight. As CEO, I would like to address your headline calling Forward Financing a “sweatshop.” We have regular office hours from 9 until 6pm (or 8:30am to 5:30pm for some teams). Most everyone works during those hours. There are a few times during the moth (month end, working on a specific deal, etc) where certain people or teams work a bit later. By no means is Forward Financing a sweatshop or unfair working environment (I would reference the other positive reviews from employees – and, yes, those are previous or current employees, not me or other managers posting them). One change we did make recently, which you might not have been privy to, is that we added 10 or so “skeleton work days” where we have significantly reduced teams that either work partial days in the office or at home. This has more than doubled the number of holidays we provide our employees and has been a great benefit the past 6 months. We also encourage employees to hit the gym during lunch or other downtimes during the day when possible. We pay for gym memberships for all employees and find many of them taking advantage of this benefit. I am sorry you did not have a great experience working at Forward Financing. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to experience other corporate environments since leaving Forward Financing to better understand customary employer working hours and expectations. I wish you the best in your career and future endeavors, Justin Bakes CEO Forward Financing
      Viewing 13 - 15 of 288 Reviews
      Related searches: Forward Financing jobs | Forward Financing salaries | Forward Financing benefits | Forward Financing interviews
      ReviewsForward Financing reviews

      Glassdoor has 294 Forward Financing reviews submitted anonymously by Forward Financing employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Forward Financing is right for you.