Code of Conduct

Why this matters

You didn't join to network. You joined because you wanted a small group of people who've actually run something, sat with a handful of peers, and told the truth about what's hard. That kind of room is rare, and it's fragile — one breach of trust, one bad-faith member, one leaked conversation, and it stops working for everyone. This Code is how we keep it working.

The room stays closed

Whatever gets said in a session — a bad quarter, a co-founder falling out, a layoff you haven't announced yet — stays with the people who heard it.

• No repeating specifics outside the group, even anonymised, even to a spouse or a business partner, without the member's sign-off.

• No recording or screenshotting sessions, ever.

• This doesn't expire when you leave the Forum. What you heard in the room is still not yours to share five years from now.

You showed up to be challenged, not agreed with

The value here is candour, not comfort. That cuts both ways.

• Say the hard thing if it's true and it'll help — vague encouragement helps no one.

• Say it like you'd want it said to you: direct, specific, without contempt.

• When someone pushes back on your thinking, that's the product working, not an attack. Sit with it before you dismiss it.

Competing interests get named, not hidden

Groups are built on non-competing companies for a reason — it's the only way people can be fully honest about strategy, pricing, or pipeline. If your business shifts into overlap with a peer's, you say so, immediately, and let the Forum team sort out what happens next. Using something a peer told you in confidence to outmanoeuvre them isn't a grey area.

Commitment is the membership fee

Time is the scarcest thing in this room, and every empty chair costs the group something.

• Show up. If you can't, say so early enough that it doesn't waste anyone's prep.

• Bring the real problem, not the safe one you're comfortable presenting.

• Do the thing you said you'd do. If you didn't, say that too — the group can't hold you accountable to a story.

No pitching the room

This isn't a lead-gen channel. Members aren't a captive audience for your product, your fund, or your recruiter. Build relationships; don't mine them.

Where the line actually is

A few things end a membership outright, no warnings needed: breaking confidentiality in a way that damages a member, harassment or discrimination, deliberately misrepresenting who you are or what authority you hold, or using the group for fraud. Everything else — a bad meeting, a moment of poor judgement, an honest conflict — gets handled like adults: a direct conversation first, escalating only if it repeats.

If something's wrong, say so

Tell your Forum Chair, or the Forum team directly, if you see this Code broken. It'll be handled discreetly and without delay, and nobody gets punished for raising it in good faith.

This isn't fixed in stone

We'll change this as the community teaches us what it actually needs. If you think something here is wrong or missing, that's worth raising too.