Forward
Founded 2013 · 271 employees on LinkedIn · 3 known investors
Find your way into Forward
1,483 people in our graph share verified history with the Forward team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Javier Solterounlockedknows Nikhil Handigol · together at Carnegie Mellon University (overlapped)
×6knows the team · via Stanford University
×4knows the team · via Stanford University Graduate School of Business
knows the team · via University of Utah
Forward builds network modeling and management software that enables operators at large enterprises to understand, visualize, and troubleshoot complex network infrastructures. The platform serves telecommunications companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and other large organizations managing mission-critical networks.
Founders & leadership
Forward was founded in 2013 by David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, and Peyman Kazemian.
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David Ericksonin𝕏CEO and Co-founderHe spent seven years as a graduate research assistant at Stanford University working on software-defined networking, with stints at Big Switch Networks and Cisco Research along the way. Before graduate school he worked as a software developer at CMC and consulted for Daily Dose Learning Systems, and in 2013 he taught and directed course content at SDN Academy.
NH
Nikhil Handigolin𝕏Chief AI Officer and Co-founderHe completed his doctoral research at Stanford University between 2008 and 2013, with earlier research stays at Cisco Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, and Strand Life Sciences. In 2013 he was a member of technical staff at ON.Lab and directed course content and instruction at SDN Academy.
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Brandon HellerinCTO and Co-founderHe conducted his graduate work in software-defined networking at Stanford and held engineering internships at Google, Hewlett-Packard, Emerson Motor Company, and Intelligent Automation. He also directed course content and instruction at SDN Academy in 2013 and serves as the company's CTO.
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Peyman KazemianinChief Architect and Co-founderHe was a research assistant and teaching assistant at Stanford University from 2007 to 2013, where his work focused on network verification, and interned with Google's networking research team as well as at Ericsson and Canon USA. In 2013 he also taught and directed course content at SDN Academy.
Investors · 3
Founder mafia
4 people who came through Forward went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors · 4
by search overlap
ArrowPoint138 shared keywordsCisco provides networking, data center, and security technology for enterprises, including infrastructure to run traditional and AI workloads and tools to keep organizations running against cyberattacks and outages. Its platform connects networking devices and monitors security events across corporate networks.
Netezza78 shared keywordsIBM is a global technology company whose business spans enterprise software (including Red Hat, HashiCorp, and Confluent), IT infrastructure such as mainframes, servers, and storage, and IT consulting services. The company is also investing heavily in quantum computing and AI-based enterprise offerings, including its Lightwell open-source software security clearinghouse and the Anderon quantum wafer foundry.
Cloudflare Turnstile73 shared keywordsCloudflare provides a global cloud network platform delivering security, performance, and development services through sixty-plus integrated services including SASE, application security, and full-stack development infrastructure.
Palo Alto Networks65 shared keywordsPalo Alto Networks provides cybersecurity platforms and services to protect organizations' digital infrastructure across cloud, network, and security operations. The company serves enterprise organizations, governments, financial institutions, utilities, and healthcare providers globally.
Companies competing with Forward for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Forward Financing lands $525m to boost SME lendingfintech.global · Jul 2026
Forward Financing $525 Million: VFN + ABS Deal Explainedfunderintel.com · Jul 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does Forward do?
- Forward builds network modeling and management software that enables operators at large enterprises to understand, visualize, and troubleshoot complex network infrastructures. The platform serves telecommunications companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and other large organizations managing mission-critical networks.
- Who founded Forward?
- Forward was founded by David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian in 2013.
- Who are Forward's investors?
- Forward's investors include A.Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Threshold Ventures.