Company details

HEADCOUNT

100-499

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Healthcare & Life Sciences

WEBSITE

https://www.goforward.com

About the company

Forward built a membership-based primary care model, pairing clinics and an app with technology-forward diagnostics and care workflows. The company was founded by Google alumnus Adrian Aoun and positioned the service around proactive care outside traditional insurance billing. Forward later pushed hard into automated “CarePod” kiosks as a major product direction. Forward publicly announced a shutdown in November 2024, closing locations and canceling care.

Locations and presence

Forward previously operated clinics in major US cities, including San Francisco and other large metro areas. After the November 2024 shutdown announcement, Forward’s locations stopped operating.

Palpable Score

19.3

/ 100

Forward is not a viable early-career destination because the company shut down operations in November 2024 and laid off staff. Any strengths that showed up in individual job descriptions or team practices are outweighed by the hard stop in employment continuity and the lack of ongoing roles.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

0.0

/ 20

The company is not hiring because Forward shut down operations and closed locations.
Forward has no active early-career pathway visible now, such as internships, new grad hiring, or 0–3 year roles.
The company cannot be scored as providing repeat early-career access when roles and teams are no longer operating.

‍

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

6.7

/ 20

The company has public candidate accounts describing an extremely long interview process and unclear role and pay information during recruiting.
Forward also has candidate reports describing recorded screening steps and faster feedback for some non-technical roles, suggesting uneven experiences across teams.
The company did not publish a consistent, candidate-facing interview stage map and timeline in the materials reviewed, which matters more for first-job applicants.

‍

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

6.8

/ 20

The company positioned much of the work around highly cross-functional execution (clinical operations plus product and technology), which can create learning by proximity when the company is stable.
Forward does not show a repeatable early-career support structure in public materials, such as a buddy system, formal mentoring, or a defined ramp plan for juniors.
The company’s abrupt shutdown in November 2024 cuts off any realistic learning runway for early-career hires, regardless of team-level intent.

‍

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

4.8

/ 20

The company did not consistently publish salary ranges across roles in the public job materials visible here, limiting pay comparability for early-career candidates.
Forward’s shutdown and layoffs are direct negative evidence for stability, which is part of pay fairness in practice for graduates choosing a first employer.
The company offered a premium membership healthcare model, but public benefits and compensation specifics for junior roles were not consistently easy to verify.

‍

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

1.0

/ 20

The company ended employment outcomes for the entire workforce by shutting down operations and laying off staff in November 2024.
Forward does not publish measurable early-career outcomes like intern conversion, time-to-promotion, or 12–24 month retention, which would matter even more given the company’s volatility.
The company has public reporting and community posts about members scrambling after shutdown, which aligns with an unstable environment for early-career progression.

‍