here//forward
// about us

Put faces to the name.

Two educators who grew up in small businesses, a long way from Silicon Valley. We know AI. We also know community, small business, and what it feels like to run on tools built for big cities and big-box brands with five times your budget. That expertise belongs here too, where our people are, and we put it to work moving our communities forward.

Tom, co-founder of Here Forward

Tom

education & growth

Tom has spent 20+ years in technology development, UX design, and higher education. He came up in startups and small businesses, earned a computer science degree and a PhD in business along the way, and is now an endowed professor, with a recent turn leading his college's AI institute. Lately his favorite work is running AI workshops in rural communities for rooms full of small business owners, nonprofit folks, and local leaders trying to figure it out. The rooms stay full because he makes AI accessible and practical, and keeps the conversation down to earth. Someone always catches him on the way out with one of two asks: “Can you teach this to my team?” or “Can you build this for us?” Here Forward is how he finally gets to say yes.

Tom on LinkedIn ↗

Lu, co-founder of Here Forward

Lu

systems & context dev

Lu's background runs through small business development, local government, community development, and grassroots advocacy. Everywhere she worked, the job stayed the same. She stood with small businesses and community groups, made complex systems make sense, and pushed for a fair shot when the rules were written for someone bigger. She's always had more ideas than hours. AI closed that gap, and that's the whole reason Here Forward exists. She holds a master's in political science and public policy, and a soft spot for the people who keep small towns running.

Lu on LinkedIn ↗

Receipts

We can back it up.

We bring credentials and lived experience to the same conversation, with the rigor underneath when you need it.

20+
years combined teaching
Adult learners. Business school students. Skeptical small business owners. Farmers. We've taught all of them.
PhD + MA
education
Real academic rigor when the problem calls for it. Plain English the rest of the time.
10+
years working in small business
Tight budgets, scrappy teams, real results. We know what works when “throw money at it” isn't an option.
Daily
we use what we recommend
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, MCPs, agents — every day, on real work. We won't recommend anything we haven't lived with.
How we work

A few operating principles.

Useful things to know before you decide to work with us.

01

Your context, yours to keep.

Your Foundation is in plain markdown files. Yours to keep, port, edit, take elsewhere. No lock-in, no proprietary platform.

02

We work with you, not for you.

This work is personal. We're going to sit with your team, learn how the place actually runs, and have honest conversations about what's working and what isn't. It takes real partnership— the best work happens when you're in it with us.

03

We move past skeptics, gently.

Half your team is going to think this is silly. We sit with them. Most come around when AI starts saving them literal hours a day.

04

We don't pretend to know everything.

AI moves fast. It feels like the wild west. The top experts in this field don't even know what's going on. We remain curious, intentional, and most importantly keep ethics at the heart of our business.

Got a question?

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