Embrace and Seek Out Challenges: Interview with Adnan Mahmud, CEO of FORWARD

I recently went one on one with Adnan Mahmud, CEO of FORWARD.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Adnan: Thank you for including my advice among the great leaders also featured. To understand why I am building FORWARD and why I am passionate about it, we have to go back to when I was a kid, growing up in Bangladesh. My father served as a government bureaucrat, and he witnessed firsthand the need for accountability within government systems. He witnessed how information and resources can be manipulated to benefit a few people.  That experience stuck with me. When I immigrated to the United States, I studied and built a career in technology, focusing on improving access to information and knowledge.

I spent 8 years at Microsoft and left to found LiveStories in 2013, a data visualization technology company that allowed our public sector customers to find, explore and present civic data. When the pandemic hit, our customers needed a way to distribute COVID relief funding quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively to millions of constituents. In response, my team adapted and built a first-of-its-kind integrated program administration platform called FORWARD. 

I am grateful and proud of the team I have built today; they are passionate and dedicated about our mission and they are some of the kindest people, too. Along the way, I have learned a great deal about myself. I will share now that two of the biggest lessons I have faced along the way are: 1) my ability to learn new things is infinite, especially if the problem I am working to solve is something I am passionate about. I will always have the fire within me to keep going even when things get challenging, and 2) my biggest motivation is impact - the more directly I can change lives the more driven I am.

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

Adnan: In my experience, there will always be opportunities to grow and scale your business if you stay true to the challenges you set out to solve in the first place. You have to remain committed to your mission and remind yourself of your passions, even when it seems impossible. 

The first step to growth is the simplest yet the most difficult– it’s getting started. Finding the courage to take the leap, it can be overwhelming. Finding a cause or a problem you're passionate about can certainly ignite the fire and propel you forward. 

The next step is building a strong, committed team, and this requires you to be picky. As a solo-founder, I learned this the hard way, but now know the importance of trust in building my leadership team. 

The final step is finding the product-market fit. Even if you are passionate, you might not get the right product in the first try. But with perseverance and the right team, you can course-correct to achieve the right fit. For example, My company started out as LiveStories, a civic data analytics platform. When the pandemic hit, there was a clear need to pivot and provide an infrastructure for our customers so they could quickly, securely and cost-effectively distribute billions of dollars in assistance programming to their communities. In October 2022 we officially launched our new company, FORWARD. Letting go of LiveStories was very hard at first, but we have been able to unlock tremendous value for our customers with FORWARD. We remain true to the mission we founded LiveStories on, but we’ve adapted it based on the problems our customers face today.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? 

Adnan: Trust is the foundation of building, leading, and managing teams. Early on in founding my company, I didn’t realize how closely linked the success of business was to hiring the right people. As a solo founder, I didn’t have a partner to work through our early problems with. Not having the right team members can set back a company. I am picky about who I hire onto my team, they have to have the right skill set for their role, but more importantly, I am always looking for people who share our company's vision and mission. I want to make sure we are hiring people who are kind and pragmatic while wanting to see their impact. My role as a leader is to inspire my team to accomplish our goals together, celebrate the wins along the way, and dedicate ourselves to making our customers successful.

Adam: What are the most important trends in technology that leaders should be aware of and understand? What should they understand about them? 

Adnan: The technology trends leaders should be aware of and take the time to understand are the rapid iterations around machine learning and artificial intelligence. There are a lot of interesting things currently happening through AI innovations. Many of our day-to-day tasks will get disrupted as AI models improve exponentially over the next 3-5 years. It is only going to scale faster, so I encourage all technology leaders to watch AI and the implications it might have across your entire business landscape.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader? 

Adnan: An effective leader is one that makes sure their team members feel recognized, appreciated and have opportunities for meaningful career growth. When you’re moving so quickly, it is easy to forget to celebrate the successes and acknowledge what we learned from our experiences. I try to make sure my team understands why and how their contributions to our collective success are important and how to help them later in their careers.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Adnan: Creativity and patience are the cornerstones of cultivating your leadership skills. Every leader is different and you often find yourself navigating challenges unique to your circumstances. For aspiring leaders, especially those that are disrupting a sector, there isn't an instruction manual on how to be a leader and changemaker. However, there are stories about the journeys of other entrepreneurs that we can glean lessons from. At the end of the day, only you can pave the best path forward for yourself. You are not the next Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. You are the next You. 

I am very results-driven, and I want to see the payoff of our strategies quickly, but I’ve learned to be ready for anything and embrace all the unexpected turns. Those situations provide opportunities for growth, and I’ve learned that self-discovery and growth happen at the intersection of patience and creativity.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders? 

Adnan: My three key tips that I wish someone had told me early on are as follows: 1) Be picky about who you allow to join your team. 2) Trust and invest in your ability to learn new things. 3) Be humble when you don’t get it right the first time; you don’t know everything.

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding? 

Adnan: There are a lot of people, voices, and brands out in the marketplace. One of the best ways to stand out is to be authentic to yourself, what you stand for. Brand follows you, not the other way around. Be proud of who you are and communicate that with your customers.

Second, I’d say “rinse and repeat.” It’s very rare that you get your messaging down on day one. It requires a lot of practice, trial and error, testing with your customers, employees, and other stakeholders, and getting their feedback. You may never be done honing your message - there is always room for improvement. Adopting a culture where you are always learning and trying things out is also important.

Third, and probably most important, is to not just talk about your brand in your advertising but to represent your brand on a day-to-day basis. Live the brand across the company, not just in the marketing department. This means on your teams, how they conduct themselves in the workplace, or how they interact with customers. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Adnan: The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to embrace and seek out challenges. I often remind myself during periods of discomfort that on the other side is growth. Without a challenge, there is no change. If you’re not changing, then you’re not growing. Seeking out opportunities that challenge you will help you find that next opportunity to improve yourself. That's not just for your career or work, but this is very helpful in life in general.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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