01 Why this is short
Most companies replace judgment with rules. Every slip-up becomes a new policy, until the best people feel managed by a document instead of trusted by a colleague. We are not doing that.
FundTap is small on purpose. A lean team we would fight to keep beats a big team wrapped in process. We trust each other to act like the capable adults we hired. So this is the whole handbook: principles, a few hard lines where the stakes are genuinely high, and the freedom to use your head everywhere else. Underneath all of it: be a good human.
The one rule that covers most of this
Act in FundTap’s best interest.
When you are deciding how to spend, travel, take time off, or handle a hard call, ask: does this serve the customer, is it a good use of the company’s money and trust, and could I explain it to the team without squirming? If yes, go. If you are not sure, talk to someone first.
We would always rather you make a sensible call and move than wait for permission. If you get it wrong occasionally, we will treat it as learning, not as a crime, as long as you surface it early.
02 The customer comes first
Everything we do is for one person: our customer, the time-poor business owner who needs the money to keep their business moving. Our job is to take the friction away, all of it. So, when you are deciding how to do something, ask whose effort it saves. If a choice is easier for us but harder for the customer, it is the wrong choice.
Our three values serve one thing: the customer's trust. It's not a slogan, it's the ground everything else stands on.
Make it
CLEAR
Simple isn't lazy, it's focused. We do the hard work to make things simple, own the outcome, and end every conversation with who does what by when.
Make it
REAL
If it's not real, it won't last. We build things that hold up and keep raising the bar, even when it's hard.
Make it
MOVE
We bias to action, keep things moving, and judge every decision by the outcome for the customer.
03 How we behave with each other
We are a team, not a family. That is not cold, it means we hold a high bar and we back each other to clear it. We hire people we would fight to keep, we pay to keep them (see Pay). Doing your best work is the deal, on both sides. What that looks like day to day:
Keep raising the bar.
The standard here is the best work of your career, not just clearing the job description. We push the people around us, we don't carry them. If you are drifting off the bar, your manager's job is to tell you early and help you back to it, no surprises, no ambush. And it is your job to make sure they never have to.
Build for leverage.
Solve today's problem, then automate it so it doesn't come back. A lean team stays lean by building things that compound, so we fix the cause once rather than the symptom every week.
Protect each other's time.
No meeting without a decision to make, and no room full of people where two would do.
Candour is a kindness.
Say the useful thing, to the person's face, early. If you disagree, say so. Staying quiet in a discussion and grumbling later is the disloyal move, not the polite one.
Feedback goes every direction.
Up, down, sideways. You can tell anyone what you think. The test is that you are trying to help, never to score points. Only say about someone what you would say to them. That includes praise, said loudly and specifically.
Disagree, then commit.
We debate hard, we let the person who owns the decision make the call, and then we all row in the same direction, even the ones who argued the other way.
Sunshine your mistakes.
When something breaks, surface it fast and share what you learned. Hiding a problem is the only real failure here.
No brilliant jerks.
However good someone's work, we do not keep people who tear at the team's trust. Talent does not buy a pass on how you treat colleagues.
Treat everyone with respect.
Bullying, harassment, discrimination or intimidation are not a values question, they are a hard line, see below.
Work should be satisfying and sum total, enjoyable.
We build the team, the systems and the environment for everyone to do their best work, and enjoy doing it.
Own what you ship.
AI can draft it, you are still the author. Check it, improve it, and stand behind it before it lands on someone else's desk. We call the alternative a slop grenade, work passed on unchecked so someone else pays for the time you saved.
Call out waste. Say no.
If you do not have time to do something well, say so, and say why. A clear no protects the team's leverage more than a reluctant yes, and forces the call on what matters.
04 Hustle for the short term, never at the expense of the long term
We push hard to hit the result in front of us, this week's funding, this month's number, the deal that needs to get over the line. That drive is the job, in busy stretches you dig in and put the hours in. That is how we win.
What we never do is buy a short-term win with something we cannot get back:
- a customer's trust,
- the quality of the book, never trade the book for this month's number,
- a teammate run into the ground.
Sprint when it counts, then recover (see swings and roundabouts below), and never let this month's number quietly damage what we are building for the next ten years.
05 How we make decisions
- One owner. Every meaningful decision has one owner, the person best placed to make the call, not a committee.
- Gather dissent, then decide. If you own it, ask the people around you what they would do differently before you decide. Bias towards fewer, not more people. Then decide and action it.
- Match the pace to the stakes. Small, reversible calls: just make them and tell people. Big, hard-to-undo calls: slow down, get the strongest argument against on the table, then commit.
- Perfect is the enemy of done. A good decision now usually beats a perfect one next week. Don't let analysis paralysis stall a call you can course-correct later.
06 Spending and expenses
There is no expense form to pre-approve. Spend company money as if it were your own and the company's future depended on it, because both are true.
- Do: Buy the tool, buy the software, take the customer to coffee, replace the thing that is slowing you down. If it helps FundTap and you would be comfortable saying so out loud to the team, it is fine.
- Record it: Keep the receipt and code it honestly so the books are clean. Clear beats clever.
- The test: If spending this would look bad on a screen in front of the whole team, do not. If it would look obviously sensible, do not wait to ask.
- Personal-benefit line: Company money is for company purposes. Anything that mixes in personal benefit, or that you could not comfortably show the team, gets a quick word with your manager first.
We are not going to build an approval chain for the 3% of spend that needs a second opinion and slow down the 97% that does not. Tell your manager the plan before you book or spend anything significant, not for sign-off, for context and so nobody is surprised.
07 Travel
Same principle. Travel when being there in person genuinely moves something: a partner, a hire, the team. Book the sensible option, the fare and the room a careful owner would choose, not the cheapest that wastes your day and not the most expensive because someone else is paying.
- Choose based on what the trip is worth to FundTap, not on a per-diem table.
- Bundle personal travel onto a work trip if you like; just pay your own share of it.
08 Time off
We want you rested, and we measure output, not hours in a seat. Take the leave you need to do great work over a long stretch, and actually switch off.
- Your leave entitlements are yours. Take them, and record them properly so the books and the law are right.
- Swings and roundabouts. Work runs in tides. After a run of long days or a hard push, take some time back to recover. This is not annual leave and it does not come off your entitlement, it is just balancing the ledger so you do not burn out. Clear it with your manager first, keep it proportionate to the extra you put in, and make sure your work is covered.
- Give the team enough notice to cover your work, and make sure someone can pick up anything time-sensitive while you are out.
09 Pay
Talent density is the whole game. We need top performers. Our bar is high and keeps rising. This excites some people and terrifies others, and that is fine: FundTap is not for everyone.
We back the right people and move their pay up as they show value to the team, rather than pay the top number on day one to someone unproven. When the company hits its goals, salaries rise by market rate plus 3%, built to carry every role past market over time. We reward both team success and individual performance: we recognise a standout even in a missed-goal year, and a met team target never covers individual underperformance.
10 The hard lines (these are real rules, on purpose)
Everything above trades rules for judgment. This section does the opposite: we are a regulated lender moving real money and holding customers' financial lives. Here, a mistake is not a learning opportunity, it is a harm to a customer or to FundTap's licence to operate. So these are not “use your judgment”, they are do-this, every time.
- 01Customer data and privacy. Only access customer information your job actually needs.
- 02AML. If something feels money-laundering-suspicious, escalate to our AML Compliance Officer. No shortcuts, however urgent it feels.
- 03Conflicts of interest. If a decision touches your own interests, a friend, or family, declare it and step back from the call.
- 04Respect and safety. We have zero tolerance for playing office politics (always prioritise the company and team over the individual), harassment, bullying, or discrimination. This is a firm rule, and everyone owns it.
If you are ever unsure whether something crosses one of these lines, stop and ask first. On the hard lines, “I wasn't sure, so I checked” is always the right move.
11 If in doubt
Talk to your manager. Not to get permission, to get context. It cannot cover everything, and is not meant to. It just makes the answer obvious most of the time, and easy to ask the rest.
This is a living document. If a line here is getting in your way or no longer fits how we actually work, say so, that is exactly the candour we are asking for.
