Episode 1: Our code of conduct for employees and entrepreneurs as part of #MovingForwardUK

By Leah Martin

Thinking of working with us? Or being part of the Episode 1 community? We want you to feel safe, represented, included and understood. We’ve been working with #MovingForward to put this pledge together — our hope is that other VC’s and organisations in our ecosystem will also get involved.

Our pledge:

At Episode 1 we are committed to providing a healthy work environment and a culture of acceptance, and we want to invite and welcome others who work and engage with us to support the same values. We believe in a culture of transparency in all that we do — so we have written a code of conduct in order to make sure this is understood within our organisation and beyond.

Our goal is to create and maintain a culture of respect and inclusivity for everyone including any groups in our current community who might feel marginalised because of issues of age, sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability and any other concern important to you we may have missed.

In particular, we realise that the industry in which we operate — namely tech and venture capital — hasn’t always done its best in this regard. We’d like to be part of changing that! We recognise there can be an unfair power balance between entrepreneurs and investors, and we will be particularly diligent to not to abuse this power, either unintentionally or intentionally, when dealing with startups, founders and entrepreneurs and their teams.

Unacceptable behaviours include any kind of comments or behaviour that discriminates against, stereotypes, bullies or harms anyone within our company or networks. This includes sexual harassment, defined as any unwanted, unwelcome or uninvited behaviour of a sexual nature which a reasonable person in the circumstances would find humiliating, intimidating or offensive.

These incidents don’t have to be repeated or ongoing — harassment takes many forms, but is always unacceptable. Equally, It is unacceptable under this pledge to advocate or support others in unacceptable behaviour, even satirically or in an ironic fashion.

We are publicly sharing our values and our expectations to allow our employees and partners to understand what is acceptable behaviour and that we are not afraid to identify it if unacceptable behaviour occurs. This pledge applies to Episode 1 employees, our entrepreneurs and founders, other stakeholders and suppliers and in any setting or event business or social associated with Episode 1. We will take action should we find that someone within our association or network has broken this code or poses a potential risk.

Reporting and enforcement:

We encourage anyone to report violations of this pledge and we commit to taking all reports seriously. Deliberately making a false claim will put you in breach of this pledge.

Incidents can be reported by email to: leah@episode1.com paul@episode1.com or siobhan@episode1.com

We expect the partners and the core team of Episode 1 to be especially conscientious in reporting any violations they see or have been reported of, always with the consent of the parties. We will do all within our power to protect anyone who has felt marginalised or has reported an incident from potential retaliation.

We hope this allows you, whoever you are to feel safe, happy, respected and included in the Episode 1 community.