Next57
Founders have a legacy to protect. Exceptional leaders have one to build.
Next57 brings the two together. We put an exceptional leader into an established business, with a guaranteed share of the value they create, so the founder gets their time back and the business keeps growing. Sometimes that leader is one of us.
Why now
The people who built these businesses are reaching the age where they get to choose. Most of them have nobody behind them.
51%
of American business owners with employees are 55 or over.
US Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2018 data.
6 in 10
UK companies have a single director, and nobody named to follow.
Companies House register, 3.5 million companies, analysed by ExitRadar, September 2026.
Most founders don't want their life's work broken up or absorbed into a competitor. They want it to carry on, run by somebody they trust while they get their own time back, and one day perhaps handed to the family. Nobody is selling them that.
What we do
Three moves, in this order.
-
01
Find the business
Established, profitable, and built by somebody who has done the hard part, and who now wants their time back or wants to go faster.
-
02
Find the person
A leader with a proven record of taking a business somewhere it had not been. Sometimes they are already in the building. Sometimes it is one of us.
-
03
Back them with real ownership
A guaranteed share of the value they create, written down before they start. Not options. Not a promise.
The founders
Fifty-seven years. Six continents. Thirty board seats. We have been on both sides of this.
Marc Jennings
Leadership and strategy
Graduate engineer to Group CEO. Built an environmental business from a concept, scaled a factory, then doubled a group's revenue to £132m.
Colin Trainor
Finance and deals
Chartered accountant, Big Four trained. Fourteen years at Group CFO level across five continents, and nine figures of private equity raised.
Darren Eastwood
Growth and international markets
Placement student to Business Development Director. Two decades creating markets around the world, then a $40m US business built from scratch.
Why 57
From April 2028, 57 is the earliest most people in the UK can draw a private pension.
The question is not whether you could stop at 57. It is what happens to the thing you built when you do. Most people ask it about ten years too late.
The normal minimum pension age rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028 (Finance Act 2022).
Start with an hour.
In confidence, with one of the three of us, exploring the options. Not a sales pitch.