For leaders
You've built other people's businesses. Own a real share of the next one.
Most of the best operators we know are wealthy on paper and powerless in practice: shares they can't sell, options that wait on an event somebody else controls, and a sale that is always two years away. We offer a guaranteed share of the value you create, yours from day one, with the route to cash in the contract.
The ownership illusion
The better you are, the further away the sale gets.
You were told it would sell in five years, or float in three. So you gave it eighty-hour weeks. And the closer the date got, the further away it moved.
There is a reason. The better you run the business, the less the owner needs to sell. You are doing most of the work, the owner still holds all of the upside, and your shares only pay out on an event they control. You can't spend shares like that.
Then read the shareholder agreement. Bad-leaver clauses can wipe out ten years in a sentence, and some agreements trigger them even for falling seriously ill. If the owner says they would never use them, ask them to write that down.
We know because we have been there. Next57 exists because we had to fight for terms that should have been standard.
What we offer
Real ownership, with a parachute.
- A real business to run
- Established, with customers, revenue and a team, handed over properly by a founder who wants it to succeed. A going concern, not a start-up, and you are not doing it alone.
- A guaranteed share of what you create
- A percentage of the value you add, agreed before you start. Not options, not paper that waits for a sale. The timings and the route to cash are in the contract, and changing them takes both sides to agree. Nobody moves the goalposts on their own.
- An owner from day one
- When somebody asks what you do, the answer is that you own a business. Not one day. From the start.
- Three people who have done it
- Board, finance and commercial, and a phone that gets answered. Close in while you find your feet, then out of the day-to-day. Once you are running it, you are running it.
The cycle
What this looks like, start to finish.
- 01
Step in
As CEO or COO of a business that needs you, with the owner's handover agreed and the board behind you.
- 02
Fix, then grow
Fix what needs fixing, then take it somewhere it has not been.
- 03
Build equity nobody can touch
Your share of the value you create, documented before you started, with the route to cash already written.
- 04
Stay, or train your successor
Stay as long as you want. When you are ready, develop the person who will run it after you, the way somebody should have done for you.
- 05
Realise it, then decide
Take the value you built. Do it again with us, or don't. The decision is yours.
Who we are looking for
People who want to build their own legacy more than they want safety.
- A track record of taking something somewhere it had not been, and the numbers to show us.
- You have carried a P&L, hired and fired, and lived with the consequences.
- You are well paid, and you know the salary is the thing keeping you there, in the years your children most want your time.
- You would rather own a share of something real than hold a title in something big.
The earlier you do this, the more of your life you get to choose. Take the risk now, and in ten years you decide what you do with the rest of it. We did exactly that.
It is hard, and not for everybody. But most people who could do this quietly assume they can't. If that is you, write to us anyway. You don't need to bring a business.
Before you ask
The questions people ask first.
What does the share actually look like?
It depends on the business, and we agree it before you start rather than after you have proved yourself. The principle does not move: you get a percentage of the value you add. As an illustration, a ten per cent share in a business you take from £100m to £200m is £10m to you, whether or not anybody ever sells and whether or not you are still there.
Do I need to put money in?
No. The share is for the work, not the money. If you would like to invest alongside us as well, you can.
What do I get paid?
A proper salary for the job you are doing, agreed up front, on top of your share. We don't ask people to work for equity alone.
What if I want to leave?
Then you leave, and you keep what you built. The buyback terms and timings are in the contract from day one, and changing them takes both of us to agree. No bad-leaver traps. We have watched what they do to people.
Where are the businesses?
Usually close to where you are. If you want to move, say to Dallas-Fort Worth, where we already have businesses, that is possible too. It is your choice.
Is this just another job?
No. It is the bridge from running a business to owning one. If what you want is a salary and a title, there are easier ways to get them.
Tell us about yourself.
What you have run, what you are good at, and what you want to own. One of the three of us replies personally.