WAD Capital: CEO-in-Residence Cohort
The Position
Search on Salary. SME succession on the lane's only published terms: a fee, full funding, and equity on the day it closes.
Cycle: Cohorts of 10 to 20; the firm's own page is recruiting for the 2026 cohort.
Applications are open.
Window: Applications open for the 2026 cohort.
At a Glance
- Location
- Europe; the firm frames the program around European SME succession.
- Pay
- Salaried
- Compensation
- A monthly management fee during the search, full acquisition funding, and a stake in the company on closing.
- What You Do
- About two months of thesis research and six of outreach to find a company of roughly one to five million euros in EBITDA, then run it. The program runs up to 24 months, and at 18 to 24 months without a close the firm reevaluates with you whether to continue or conclude the search.
- Recruits On
- It weighs operating experience: time running something, rather than a degree.
- Who Can Apply
- Proven executives ready to take over from a retiring owner.
The Company
WAD Capital is reviewed in full in the directory, with its model, pricing, and the searcher case for and against it, and because it also backs searches, the same page carries its fit as a backer and how to approach it: read the WAD Capital review.
Interview Prep
These programs do not publish their interview scripts, so this is the shape a search on salary program hires on, what it is really weighing, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A written application and resume screen, weighing operating exposure as much as deal exposure.
- A case or deal exercise: a target to assess, or a plan for one of the firm's portfolio companies.
- A panel with the partners who would back and govern you.
- Reference and background checks before an offer.
What It Is Assessing
- Whether you can operate, not only analyze: the firm is hiring a CEO, not an associate.
- Deal judgment: telling a good acquisition from a merely plausible one.
- Fit with the firm's stated playbook and the cadence its portfolio runs at.
How to Prepare
- Know the firm's thesis and portfolio cold before the first call. Investors
- Bring a real deal you would pursue, underwritten end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Have an answer to why you would operate on salary rather than own outright. Path Economics
- Make the operator case on one page, not a resume. Buyer Profile Builder
More on the Board
A salaried seat is a form of capital: the employed lane on Investors weighs these programs beside the funds, and the Path Economics Comparer prices it against searching on your own money.