Skip to content
SearchSphereSource
Sign inSign up

Brydon Group vs NextGen Growth Partners

Side by Side

Brydon Group and NextGen Growth Partners, attribute by attribute
AttributeBrydon GroupNextGen Growth Partners
What It IsThe largest cohort-model employed-search program: recruits CEOs-in-residence into annual cohorts (36 CIRs across five cohorts since 2022; twenty platforms bought since 2023 and forty-six acquisitions counting tuck-ins, in software, business, healthcare and government services), pays a salary during the search, and targets $30M-plus of equity behind each platform the CIR then runs.A Chicago private investment firm founded in 2016 running the CEO-in-residence model, a role it renamed from entrepreneur-in-residence in 2025. CIRs join the firm full time, source and acquire a business with the firm's committed capital, and step in as its leader: an employed path into operating rather than a fund backing your own search.
CategoryCapital & InvestorsCapital & Investors
Pricing ModelCustom PricingCustom Pricing
What It CostsEmployment economics, not fees: a salary commensurate with experience during the search; what equity the role earns is not published.Not a fee or a fund investment in your entity: EIRs are brought into the firm's structure with compensation and equity terms set by the firm; understand exactly what you would own before comparing it to running your own search.
Best ForExperienced operators and executives who want the employed path with cohort structure, committed capital, and bigger-than-usual platform ambitionsAspiring owner-operators who want the searching experience with committed capital and infrastructure behind them, and who accept firm economics in exchange; whether the seat pays a salary is not stated on its site
Where It FitsLearn & Choose Your Path, Set Up & Fund the SearchLearn & Choose Your Path
Our VerdictThe employed lane's scale option: if you would search on salary, the cohort with twenty platforms bought is the bench strength to compare everyone else against.A legitimate third path between self-funded and traditional; take it for the platform and the risk transfer, not the equity math, and model all three paths before choosing.
Pros
  • A salary during the search removes the personal burn that ends many searches early
  • Twenty platforms bought in three years, with a chief executive named beside each, is a real, recent track record for a young program
  • $30M-plus of committed equity per platform aims higher than most first acquisitions
  • Removes the fundraising and personal-runway burden entirely; capital is committed before you start
  • Institutional sourcing, diligence, and operating support around the CIR, and three funds closed, the third at a $165M hard cap
  • A credible path for operators without the network or savings a self-funded or traditional search demands
Cons
  • Equity splits and salary figures are not published, so the trade against a traditional search is hard to price from outside
  • An annual application window (decisions by late March) sets the calendar for you
  • The thesis is shaped with the firm, so you trade some of the searcher's autonomy
  • You are an employee-entrepreneur inside the firm's economics, not the owner of your own search vehicle
  • Equity outcomes are structurally smaller than a successful self-funded purchase and different from traditional-search vesting; compare the three paths on paper
  • Thesis and deal selection are shared decisions with the firm

Both rows were read at source: Brydon Group ↗ and NextGen Growth Partners ↗.

Our take

Choose Brydon for scale and structure: an annual cohort in a program that has backed 36 CIRs since 2022, twenty platforms bought since 2023, and $30M-plus of equity aimed behind each platform you would run.

Choose NextGen to search inside a firm as a CEO-in-residence: a smaller bench, a Chicago base, and a model where you lead the deal you find rather than joining a platform thesis.