NextGen Growth Partners

NextGen Growth Partners

NextGen Growth Partners was founded in Chicago in 2016 by a group of partners including Brian O'Connor and Rich Herrick, who built the firm on the belief that small, enduring businesses needed a more deliberate transition partner. The firm's early backers provided more than capital — they contributed the relationships and operating experience that shaped a process designed to minimize disruption for exiting founders. The targeted profile is founder- or family-owned companies with $5M–$50M in revenue and at least $2M in EBITDA, where the ownership is facing a succession or growth-transition moment. The firm concentrates on mission-critical B2B services, favoring facilities services, niche contracting, professional and technical services, and business process outsourcing. Two portfolio companies that illustrate the strategy are JEA, a Florida-based outsourced financial services provider for condominium and homeowners associations, and QNS, a central-Illinois IT managed services firm serving K-12 schools across the Midwest. NextGen invests from a committed fund, which it uses to write equity checks at close — a structure that removes financing risk from the seller's timeline. The geographic footprint is national, with an emphasis on the Midwest and the broader US lower middle market. Day-to-day investment execution runs through the firm's CEO-in-Residence (CIR) bench: a roster of operators who source deals, underwrite acquisitions, and step into the CEO role at close with support from an advisory board. The team lists six named partners and roughly two dozen CIRs and operators on its website, supported by a network of seasoned advisors that includes names such as Dennis Chookaszian and Dr. Steve Kaplan. The firm's BUILD process codifies the partnership arc — from relationship-building through a 21-day letter-of-intent window and into a structured 100-day post-close integration — formalizing a model that would otherwise depend on individual operator discretion. The structural differentiator is the pre-deal installation of the operator. Most lower-middle-market buyers identify a CEO after closing, or rely on the selling founder to stay on. NextGen identifies and recruits its CIRs first, then tasks them with finding a company to run, which aligns the operator's incentives with the diligence outcome. The partner group maintains a professional advisory board and an explicit internship pipeline, giving the firm a built-in talent funnel that lets it execute succession-driven buyouts without a founder-led transition period.