Brydon CEO in Residence (2025 Cohort) - The Brydon Group

At the Brydon Group, we accelerate the trajectory of outstanding mid-career operators who want to become CEOs and build and grow industry-leading platforms with private equity support, resources, and capital.

Brydon CEO-in-Residence (CIR) Program:

Brydon selects 6-8 unique CEOs-in-Residence (or partnered CEOs-in-Residence) each year:

• We invest the equity to support a two-year sourcing phase.
• We look to invest $10-20M of equity (+ additional debt) behind each platform (between initial equity check and add-on acquisitions).

CEO-in-Residence

• We look to partner with CIRs / CIR teams who have operating and/or industry experience, typically 3-12 years out of business school or equivalent.
• We believe that industry-focus theses win: our CIR applicants either submit sub-industries/areas of interest or expand upon several of Brydon’s core theses (vertical market software, regulatory & compliance services, technical services, healthcare services, etc.) based on their backgrounds.
• For example:
• You worked in banking or private equity on a PE-backed roll-up and see a similar opportunity with dedicated capital and support (and a unique thesis).
• You are a McKinsey Associate Partner with extensive work experience and deep understanding of the growth levers in a sub-industry. Now you want to operate and build equity value in a business in that sub-industry.
• You ran a P&L or were General Manager in a vertical and know the space well. You see an opportunity to buy small mom and pop players in the space.
• Do you have a thesis-based acquisition approach? Know an industry or have an angle on an interesting niche? We would love to discuss it.
• Don’t have an industry thesis? We have several industries where we have deep relationships and experience and are looking for CIRs: Vertical SaaS (with a sub-focus), GovTech, B2B Services, Healthcare/Healthcare Tech, Targeted Roll-Ups, Compliance/Regulatory Software & Services.
• We’re happy to leverage our relationships and expertise to help you build out an area of focus.

Better Economics: Salary and Equity

• We fund our CIRs at higher salary levels commensurate with their experience.
• CIRs earn much more equity than standard PE-backed CEOs.

Mix of In-Person & Remote

• The CIR program kicks off with a week of intensive training in the Caribbean focused on sourcing, CRM best practices, and due diligence; our CIRs begin reaching out to owners within their first week (and on average our CIRs are under LOI/in the CEO seat within a year).
• We strongly encourage CIRs to base and focus their sourcing efforts where they want to live.
• Through weekly one-on-ones, cohort calls, and quarterly in-person off sites around the US, our CIRs build great connections and friendships, share insights and advice, and support one another throughout the challenges of sourcing and operating a small business.

Better Support: Private Equity Sourcing, Diligence, and Operating Resources

• We have backed 3 cohorts and 19 individuals/teams to acquire small businesses in software, business services, and healthcare services (and others).
• Our Brydon team is “in the trenches” sourcing deals with our CIRs (in fact, we have sourced over half of the deals that we and our CIRs have closed in the last two years!).
• We understand how frustrating it can feel to “re-create the wheel” when it comes to sourcing, diligence, valuation, deal structures, and operating best practices.
• We bring playbooks and best practices from large-cap PE and work hand-in-hand with our CIRs and CEOs to apply them across the full journey: from sourcing to diligence to closing and operating (including an existing deal sourcing engine and a dedicated investment team at Brydon).
• The proof is in our results: On average, our CIRs are under LOI/in the CEO seat within a year.

Application Process

• Please submit your application by February 3rd, 2025 at 11:59pm PST. Early applications are encouraged and we make official offers by early March.
• Selected individuals undergo an interview and background-check process with several rounds of interviews (including in-person sessions with the Brydon leadership team and a final round thesis presentation).
• CEO-in-Residence offers will be made in March and the cohort start date will be May 12, 2025 in the Bahamas.
• Any questions? Please email sarah.higgins@brydon.com.
• If you are interested in submitting as a partnered team, please do submit two individual applications and indicate that you are applying as a partner/pair (fine to include the same answers to the application questions in each application).
• A recording of our 2024 CEO-in-Residence Information Session is located here - this answers the most frequent questions we get about our approach, our industry/vertical areas of investment, this program, and the application process, etc.