These Buyer Terms supplement the NextCompany Terms of Service and apply to you whenever you use the Platform as a buyer or searcher: browsing or saving Listings, sending an Inquiry to a Listing Party, broker, or professional, or creating a buyer profile. Capitalized terms have the meanings given in the Terms of Service. If these Buyer Terms conflict with the Terms of Service on a buyer-specific matter, these Buyer Terms control.
By taking any of those actions you agree to these Buyer Terms.
1. Our Role and Yours
1.1 We are not your broker or advisor. NextCompany does not represent you, search on your behalf, negotiate for you, evaluate businesses for you, or give financial, legal, tax, lending, or investment advice. We are a marketplace and directory. Your relationship with any seller, broker, or professional you meet through the Platform is solely between you and them.
1.2 No guarantee of a deal. We do not guarantee that any business you inquire about is still available, that any Listing Party will respond, that you will be offered the opportunity to buy, or that any transaction will close.
1.3 Independent professionals. You are strongly encouraged to engage your own attorney, accountant, and other advisors before making an offer, signing any document, or paying any deposit. Deal-Team Professionals listed on the Platform are independent businesses, not agents or partners of NextCompany, and their inclusion is not a referral or recommendation.
2. Due Diligence Is Your Responsibility
2.1 Unverified information. Every Listing is created by the Listing Party or compiled from public sources, and much of its text (descriptions, headlines, FAQs, "good fit" notes) is generated by artificial intelligence and published without human review. Unless an item is expressly marked as verified by NextCompany, we have not confirmed it, and we do not guarantee it. AI-generated text can contain hallucinations: statements that read as fact but are invented, wrong, or taken from a different business. It is your responsibility as a buyer to check and independently verify every statement and figure before you rely on it. Asking prices, revenue, cash flow, SDE, EBITDA, inventory, equipment, real estate, lease terms, employee counts, licenses, customer concentration, and reasons for sale may be estimates, may be calculated inconsistently from one Listing to another, and may be wrong or stale.
2.2 Verify everything. Before relying on any information you must independently verify it, including by reviewing financial statements and tax returns, interviewing the seller, confirming licenses and permits, reviewing leases and contracts, and obtaining a quality-of-earnings review or valuation where appropriate. Any financing, including SBA 7(a) or 504 loans, is subject to the lender's own underwriting; a "seller financing available" or "SBA pre-qualified" note on a Listing is the Listing Party's statement, not ours.
2.3 Assumption of risk. You acknowledge that buying a business involves substantial risk, including the risk that information provided to you is inaccurate or incomplete, and you assume all such risk.
3. Inquiries and Buyer Conduct
3.1 Genuine interest and accurate identity. You may send an Inquiry only if you have a bona fide interest in the business, service, or opportunity it concerns. You must use your real name (or the real name of the entity you represent), a working email address, and accurate information about your role, financing, and timeline.
3.2 No solicitation. You may not use Inquiries or contact information from the Platform to market or sell products or services, recruit, or promote a competing marketplace, and you may not add sellers, brokers, or professionals to any marketing list.
3.3 Volume and automation. You may not send bulk, automated, templated-at-scale, or repetitive Inquiries. We may rate-limit, hold, or block Inquiries that appear abusive.
3.4 Non-disclosure agreements. Listing Parties commonly require a signed non-disclosure agreement and a buyer profile or financial statement before releasing the name, location, or detailed financials of a business. Whether to sign is your decision. If you sign one, you are bound by it. NextCompany is not a party to it and does not enforce it.
3.5 Contacting the business directly. Unless the Listing Party authorizes it in writing, you may not use information from the Platform to contact a business's employees, customers, suppliers, landlord, or lenders, or to visit the business and identify yourself as a prospective buyer. Doing so can seriously harm the business and its owner and is a material breach of these Buyer Terms.
3.6 Your Inquiry and your information. An Inquiry is sent to NextCompany, not directly to the recipient. We may deliver it to the recipient or their firm, or reject it, at our discretion. NextCompany may use the information you submit, and the record of your activity on the Platform, for any commercially viable business purpose, including sharing it with brokers, sellers, lenders, and professionals so that they can contact you.
4. Confidential Information You Receive
4.1 Limited use. Confidential information about a business that a Listing Party shares with you, on or off the Platform, may be used only to evaluate that specific opportunity. You may not use it to compete with the business, solicit its employees or customers, or for any other purpose.
4.2 Need to know. You may share such information only with your advisors, lenders, and investors who need it to evaluate the opportunity and who agree to keep it confidential. You are responsible for any breach by them.
4.3 Keep it off the Platform. Do not upload, paste, or send confidential documents or figures through the Platform. Return or destroy confidential information when requested or when you stop pursuing the opportunity, subject to any agreement you signed.
5. Buyer Profiles
5.1 Self-published. You may create a buyer profile describing what you are looking for, including target industries, states, budget, minimum cash flow, financing, timeline, and background. Buyer profiles are published without NextCompany approval and are visible to the public (including brokers and sellers) when you choose to make them public. You can edit, hide, or delete your profile at any time from your dashboard.
5.2 Accuracy. Everything in your buyer profile must be true and kept current, including your buyer type, budget, and financing. Do not state that you are a search fund, sponsor, fund, or strategic acquirer unless that is accurate, and do not overstate your available capital or pre-approvals.
5.3 What others see. Your display name, photo, headline, background, criteria, and any website or LinkedIn link you add are public. Your email address is never displayed; Listing Parties and professionals reach you through the Platform, and we forward their messages to the email on your account. By publishing a profile you agree to be contacted by brokers, sellers, and professionals about opportunities and services relevant to your stated criteria.
5.4 Verification badge. A "Verified" badge on a buyer profile means only that NextCompany completed the limited check described on the Platform at the time. It is not a statement about your financing capacity or intentions, and we may add or remove it at our discretion.
5.5 License. The license in Section 5.6 of the Terms of Service applies to your buyer profile, including your photo, and Section 5.8 (consent to the display of publicly available photographs and logos) applies to you. You confirm you have the right to use the photo and any firm name or logo you upload.
5.6 Moderation. We may edit, hide, or remove any buyer profile that is inaccurate, off-topic, promotional, abusive, or that we believe violates this Agreement.
6. Saved Searches, Alerts, and Communications
If you save searches or listings, we may email you about new or changed Listings and about buyers, brokers, or professionals that match your criteria. You may turn off alerts and marketing emails at any time; transactional messages about your account and Inquiries continue while you use the Platform.
7. Offers, Letters of Intent, and Closing
7.1 Nothing on the Platform is an offer. A Listing is an invitation to inquire, not an offer to sell. An Inquiry, saved listing, or buyer profile is not an offer to buy. No one is bound to any transaction until the parties sign definitive agreements.
7.2 We do not handle funds. NextCompany does not hold deposits, escrow funds, or purchase price, does not process transaction payments, and does not provide or arrange financing. Never send funds to anyone claiming to act on NextCompany's behalf in a transaction.
7.3 Fraud warning. Be cautious of any Listing Party who refuses to provide verifiable documents, pressures you to pay a deposit before diligence, asks for payment by wire to an unrelated account, or communicates only through untraceable channels. Report suspected fraud to legal@nextcompany.ai.
8. Prohibited Buyer Conduct
In addition to Section 8 of the Terms of Service, you may not:
- (a) misrepresent your identity, role, financing capacity, or intentions;
- (b) submit Inquiries on behalf of a competitor of the business to obtain confidential information;
- (c) use Listings or Profiles to compile lists of businesses, brokers, or professionals for any purpose other than a bona fide transaction;
- (d) reproduce or republish Listing content, photos, or financial figures outside the Platform without the Listing Party's permission;
- (e) contact a business's employees, customers, suppliers, or landlord in violation of Section 3.5;
- (f) breach any non-disclosure agreement you have signed; or
- (g) create more than one buyer profile or operate a profile for someone else without authority.
9. Fees
Browsing, searching, saving, sending Inquiries, and creating a buyer profile are free. NextCompany charges buyers no commission, finder's fee, or success fee on any transaction. If we introduce optional paid buyer features in the future, they will be described on the Pricing page and governed by Section 10 of the Terms of Service.
10. Acknowledgments and Release
You acknowledge that: (a) NextCompany does not verify Listings, Listing Parties, brokers, or professionals; (b) you are solely responsible for due diligence and for your decisions; (c) any dispute about a business, a transaction, a deposit, a commission, confidentiality, or professional services is between you and the other party; and (d) the release in Section 16.3 of the Terms of Service applies to all such matters.
Contact
Questions about these Buyer Terms: legal@nextcompany.ai.