01
We've sat in your seat.
Every partnership starts from lived experience. We've built from a blank page, so we meet founders early and speak the same language.
Holding company · Los Angeles
We invest in and build the businesses we wish existed.
We're builders ourselves, and we back the next generation of exceptional founders with the capital, hands-on help, and ecosystem they need to thrive.
What we do
Next Up Ventures invests in and builds companies across all major sectors. Great founders and great businesses aren't confined to one category — and neither are we.
What sets us apart is simple: we've done it.We're founders who have built companies from the ground up and scaled them. We've lived the day-to-day, so we understand founders and the real work of going from zero to one and beyond.
How we work
How we partner with founders.
02
Capital plus hands-on building.
We don't just write the checks — we roll up our sleeves on product, go-to-market, hiring, and operations, whatever moves the business forward.
03
We build the team and the ecosystem.
We help assemble strong founding teams and surround them with the right people, partners, and resources from across the Next Up network.
04
Founder-first, always.
We optimize for your long-term success, and measure ourselves by what our founders go on to build.
Companies
A growing portfolio of companies we've built and backed.
Incubated by Next Up
Selected investments
Plots
An AI-powered events discovery platform helping people find new experiences in their local area.
D2 Entertainment
A music catalogue sell-side brokerage firm located in Los Angeles, CA.
Monroe PCG
A 26-door apartment complex in Grenada, Missouri.
About the founder
Jordan Calderon
Founder
Next Up Ventures was founded by Jordan Calderon, a multiple-time founder with three exits by the age of 27 — his most recent being a top-100 digital marketing agency in the United States. Jordan started Next Up for one reason: he's a founder, and he wants to enable and empower other founders to build, succeed, and keep succeeding.