Building a 100-Year Company

From Survival to Stewardship

Nex had a breakout year in 2025.

We sold through 670,000 units, sold out in all 5,000+ retail stores we are in, and, for the first time in the last 25 years, entered the top three in console sales as a new brand. The Wall Street Journal wrote about us.

Nex is turning nine this May.

We came close to running out of money multiple times.

Now, for the first time, Nex has reached the default alive state.

Staying alive is a floor. What matters now is how far we can go.

I’ve set my sights on building Nex into a 100-year company.

One that will last beyond my lifetime, and the lifetime of everyone at Nex.

That shift in perspective has been truly rejuvenating.

As we approach our tenth year, it can feel like we’ve already been through a lot. At times, it even feels like we are old. But in the context of building a forever company, this is still day one.

How do you build a 100-year company?

I don’t know.

All I can do is imagine it.

Intention matters. Vision matters. Having a clear picture of what we are trying to build is usually the first step. The vision attracts like-minded people. Then, slowly, the work begins.

A 100-year company serves timeless consumer needs, builds a legendary team, cultivates an enduring culture, and operates with resilience.

Timeless Consumer Needs

In 100 years, technology will have evolved, over and over. But if humanity continues to prevail and prosper, there are fundamental needs that will not change.

A 100-year company serves those needs.

That requires persistence. Listening to customers constantly. Developing a deeper understanding of what they truly need, the roles we play in their lives, and how we can serve them better. Inventing and applying relevant technologies. Then doing it again. And again.

Never settling. Always improving.

Over time, that effort compounds and creates real distance.

The needs Nex serves today are timeless: the need to move, the need to connect, the need to grow, and the need to have fun.

These needs are deep. What we have today is merely scratching the surface.

Legendary Team

I will not be alive to see Nex celebrate its 100-year anniversary.

But if Nex reaches that milestone, it will be because generations of Nex-ers apply great stewardship to a company they are entrusted with.

They will accomplish something that once seemed impossible. They will build remarkable products. They will create new magic, again and again. And they will make decisions that endure long after they are gone.

Those decisions, made with care and conviction, will become the foundation Nex lives by.

To earn the chance to become legendary, we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards and keep pounding the rock.

Enduring Culture

What defines Nex will be the culture we build. Culture is how we work when no one is watching.

Our values will guide how we lead, how we build, and how we grow. They will shape the language we use, the promises we make, and the loops we reinforce over time.

Those loops are what allow trust, excellence, and love to compound.

At Nex, our culture is grounded in fundamental human drivers: autonomy, mastery, and connection.

Only with an enduring culture can excellence persist across generations.

Resilience

Every company that has lasted 100 years has lived through crises.

Recessions. Pandemics. Wars. Shifts that felt existential in the moment.

The companies that made it were not the ones that avoided hardship. They were the ones that survived it.

Resilience is how Nex made it through its first nine years. And resilience must be designed into the business if we want to make it through the next ninety-one.

2025 was a great year. We continue to operate Nex with the same day one discipline that got us here.

That mindset is not pessimism. It’s resilience.

The Work Ahead

A 100-year company doesn’t begin with certainty. It begins with commitment.

Writing this down doesn’t make Nex a 100-year company. But it does make it discussable. Discussed ideas become principles. Principles, practiced consistently, shape decisions. And decisions, repeated over time, are what institutions are built from.

What comes next isn’t a promise of outcomes.

It’s a commitment to stewardship.

To discipline over complacency.

And to leaving Nex better than we found it, for the people who come after us.