Len Pagon

Len Pagon Jr. is a serial entrepreneur and investor best known for building Brulant, an interactive/digital marketing agency he founded (originally as "New Media," launched in 1989) and led as Chairman and CEO. Under his leadership Brulant grew from roughly $4 million to about $80 million in annual revenue over a six-year period — with EBITDA of more than $18 million — becoming a three-time Inc. 500 winner and, by 2008, the third-largest privately held interactive agency in the country. In July 2008 he sold Brulant to Rosetta (backed by private-equity firm Lindsay Goldberg), afterward serving as Vice Chairman of Rosetta; Publicis went on to acquire Rosetta for $575 million in 2011. He holds a B.S. from Case Western Reserve University.

In 2009, following the Brulant sale, Pagon founded Next Sparc, which today operates as Next Sparc Growth Partners — his family office that invests in and helps scale emerging internet-based, software, and services companies. At Next Sparc he focuses on analyzing investment opportunities and advising portfolio companies, and he has sat on numerous portfolio and outside boards, including Flexjet, GenomOncology, HoodMart, Terrapin Ridge Farms, and Tuvoli. He has also served as an Operating Advisor / General Partner affiliation with Resilience Capital Partners, a middle-market private-equity firm.

In 2017, Next Sparc acquired Robots & Pencils, an AI-first digital innovation and consulting firm, where Pagon served as Chairman for roughly eight years. In June 2025 he stepped in as CEO of Robots & Pencils — his return to a CEO seat after 17 years — to accelerate the firm's AI-first strategy, while continuing as Chairman of Next Sparc.

Pagon's recognition includes being named Ernst & Young's 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year and inclusion in Crain's Cleveland Business "40 Under 40" and "Who's Who in Technology" lists. He is active in YPO Cleveland and resides in Novelty, Ohio with his wife Kata and three sons.

• Invests through Next Sparc Growth Partners, his family office, backing high-growth, "internet-based, software and services-based companies" and helping them scale.
• Spans a wide capital range — from seed-stage angel checks (e.g., participating around CompanionLabs' seed) through growth-equity and control acquisitions (e.g., acquiring Robots & Pencils outright in 2017).
• Diversifies across six verticals: Business Services, Consumer, Health & Wellness, Industrials, Professional Services, and Technology.
• Values operational scale-up expertise: as an operator who grew Brulant 20x, he brings hands-on advisory and board-level involvement rather than passive capital.
• Current strategic conviction is AI-first digital transformation — helping companies "modernize legacy systems, experiment and activate AI, and build digital experiences that scale" with smaller, nimble teams.