The model
Work out whether this is a good trade for you.
Every firm that wants a piece of your business will tell you it's worth it. Almost none of them will show you the math, because the math doesn't always agree.
So here it is. Put your own numbers in and move the dial. If the model says the trade isn't worth it, believe the model — and keep your equity.
A teaching tool, not a valuation, an appraisal, an offer, or a forecast. The defaults are placeholders — not our terms — and nothing here is a projection of any outcome.
The dial
How much of our pay rides on your outcome?
Move it left and we're paid like a vendor. Move it right and we get paid mainly when the business is worth more. The choice is a signal in both directions.
Retainer
$15k/mo
Equity
7.5%
Your business
Where the business is now, before anything changes.
What a buyer pays per dollar of revenue in your industry. Ask your accountant for a real one.
Compound annual growth if nothing about how you operate changes.
The honest question. If you can't believe this number, the deal isn't worth doing.
Compounding needs room. This variable moves your outcome more than almost any other.
Hiring the same functions in-house isn't free. Set this to compare fairly.
The number that decides it
4.4 points
At 7.5% equity and $15k/mo over 7 years, the partnership has to add at least 4.4 percentage points of annual growth before you come out ahead. Below that line, you should keep your equity.
Above the line. The structure pays for itself under your own assumptions.
On your own
$5.41M
100% of $5.41M
no fees, no dilution
Together
$7.07M
92.5% of $9.01M
less $1.26M in fees
What actually moves your outcome
+$1.66M- Growth with a partner
- Time horizon
- Valuation multiple
- Growth on your own
- Monthly retainer
- Equity share
Notice where equity usually lands. Owners negotiate hardest over the percentage and least over the horizon and the growth premium — which are the two that decide the outcome.
Why we show you this
The ask is the hardest part of the conversation. So we inverted it.
Asking for a stake in something you built sounds like taking. It isn't meant to be. A retainer pays us whether you win or lose, which makes our incentives adjacent to yours rather than identical. Equity is the only instrument that removes that gap.
You'll own less of something worth considerably more than one hundred percent of what you'd have built alone — but only if the premium is real. That's a claim you should be able to test, which is why the model above will happily tell you to walk away.
Equity isn't payroll
Fees fund operations. Equity is upside. We never confuse the two, and there's a retainer floor for exactly that reason.
Minority, always
You keep control of your own business. We're not buying it, and we're not looking to run it.
Every door priced upfront
If you sell, we sell alongside you and everyone gets paid. If you want us gone, the buyout was agreed before either of us needed it.
Permanence is a floor, not a cage
We're built to stay. That's the default, not a lock — the point is that your goals become ours, structurally.
Real terms get set against a real diagnosis, not a slider. If the model got you curious, that's the next conversation.
Start a conversation