We Hated Private Equity. So We Became the Buyer.
I got on a call with a founder who turned his single biggest fear, selling to private equity, into his business model.
He started a managed services provider (MSP) in 2010. Grew it to about 75 people and $12 million a year. He’s not a finance guy. He’s an operator who got tired of his phone ringing with the same call every month: some firm wanting to buy what he built so they could “optimize” it into something he wouldn’t recognize.
His words: “We don’t like PE. We hate PE. We hate all these people trying to buy our business and tear apart what we built.”
So he did the thing almost nobody does when everyone assumes selling to private equity is your only move: he stopped being the target and became the buyer.
The rollup strategy: buy good companies and leave them alone
He found another founder in the same boat, running a $25 million shop. They started acquiring on their own dime. The rule was simple: buy good companies and leave them alone. Leave everything the customer touches right where it is. Merge only the boring stuff in the back, one accounting system, one HR. Don’t walk in with a clipboard and a reorg.
Today they’re north of $80 million a year, 300 people, ten acquisitions deep.
And they’re not freaks. The MSP consolidation wave is real, and private equity sits behind the large majority of those deals. This is happening with or without you. The only question is whether you’re standing on the board or standing in front of it.
Private equity money vs. private equity control
Here’s the part I want you to sit with, because it’s the whole game.
They didn’t reject private equity. They rejected private equity control.
When they finally took outside money, it came from a partner who said the smartest thing a money guy can say: “We don’t understand your space. We’ll give you the capital, you keep running it the way you run it.”
That’s the deal most founders don’t know they’re allowed to ask for. Money is not the enemy. The 28-year-old with a spreadsheet and a mandate to find efficiencies is the enemy. Those are two different things, and almost everybody bundles them together and calls the whole package “selling out.”
Operator buyer vs. financial buyer
When you sell, you’re not just choosing a price. You’re choosing who runs the thing the day after you sign.
A financial buyer often buys the business to change it. A rollup thesis, a cost-out plan, a name on the door that becomes a logo nobody asked for. An operator buyer buys the business because it works, and mostly wants it to keep working.
Both can be the right call. But you should know which one is sitting across the table, because it decides what happens to your team, your name, and the twenty years you put into the place.
Your options besides selling to private equity
The move: if you built something real and you’ve started to feel the consolidation pressure, you have more options than selling to private equity outright or holding on and hoping. You can structure for capital without handing over control. You can pick your buyer on purpose. And in some cases, you can be the buyer.
Not everybody should roll up an industry. But everybody selling should know the difference between money and control, and get paid accordingly.
Not sure where you stand? Start with your exit readiness. And if you’re weighing an exit and want to think through who should actually be on the other side of the table, let’s talk: book a call.
FAQ: Selling to Private Equity
What is the difference between a financial buyer and an operator buyer?
A financial buyer, typically a private equity firm, acquires a business as an investment and often changes how it runs to hit return targets: cost cuts, rebranding, and integration into a rollup. An operator buyer is usually a founder or industry executive who buys the business because it already works and mostly wants to keep the team, brand, and customer experience intact. The purchase price matters, but so does who runs the company the day after closing.
Can you take private equity money without giving up control?
Yes. Minority recapitalizations, structured equity, and growth capital deals let founders take investment while keeping operational control. The key is negotiating governance terms, not just valuation: board composition, veto rights, and who makes day-to-day decisions. Many founders assume outside capital automatically means losing control, and that assumption costs them options.
What is a private equity rollup?
A rollup is a strategy where a buyer acquires multiple smaller companies in the same industry and combines them into one larger platform. Private equity firms use rollups to build scale quickly in fragmented industries like managed IT services, HVAC, and home services. Rollups can create value through shared back-office functions, but the integration approach varies widely: some buyers preserve each acquired brand, others absorb everything into one entity.
