Liquidity Without Losing Control
“John Ruffolo is Founder & Managing Partner at Maverix Private Equity. His growth equity strategy allows the business owner to take chips off the table while maintaining control,” shares Sam Thompson, a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “He also discusses how to choose capital wisely when bank/mezz debt or customer financing beats equity – and when a minority partner is the right accelerant.”
If you’re considering your endgame, you’re probably looking at private equity. Most PE firms use a familiar formula: buy a majority stake and ask the owner to “roll equity”—re-invest part of the proceeds—into the newco they’re building. The downside: you become a minority shareholder in a business you no longer control.
There’s another path: growth equity, which lets you take chips off the table via a secondary while maintaining control. That’s the business John Ruffolo is in as Founder & Managing Partner at Maverix Private Equity (he also founded OMERS Ventures). You discover how to:
- Contrast a majority recap (control shifts, leverage enters) with a minority growth deal that preserves control.
- Decode pre- vs. post-money so a “$100M valuation” isn’t quietly post-money.
- Structure primary vs. secondary—cash to the business vs. cash to you—without dulling execution.
- Protect rollover equity from going to zero with the right terms.
- Choose capital wisely: when bank/mezz debt or customer financing beats equity—and when a minority partner is the right accelerant.
- Model investors return math (e.g., 3× over 5–7 years ≈ 20%+ IRR) to negotiate from first principles.
- Leverage employees buy-ins as a quiet, tax-efficient liquidity option.
Listen to this edition of Inside the Mind of an Acquirer with John Ruffolo for a practical playbook to de-risk personally while staying in the driver’s seat.