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For operators
You run a business you don't own.
If you run a business you don’t own, there are four realistic routes to equity: asking the owner for shares or options, a management buyout, a search fund, or running a business Orvane Group acquires, with a meaningful stake from completion. Each suits different people. This page explains all four, including why most attempts stall.
Where you probably are
You are the managing director, the general manager, or the person everyone calls when something goes wrong. You hired most of the team. You know which customer will leave if their account manager does, which machine needs nursing through winter, and why the quoting process has that odd step in the middle.
And at some point you did the arithmetic. The value you add shows up in the owner’s number, not yours. The salary and the bonus are fair enough, but the growth you create builds someone else’s equity.
What it tells you is that you’ve reached the point where the question stops being “how do I do this job well?” and becomes “how do I own some of what I run?” There are four honest answers. Three of them are well known, and each has a reason it usually stalls.
The routes to ownership
Three well-known routes, told honestly
Route one
Ask for equity, or accept share options
How it works
You ask the owner for a shareholding, or they offer share options, often under an EMI scheme, that let you buy shares at today’s value later on.
Why it usually stalls
To the owner, it feels like giving away value they built. And a minority stake in a private company can’t be sold unless the whole company is, so options usually pay out only if the owner decides to sell, on their timetable.
When it works: when the owner is already planning their succession and sees you as the answer to it, rather than a cost of keeping you.
Route two
The management buyout, and how it is really paid for
How it works
You and your team buy the business from the owner. The money rarely comes from your savings. It comes mostly from the business itself: bank borrowing repaid from future profits, part of the price paid to the owner over time, and sometimes a private equity partner who then holds the majority.
Why it usually stalls
The owner has to accept that much of the price arrives later, from the profits you generate. Lenders usually want the team to commit personal money that matters to them. And where private equity fills the gap, you may own less than you expected, with an exit date set for you.
When it works: a cash-generative business, an owner willing to be paid over time, and a team that has run the finances, not just the operation.
Route three
The search fund, and what it demands
How it works
You raise money from investors to spend a period searching for one business to buy, then run it as chief executive. Your stake is typically earned in stages, as time passes and returns are delivered.
Why it usually stalls
It asks a lot before the first day in the job: a network of willing investors, a long search with no certainty of a deal at the end, and competing with every other buyer for the same good businesses. Many searches end without an acquisition.
When it works: for people with investor connections, appetite for a long search, and a strong preference for choosing their own business from scratch.
The fourth route
Run a business we acquire, and own part of it
We buy technical businesses from founders who are stepping back, and each one needs an operator partner who knows its sector to run it. The operator holds meaningful equity from completion, doesn’t have to raise money or search alone, and there is no exit clock deciding when that stake becomes worth something. It suits people with real sector depth who would rather run a business than spend two years raising for one.
If that’s not the right route for you, the other three are real options and this should have made them clearer. If it is — I’d welcome a conversation.
A conversation, not an application
No CV needed. Tell us the sector you know, what you run now, and what you would want from the next five years. It stays between us.