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Founder-Owned Business Resources

Empowering business owners and their advisors before, during, and after any important business transition.

Featured Insights

  • Exit Strategy: Preparing Yourself

    Preparing yourself and your family can be one of the most overlooked parts of an exit strategy. But it goes beyond maximizing tax efficiency and unlocking newfound wealth—it’s a monumental transition filled with emotional considerations.

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  • Exit Strategy: Preparing Your Company

    Company leaders who have spent their lives running a business probably have limited experience when it comes to selling one. That means preparation is a crucial part of any effective exit strategy.

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  • Financial Planning Following a Liquidity Event

    Selling or recapitalizing your business may dramatically increase your level of wealth, which allows you new opportunities.

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  • Liquidity Options Without Giving Up Control of Your Business

    For leaders of founder-owned businesses, raising significant capital without relinquishing control can seem challenging. But investors focused on non-control transactions are becoming more common—creating opportunities to support growth, strategic acquisitions, and personal liquidity.

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  • Navigating Financial, Strategic, and Quasi-Strategic Buyers

    Certain buyer behaviors remain constant, regardless of economic cycle. In the run-up to a liquidity event, it’s critical to understand the behaviors as they relate to three main buyer categories—financial, strategic, and quasi-strategic.

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  • Buy-Side Tactics—and Mistakes to Avoid

    Whether a founder-owned business is considering its first acquisition or executing a defined consolidation strategy, there are effective tactics to gain a competitive edge. There are also some common mistakes.

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  • The Unique Challenges of Pre-Liquidity Planning in 2024 (and 2025)

    Pre-liquidity planning in 2024 will be anything but dull. Find out what business owners on the cusp of a liquidity event should know—and how they should prepare.

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  • 4 Truths and 4 Myths About Partnering With Private Equity

    Misconceptions about private equity are so common that some investors try to avoid using the term itself.

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  • 5 Questions to Expect from Outside Advisors at the Beginning of a Liquidity Event

    Consider the questions advisors are likely to ask, as well as which questions might produce the best possible outcome for all parties involved.

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  • How to Avoid Deal-Related Leaks—and What to Do When They Happen

    For leaders of founder-owned companies, simply making the decision to sell or bring in an outside investor can be anxiety inducing. The transaction process itself is often filled with apprehensive moments. This primer offers strategies for handling potential leaks.

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  • 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Selling Your Business

    The most critical decisions about selling your business are the ones made well before any potential buyers have been contacted.

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  • M&A Evaluation Framework: Weighing Opportunities and Developing an Actionable Pipeline

    There’s more than one way to grow a business, with inorganic growth—i.e., acquiring another company—an avenue that founder-owned businesses could consider, especially given the broad correction in valuation levels.

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  • Navigating Your Way to the Next Level of Wealth

    The sale of a business or a recapitalization can often elevate an entrepreneur to a dramatically higher level of wealth.

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  • Delivering on the Promise of Your Generational Wealth

    Executives and their advisors involved in a major business transition need to think through some big questions, about their families, their philanthropic goals, their tax implications—and their appetite for risk.

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  • A Successful Company Sale—with the Help of a Founder-Focused Investor

    See how a partnering with founder-focused investor resulted in the company's EBITDA growing more than 10-fold.

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  • Key Insights About Non-Control Transactions and Governance Matters

    Key Insights About Non-Control Transactions and Governance Matters

    Founder-owned companies often partner with minority-preferred stock investors to raise growth capital.

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    Philanthropy in the Age of Constant Disruption

    By understanding and embracing new trends that are reshaping the way people give, families can strengthen their philanthropic legacies for generations to come.

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  • One Year In: The Delayed Impact of Higher Rates and the Re-Emergence of PIK

    Despite the Federal Reserve apparently nearing the end of its rate-hiking phase, borrowers likely haven’t yet felt the full impact of rapidly rising interest rates.

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  • Characteristics of Family Office Investors

    There’s a piece of advice we give companies navigating the investor landscape: If you’ve seen one family office … you’ve seen one family office.

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  • Partnering With Family Office Investors

    Family offices differ from other capital providers, especially when it comes to collaboration and flexibility on financing.

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  • Mixed Results in Q1 – Reason for Optimism or More of the Same for the Leveraged Finance Market?

    For a second consecutive quarter, U.S. institutional leveraged loan volume increased driven by refinancing activity.

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  • Strategic vs. Financial: A Side-by-Side Comparison

    From factors driving valuation potential to management's role post-transaction, financial sponsors and strategic buyers operate and think differently when it comes to liquidity events.

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  • How Founder-Owners and Investors Think Differently

    Many liquidity events involving founder-owned companies face the same underlying challenge: The business owner and outside investors often have diverging perspectives on everything from debt to reliance on third-party advisors to how they think about the future.

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  • What Companies Should Know About Divestitures

    A divestiture—the sale of a business segment or operational asset—is more than a way to generate liquidity. It’s also an opportunity to refocus a company’s strategic direction.

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  • Evaluating Financial and Strategic Alternatives to Maximize Value

    When it comes to major value-creation events, business owners and their advisors likely know the options fall under two categories—strategic and financial. But to find the best path forward, it’s crucial to dig deeper.

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  • Maximizing Value Creation Through Pre-Liquidity Planning

    There’s no resource more valuable than time for business owners considering financially transformative liquidity events.

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  • Structured Equity Solutions: Capital for Growth, Tuck-In Acquisitions, and Shareholder Liquidity

    The IPO window has narrowed and debt markets have tightened, but options exist for growing companies looking to raise capital.

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  • Understanding the Nuances of Full/Partial Company Sales

    Executives considering selling their business have a lot to think about, from the possible purchase price to how employees and the broader community might be affected.

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  • Navigating the Growth Equity Ecosystem

    Growth equity allows business leaders to access capital while retaining control of their companies. In today’s converging capital markets, there are a greater number and diversity of funding sources than ever before. Learn how to find a like-minded investor, one best positioned to accelerate growth.

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  • Text: A premier advisor for founder- and family-owned businesses

    Four Considerations for Clients Seeking Liquidity

    If you are an advisor to family- and founder-owned businesses, your clients face more opportunities for generating liquidity and transitioning their businesses than ever before.

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Business Owners Focus

For nearly nine decades, William Blair has guided business leaders through monumental decisions to achieve their desired outcomes. We know how much time, energy, and passion founders put into building a business. When looking to make a transition, trust us to be a partner that offers expertise, diligence, and understanding.

Considerations for Every Entrepreneur

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