duckduckgos

Business Development

Company going Private

Hello fellow sales savages,

For anonymity sake I cant go into many more details than the company I work for recently got bought out by a Private Equity firm and is going to be private moving forward.

As an employee, I haven't been through this before and would like to hear about your experiences if you have gone through this.

About a year and a half ago they stopped providing stock as part of our compensation which was a red flag and I heard an exec bring going private up as a "hypothetical scenario" out of the blue in a meeting about 6 months ago so I can't say i'm surprised.

Have any of you been through this? What are your thoughts? What should I expect?

✌️ Growing Pains

🤠 Culture

13 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I would expect that they would have to pay you out on all of your options that you currently hold since it's effectively a liquidation event (albeit backward). Also, expect that PE firm to start stripping your company down, and don't be surprised if you start seeing mergers and acquisitions teams snooping around to see how they can combine you with other parts of their portfolio to create "value-added solutions".

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Couldn't agree more and what's worse is they will try to string you along the whole time as well. Make sure you have whatever documentation of stock options saved.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

When you get your payout from your shares, leave.

I worked for a company that was pulled into a private equity portfolio and it was a war of attrition. Cutting costs everywhere, lack of investment. Watching our competitors invest and grow while we “found synergies”.

ThatannoyingSDR

Opinionated

Enterprise SDR

I 100% agree, things are about to get very clinical very soon. Any soul of the company is about to get ripped out.
Start looking for other places that you might want to work

FlintIronstag

Notorious Answer

Chief Marketing Officer

Went private. Culture changed. Lots of turnover. No more long term employees, too expensive. Wealth concentrated in two pockets instead of across the company. Leadership & investors. Wasn’t fun!

ThatannoyingSDR

Opinionated

Enterprise SDR

I've seen this happen a LOT

FlintIronstag

Notorious Answer

Chief Marketing Officer

Yep! Make money & squeeze it to death. Then sell.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

When you get your payout from your shares, leave.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

It's probably fine. I would guess that you'll see some of the dead weight around the organization cut. I wouldn't be surprised to see support get downgraded and some low sales performers shown the door as well. From there (in my experience), you'll start to see a ton of growth in sales and some in product as they try to jump revenue.

It's also definitely worth taking a look at how long the PE firm tends to hold its assets before flipping.

Cornholio

Opinionated

Account Executive

Be ready for the company to be leaned out big time. They’re going to want to make you as profitable as possible to make you an attractive asset to sell of. So be ready for support, perks, etc. to be cut or reduced. Long term you’ll be sold off/ merged with a company that makes no sense and go through it all over again. If I was you I would at least take a look around and make sure that’s where you want to be. Sorry to be bleak but I’ve seen some M/A first hand and PE firms are just there to make their money.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I've been through this. My advice is to not get caught up in rumors, keep your head down, do your job, and update your resume just in case.

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

ISR

Wait, I thought this was a manager thing you were going for? Be very careful about Team Lead roles. They're often kind of a trap.

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

ISR

What does the comp structure look like?

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duckduckgos

Company going Private

13 comments

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