Owner's guide
Four kinds of buyers. One honest comparison.
Price is the headline; the buyer type is the plot. In recent IBBA data, individuals made up roughly 44 percent of lower-middle-market buyers and private equity roughly 20 percent, and each type means something different for your people, your name, and your final number.
By James Penz & Thu Ra, Paradosi Partners · Updated 2026-07-16
The four types, plainly
Buyer types at a glance
- Private equity platform
- Typical plan: Buy, add similar companies, resell in 3 to 7 years
- What usually changes: Back office centralizes; systems standardize; brand sometimes folds in
- Strategic acquirer
- Typical plan: Absorb your business into theirs
- What usually changes: Overlapping roles consolidate; your name usually retires
- Individual buyer
- Typical plan: Own and operate, often first acquisition
- What usually changes: Depends entirely on the person; financing ability varies widely
- Succession buyer
- Typical plan: Buy to hold and run personally, no resale clock
- What usually changes: Name and team stay; change comes slowly, from inside
| Buyer | Typical plan | What usually changes |
|---|---|---|
| Private equity platform | Buy, add similar companies, resell in 3 to 7 years | Back office centralizes; systems standardize; brand sometimes folds in |
| Strategic acquirer | Absorb your business into theirs | Overlapping roles consolidate; your name usually retires |
| Individual buyer | Own and operate, often first acquisition | Depends entirely on the person; financing ability varies widely |
| Succession buyer | Buy to hold and run personally, no resale clock | Name and team stay; change comes slowly, from inside |
What each type pays, honestly
Strategics can pay the most when your business fills a hole in theirs, because they buy synergies you never see again. PE platforms pay full market prices for businesses that fit a thesis, and close reliably. Individuals span the widest range: a well-backed searcher closes like a professional; an underfunded dreamer wastes your year. Succession buyers pay market prices supported by the business's own cash flow. In IBBA data, sellers across these paths receive a large majority of the price in cash at close, roughly 80 to 90 percent at this size, with the balance usually a seller note.
The questions that sort buyers fast
- How is the purchase funded, and will you show me before I share documents?
- Who will run the business the Monday after close? Name them.
- What happened to the team at the last business you bought? Give me a reference.
- How long do you plan to own it, and what has to happen for you to sell?
- What changes in year one? Be specific.
Every buyer type on this page is the right answer for some owner. The mistake is not choosing the wrong type. It is discovering which type you sold to after the ink dried.
Where we fit, stated plainly
Paradosi Partners is the fourth type: a succession buyer. Two founders who buy one founder- or family-held business at a time, run it personally, and keep it. Same name, same team, no fund clock. If your goal is maximum price through a strategic auction, we will tell you that in the first thirty minutes and wish you well. If your goal is a fair market price and a business that is still recognizably yours in year ten, that is what we are for.
Reading is free. So is the conversation.
Thirty confidential minutes with the people who wrote this guide. No documents, no obligation, and an honest read even if the honest read is that we are not your buyer.