We take equity in a small number of agencies and run the growth ourselves.
For a small number of agencies each year, Hydra takes an equity position and operates alongside the founder: the same systems as a consulting engagement, paid out of what the business becomes worth instead of a monthly fee.
By conversation, a few each year
Does Hydra take equity in agencies?
Yes. Alongside its fee-based engagements, Hydra takes equity positions in a small number of client-service businesses each year and works inside them alongside the founder. Structures vary by deal and typically combine a reduced or waived fee with an equity stake, often with a portion tied to growth milestones. Hydra looks at a handful of these a year and only enters where it can materially change the outcome.
What it includes
What we bring
- Everything in the consulting engagement, with no monthly fee to fund it out of cashflow
- We are inside the business with your team, working the constraint week to week
- The acquisition system built and run by us where pipeline is the binding constraint
- Our network for hiring, partnerships, and in some cases acquisition targets
What we look for
- An owner we'd happily still be working beside in five years
- A business already past product-market fit with real delivery capability
- A constraint we have lifted before, so our involvement is the difference
- Clean books and a willingness to open them fully at diligence
How it's structured
- Terms are set per deal. There is no standard sheet, because no two of these have been the same
- Typically a reduced or waived fee traded against an equity position
- Often a portion of that equity vests as agreed growth milestones are hit
- Full diligence on both sides before anything is signed
How it runs
Conversation
Establish whether there's a fit at all
A normal discovery call first. Most of these start as a consulting conversation and only turn into a partnership discussion once both sides can see the shape of it.
Diligence
Both sides open the books
We look at the financials, the pipeline, the delivery model and the team. You look at our track record and speak to founders we already work with. Neither side should be guessing.
Terms
Structure the deal around the milestones
We agree what changes, what it's worth, and what portion of the equity is earned against hitting it. The milestones are the part worth arguing about, because they are what makes the deal fair in both directions.
Ongoing
In the business every week
We work the constraint alongside your team on the same cadence as a consulting engagement. The difference is that our return depends on where the business ends up, so a long engagement is worth nothing to us on its own.
Who it’s not for
- Owners whose next move is selling the business, not growing it
- Businesses that need the constraint fixed this quarter, where a paid engagement is faster
- Anyone unwilling to open their books to full diligence
- Pre-revenue businesses, or agencies without a working delivery capability
What we commit to
What we are on the hook for, in writing, before you book.
- Diligence runs both ways. You get the same access to our track record and our current founders that we get to your books
- Milestones are agreed before anything is signed, so what we have to do to earn the equity is written down
- We are in the business every week on the same cadence as a paid engagement
- If we can't see a path to changing the outcome materially, we say no. We're not interested in taking a small position and hoping
Book a call
Pick a time and we’ll walk through your numbers.
You leave with the diagnosis whether or not we work together.
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