Ask a founder what their scarcest resource is and almost none of them say "agency budget." They say cash, or time, or focus. Which is exactly why paying for growth with a monthly retainer is so often the worst available option — you're spending the scarcest thing you have on the line item easiest to defer.
A retainer pulls cash out of the business every month, in good months and bad, whether the pipeline shows up or not. For a company that could put that same cash into product, a key hire, or another month of runway, the real cost of the retainer isn't the invoice — it's everything the cash didn't get to do instead.
The trade
So for the right companies, we offer a different currency: take our share in equity instead of cash. We come onto the cap table as a growth partner, your cash stays in the business, and we get paid the day you do — at the exit.
We like this deal more than we probably should, for three reasons:
- It points us at enterprise value, not invoices. We stop optimizing for a renewable monthly fee and start optimizing for the number that actually changes your life.
- It only pays off if you win big. A small outcome is a small return for us. That's the right incentive — it forces us to swing for the things that move your valuation, not just your lead count.
- It makes us think like an owner. Owners make different decisions than vendors. We'd rather be the former.
The right currency depends on what's scarce for you — cash or equity. We'll tell you which we'd pick.
The honest tradeoff
Equity isn't free, and it isn't reversible. Once we're on the cap table, we're there until the exit, and dilution is real. It only makes sense when the upside is genuinely large and pipeline is the true bottleneck — when a few points of a much bigger company beats a few months of cash today.
If you're a steady, cash-generative firm with no exit on the horizon, equity is the wrong tool, and we'll say so. Revenue share — or honestly, a fixed fee from FrontPipe — will serve you better. The point of offering both currencies is that you get to spend the one you can spare.