Working for the company prior to acquisition?

January 15, 2026

by a searcher in Sacramento, CA, USA

I am looking to get more information on working in the business or general industry prior to acquisition if you came from a different background. I am considering offering free work to gain experience and try out the industry prior to acquisition to see if it fits me. Was it worth your time to do this?

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Reply by a searcher
from Western University in Calgary, AB, Canada

I wouldn't value your time as "free", but I think the general idea has merit. I have heard (I forget where) of a structure where the seller gives the searcher the option to purchase the business at a fixed price, and the searcher then works in the business and effectively gets a head start on growing it. The searcher's compensation is the incremental P&L they generate during their time working if they decide to pursue the acquisition, plus the seller gets to keep whatever improvements the searcher has generated if they decide not to exercise the option to purchase.

Reply by a searcher
from St. Cloud State University in Sheridan, WY 82801, USA

Industry experience can help, but it’s not a prerequisite. What matters far more is whether you know how to build, lead, and operate a business. If you’ve built companies before, hired teams, set operating cadence, managed cash flow, fixed broken processes, those skills transfer across industries. The fundamentals of good business are remarkably consistent. Where industry knowledge does matter, you can usually hire or partner for it. The role of the owner/operator is to assemble the right people, delegate intelligently, and drive execution, not to personally be the expert in every function. That said, this isn’t easy. Execution is hard, and leadership is learned through reps. But “working in the industry first” is often a slower and less effective substitute for learning how to run a business well.

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