THE MORE YOU GROW,

the more you own

In traditional venture capital, you have to give up ownership as you grow.

With BuyBack Ventures, use your profits to buy back your equity and own more of your company as you grow. Founders can own up to 98% of their company over time.

It’s a funding model built for long-term alignment and real founder control. 

YOU DESERVE TO OWN YOUR COMPANY

The Traditional VC Model is Broken

Traditional VC works for a very specific type of company. If you're building a capital-efficient or early-stage business that’s not yet profitable—and not bankable—your only options are usually friends & family or venture capital. That often means giving up control and a big chunk of the upside, and committing to a path that expects either growing fast or failing fast.

If your company ends up being worth $100M and you only own 15%, is it really yours?

the buyback model

Investment Amount: $50K-$500K

Expected Return: 2-5x + 2-5%

Founder Ownership: up to 98%

We invest in bootstrapped or lightly funded companies that want capital without giving up control forever. You get capital now and a clear path to own up to 98% of your business.

At any point you can buy back a majority of our equity. Once you buy back the maximum equity, we only keep 2-5% and ask for quarterly updates. You have full control.

No Collateral

No SAFEs or Notes

No Complex Waterfalls

IS THIS FOR YOU?

  • Bootstrapped LLCs with steady revenue

  • Solopreneurs who want to maintain control

  • Businesses with growth potential beyond current revenue

  • High-revenue-per-employee teams

  • Early-stage companies post friends & family round

  • Co-founders who want to maintain control

  • Consulting projects ready to productize

  • AI agent, marketplace plugin or add-on products

  • Startups planning to raise Venture Capital

  • Companies with Convertible Notes or SAFEs

  • Delaware C-Corps

  • Capital-intensive business models

WHY WE BUILT THIS

We are on a mission to build an alternative startup ecosystem that works for entrepreneurs building stable, profitable companies. Over the last two decades collaborating as co-investors, we have seen the opportunity to provide a type of capital that VCs don’t offer.

We have been ideating for years on ways to solve this problem and are very excited to finally bring it out in the world. The traditional VC model isn’t the only path. This is a structure built around fairness, alignment, and freedom for long-term builders.

Andy White and Maria Gonzalez-Blanch

ARE YOU READY TO OWN YOUR DESTINY?

We’re reviewing a small number of founders for our first cohort of BuyBack Ventures entrepreneurs.

If you’re running an almost profitable business and want capital without losing control, let’s talk.

FAQs

  • Structure. We only invest in LLCs, because they allow us to streamline the legal work and efficiently manage the taxes and expenses associated with this type of investment. We do not invest in C Corps.

    Revenue. The ideal company is one with consistent revenue growth, good margins and low churn. One that has a new opportunity that they can't properly execute on through their current revenue.

    Location. This model requires a Delaware LLC, so we only invest in companies based in the US.

  • After many years of seeing great businesses trying to conform themselves to the venture capital format, we thought it was time to offer an alternative.

    We've been fans of other redeemable equity programs of the past, but none of them quite worked the way that we think they should. We took the best of our learnings and created Buyback Ventures.

    We want to be a true partner and have totally aligned interests with the founder while giving them optionality for the future. We also want a program that is inexpensive, easy to understand, and doesn’t require a ton of rules. Ultimately, we believe that founders deserve to own the companies they build.

  • We view this as a true partnership. It's a 50/50 split of the company. However, it's important to keep in mind that a majority of our share of the company is capped at a valuation based on the amount we invest, not based on the current value of the company. So as the founder grows the company and increases the value, a majority of that value is theirs. Here’s an example of how the math works.

  • Most other models have had to come up with new terminology to monitor the investment and to penalize the founder if they're unable to successfully repay the investment. Our goal is to create an incentive for the founder without anything punitive. Take a look at this linked article to see how convoluted other programs have become.

  • This type of compensation requires consistent monitoring and can have suboptimal tax treatment for both the founder and the investor.

  • LLCs do not qualify for QSBS. However, there is an advantage if you convert to a C Corp in the future. The QSBS cap is then calculated as 10x the company value instead of just at $15M.

  • The equity can be repurchased anytime after the first year. It can even be repurchased at the same time you are having an exit.

    After year five, we like to have founders buy back equity on a consistent basis at least up to 1x.

    After you buy back equity, you own the vast majority of the company and have complete control. We are just a small equity holder on the cap table who has information rights and would like to receive quarterly updates.