THE MODEL
How the partnership actually works.
You bring the business. We bring the engine. We share in what we build. This page is the deal underneath that shape — what stays yours, what we take, how we get paid, and why we built it this way.
12.5x
revenue growth in 12 months
$40K → $500K/ months
moving company partner
12 months
from launch to scale
One partner. One playbook. The same engine we run for every operator we work with.
The Structure
A partnership, not an agency engagement.
Three parts, equal weight. Everything below is the mechanics underneath them.
01 — Operator
You bring the business.
You're the operator. You stay the operator. Majority ownership, day-to-day control, every operational decision.
02 — Growth partner
We bring the engine.
Brand, marketing, ad capital, operations, financial cleanup. The full Growth Playbook, deployed in your first 90 days.
03 — SHARE
We share in what we build.
A minority equity stake. A share of profits above your current baseline. Participation if you ever sell. Nothing on the baseline — only on growth.
Control and Ownership
What stays yours.
What we take.
What we don't
A partnership only works when both sides know exactly what they're giving and getting.
What stays yours.
Majority ownership. The day-to-day. Hiring and firing. Pricing. Service mix. What jobs you take and what jobs you turn down. The trucks, the equipment, the office, the team. The reputation you've built. You're the operator. That doesn't change.
What we take.
A minority equity stake, always under 50%. It vests against revenue growth milestones we set together — not against time passing. A share of profits above your current baseline. Participation in any acquisition event if one ever happens.
What we don't.
Control of the business. Board majority. Power to force a sale. Power to override how you run things. We're a minority partner — structurally and practically. If we wanted to take over your business, we'd buy it. We don't, and we're not.
COMPENSATION
How we make money.
Honestly.
Three streams. All tied to growth we create. None of them come out of the business you already have.
The profit share.
A share of the profits we create above your current baseline. The baseline is what your business is doing right now in revenue and gross profit — what's left after the direct cost of doing the work. We define it together at the start of the partnership. Everything above that line is growth we helped create. We share in that. Nothing at or below the line is ours. The baseline gets reviewed monthly, with a deeper recalibration each quarter, so it stays honest as the business grows.
The equity.
A minority equity stake that vests against revenue growth milestones we set together. Not against time. If we don't grow the business, we don't earn the equity. The specific milestones get set case by case on the terms call, before anything's signed.
The acquisition piece.
If you ever sell, we participate in the sale through our equity. If you never sell, we never see it — and that's fine. We get paid through the first two streams either way. We build your business to be worth selling. Whether you sell is up to you.
THE LOGIC
Why we built it this way.
There's a version where we charge fees. There's a version where we take majority and run the business ourselves. We chose neither. Here's why.
Why we cover the build.
Most operators never make the jump to real scale because the upfront cost of building a real marketing engine is too big to swallow out of savings. If we billed for the work, we'd be one more agency. By covering the build and taking equity, we put our money where our mouth is. If growth doesn't show up, we don't get paid.
Why we take minority, not majority.
We're not in the business of running your business. You are. We bring growth — brand, marketing, capital. You bring everything else. The deal only works if you're motivated to keep operating at full strength. That motivation comes from majority ownership. Take that away and you're an employee, not a partner.
Why we share in upside instead of charging.
Charging fees rewards us for spending time. Sharing in upside rewards us for creating growth. We'd rather be paid for results than for hours. So would you.
GO DEEPER
Two pieces to dig into.
The partnership has two halves: the work we deploy, and the capital we put up. Each has its own page.
The Growth Playbook
The four-part build we deploy in your first 90 days: brand, marketing engine, operations, financial cleanup. What gets built, who builds it, what's running when.
Read the growth playbook
How We Fund Growth
We cover the build. We cover the ad spend. Repayment flexes during the early build and settles into a steady cycle once the engine is producing. Here's exactly how it works.
Read how we fund growth
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions about the mechanics.
Application questions live on the Apply page. These are about the partnership itself.
How is profit share calculated against my current baseline?
Each month, we measure the business's gross profit — what's left after the direct cost of doing the work — against your baseline. Whatever's above the baseline is growth we helped create. We share in that growth by an agreed percentage, set case by case on the terms call. Whatever's at or below is yours alone.
The baseline isn't fixed forever. We review it monthly and recalibrate more deeply each quarter, using your business's own historical data to account for seasonality — HVAC runs hot in summer, moving slows around the holidays, MedSpa picks up before wedding season. Every vertical has its rhythm, and your baseline reflects yours. That keeps the math honest in both directions: it doesn't punish you for growth you'd have hit anyway, and it doesn't reset every time the business hits its slow stretch.
What happens at an exit event — and what if there isn't one?
You decide when and whether to sell. We don't have a forced-sale right. If a sale happens, we get paid out of the proceeds based on the size of our stake. If a sale never happens, the equity stays where it is and we keep getting paid through the profit share. The first two streams cover the partnership either way.
What happens if either side wants out before then?
This is in the partnership agreement, and the structure gets walked through on the terms call. The short version: it isn't a forced marriage. If either side ever wants to wind things down, there's a path. The mechanics — notice periods, what happens to the equity, what happens to the profit share — get spelled out before anything's signed.
Does Summit take board seats or veto power over how I run the business?
No board majority, no operating veto. We're a minority partner — that's the whole point. A board seat depends on the size of our stake: a larger stake may include a voting seat, a smaller one an observer seat or none at all. Either way, we don't have a veto on how you run the business. The day-to-day stays yours. The specifics get walked through on the terms call.
Already running a
profitable local service business?
We bring the build, the ad spend, and the playbook. You bring the business. Let’s see if we’re a fit.