Mark Jrolf, Co-Founder and Managing Senior Partner, Nickie Norris, Co-Founder, Senior Partner, COO, CCO, Charles K Gifford Jr., Co-Founder and Senior PartnerBut that loss of control carries real risks. A change in ownership can disrupt company culture and can shift priorities away from the long-term vision that built the business in the first place. In some cases, it can even limit the very growth that the new capital was meant to accelerate.
Is there a better solution that doesn’t require this trade-off? New Heritage Capital, a private equity firm that partners exclusively with founder- and entrepreneurial-led businesses, offers a different approach.
At the center of that difference is the Private IPO®, a proprietary structure that turns capital into a partnership. It provides founders with meaningful liquidity, often up to 80 percent of enterprise value, while allowing them to retain voting control and a much greater share of the future value. Unlike the traditional leveraged buyouts, the Private IPO® has a governance model built on trust and collaboration. Founders continue leading their companies, with New Heritage retaining protective rights over key business decisions, such as new debt, mergers or sales. In addition to the shared governance model, the Private IPO® allows founder-owners to earn up to a 25 percent incentive equity plan based on future equity values at the next liquidity event. That incentive plan is double the typical leveraged buyout offer and truly rewards founder-owners that believe in the future value of their business.
“We built New Heritage around the idea that growth capital should empower founders,” says Mark Jrolf, co-founder and managing senior partner. “An individual who has built a company from scratch to 50 million dollars has developed capabilities that should be harnessed, not diminished.”
That philosophy has guided New Heritage since its inception. Before establishing the firm in 2006, co-founders Jrolf, Charlie Gifford and Nickie Norris, had worked together for years, going back to 1999. That rare continuity shaped the mindset that is behind every new partnership New Heritage forms.
Built for Founders Who Stay the Course
The Private IPO® is not for everyone and that’s intentional.
It attracts founders who still see potential and want a partner to help unlock it. The structure is powerful because it aligns those ambitions. It provides liquidity while encouraging collaboration, allowing founders to pursue new opportunities while keeping control of their company’s direction.
“We look for owner-operators who want to vote with their wallet, not their feet, because they see the potential,” says Gifford, co-founder and senior partner. “Our partnership approach offers them something different. It’s long-term greed in the best sense, the belief that staying invested and in control creates greater value over time.”
We built new heritage around the idea that growth capital should empower founders. An individual who has built a company from scratch to 50 million dollars has developed capabilities that should be harnessed, not diminished.
The Private IPO® addressed both. It provided a complete exit for the retiring founder, partial liquidity for his partner and the access to capital required to fund expansion. With New Heritage’s support and the founder’s leadership, the business tripled in size, creating significant value for the founders, their management team and the New Heritage investors.
New Heritage finds opportunities across the fragmented landscape of middle-market investment banks and advisory firms. The firm takes a consultative approach, working with bankers to determine when a Private IPO® is the right solution for clients. For investment bankers, they get a differentiated option that helps them stand out when competing for mandates.
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We’re very focused on collaborating with founders so that we both agree on the plan we’re going to execute together. Our goal is to add value where founders want it and need it. Each company is unique and our approach adapts to that.
“We know it’s an incredibly efficient market,” says Gifford. “In a relatively undifferentiated world of equity capital, offering something distinct to the right individual often lets us win on more than price. We see it as another arrow in the quiver for our investment banking partners when they’re advising private business owners.”
When evaluating opportunities, New Heritage considers market position, financial strength, leadership depth and ownership goals. When both align, the conversation shifts from transaction to transformation. The firm begins by outlining how its model adds value beyond capital, emphasizing improvements in governance, stronger leadership teams and long-term strategic support. Founders looking for a conventional sale often move on quickly. Those who want to stay involved and believe in their company’s future value gravitate toward the Private IPO® model.
New Heritage’s sourcing strategy is directly connected to its value creation philosophy, of starting the partnership on a shared understanding rather than through negotiation.
Value Creation Through Collaborative Partnership
There’s no predetermined playbook for good businesses. Instead, New Heritage collaborates with founders to focus on areas that create the greatest impact, strengthening what already works while closing capability gaps to accelerate growth.
That value creation process begins with collaboration. New Heritage and the founders work together to identify the key areas where change can accelerate growth. They build a plan that brings together leadership, strategy, capital allocation and infrastructure in a unified framework that supports both immediate performance and long-term scalability. But the team at New Heritage doesn’t break what’s working either.
“We’re very focused on collaborating with founders so that we both agree on the plan we’re going to execute together,” says Norris, co-founder, COO and CCO. “Our goal is to add value where founders want it and need it. Each company is unique and our approach adapts to that.”
Value creation can take many forms. Often New Heritage helps recruit senior leaders when additional expertise is needed, whether that means bringing in a chief revenue officer, chief financial officer or head of operations. They help implement new marketing and sales initiatives to drive revenue growth and measurable operational KPIs to drive margin expansion. Where acquisitions align with strategy, they assist in developing target pipelines, structuring transactions and integrating businesses effectively. They also invest in technology and data systems, ensuring management has real-time visibility into performance and can make faster, informed decisions.
The objective remains consistent; combining organic growth with selective acquisitions that enhance the strategy and strengthen a company’s ability to scale with discipline. As capabilities mature, that approach often doubles or triples earnings.
That philosophy is evident in the story of an outsourced accounting provider serving multi-site retailers. The business had loyal customers, strong margins and a long history of acquisitive growth. But to continue to scale rapidly, Heritage and the founders were aligned on the need to further build out the leadership team, refine the acquisition strategy and invest in the company’s technology solutions.
New Heritage helped recruit several C-level hires to strengthen the leadership team. It partnered with management to develop and execute an acquisition pipeline and secured flexible third-party debt financing to fund bolt-on acquisitions. The firm also backed significant capital investments to modernize the company’s technology stack, enhance customer dashboards and internal systems and implement a sharper go-to-market strategy.
Within a few years, the company nearly tripled in size. A combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions that will generate strong returns for management, investors and employees alike.
“This company had a strong foundation and an exceptional founder team,” says Norris. “We worked alongside them to invest in the areas that truly move the needle, strengthening leadership, refining their go-to-market strategy, advancing acquisitions and upgrading technology to fuel the next phase of growth.”
Disciplined Consistency, Not Trend Chasing
New Heritage maintains an intentionally concentrated portfolio, ensuring that each founder and management team receives deep, hands-on support. The focus shifts from rigid playbooks to strategies designed around individuals and their potential.
“We pride ourselves on being disciplined and methodical in finding great investments that generate strong returns for our limited partners while helping founders achieve their goals,” says Jrolf. “That commitment is what defines us.”
New Heritage isn’t pivoting into new sectors, chasing trends or broadening its mandate. It remains committed to founder-led businesses in the lower middle market, using the Private IPO® structure to build value through sustained, collaborative partnership.
Partnership, after all, is the operating model. The Private IPO® aligns incentives, preserves founder control and makes progress a shared responsibility. For New Heritage, the balance between capital and collaboration is a philosophy that continues to define its path forward.
A Better Way to Grow
Raising institutional capital has long forced founders to choose between financial freedom and operational control. The Private IPO® proves it doesn’t have to be that way.
For founders and entrepreneurs who believe their greatest growth still lies ahead, New Heritage Capital provides a better path—one that provides liquidity, preserves control, honors legacy and accelerates opportunity. Its model aligns capital with vision and keeps leadership and decision-making in the hands of those who built the business.
In a market crowded with firms that promise partnership, New Heritage has spent 25 years demonstrating what true partnership means.
