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We buy great companies and leave them alone.
You didn't spend decades building your life's work, only to sell it to a private equity dingus named Spencer who has never made payroll.
We're founders too, so we know what your business means. At Tiny, we do what private equity won't: make fair, straightforward deals, leave your team alone, and hold for the long term.
21
Companies
20
Year Track Record
$260M+
Annual Revenue
100M+
People Use Our Products
Our Vision
We started Tiny to be the buyer that we wish we'd had.
Founders —
We sold a company once. The process took months. Lawyers argued over commas. Due diligence that never ended. Then, right before close, they found a 1% variance in a single month. Less than a thousand dollars. An accrual timing difference. Suddenly they had “serious concerns.” Suddenly the price was different.
That wasn't the worst part. We had to watch the new owner “optimize” everything we'd built. Fire the people we hired. Kill the culture we'd spent years creating.
So we made a list of everything they did wrong and built a company that does none of it.
Today, Tiny owns:
- A social network where 29 million people log every film they watch
- The DJ software in a quarter of the clubs on earth
- A coffee brewer sold in 70 countries that a Stanford professor invented in his garage
- An agency that designed the products behind 24 unicorns
- A community where 16 million designers share what they’re working on
- And 16 other wonderful businesses.
Life is too short to hand your company to someone who sees your team as a cell in one of their spreadsheets. We sold to someone like that one once. He taught us everything about what not to do, and we've spent 13 years doing the opposite: buying dozens of companies and largely staying out of their way.
You already know whether you're the kind of founder who'd sell to a PE firm. If you're reading this, you're probably not.
Andrew Wilkinson
Co-founder
Chris Sparling
Co-founder
What we look for
You’ll know in two minutes if we’re a fit.
Profitable
Real money. Not ‘if we just raise another round’ money.
Simple to explain
If your parents can’t understand it over dinner, we probably can’t either.
Three years or older
You’ve survived long enough to know what you are.
Something defensible
A brand people search for by name. A community that shows up. A niche nobody else wants.
A team worth keeping
People who’d be hard to replace — and harder to let go of.
Healthy margins
Enough room to breathe, invest, and sleep well.
No sketchy stuff
If we’d be embarrassed to tell our moms about it, we’ll pass.
A founder who gives a damn
You built this thing. You want it to outlive the deal, not just fund your exit.
“I was extremely pleased with how smooth a transition the acquisition was for our team and the community. Zero disruption and a seamless passing of the torch to Tiny.”
Dan CederholmCo-founder, Dribbble
What founders actually worry about
We've heard every objection.
01
“I can get more from a private equity firm.”
PE firms love big headline numbers. They'll offer $30M — then often bury a 2x liquidation preference in the term sheet. If the business doesn't double, they get paid first and you get whatever's left. Often nothing.
We pay fair market value in cash. No preferred equity, no ratchets, no structures designed to look generous on a napkin and screw you in the fine print. See the real math →
02
“Their name is Tiny. They probably can't pay up.”
We've bought companies for over $100M. When the business is high quality, we pay large multiples — because great businesses are worth it.
We're not bargain hunters. We're long-term owners who'd rather pay a fair price for something exceptional than get a deal on something mediocre.
03
“They'll be breathing down my neck.”
Other buyers say they'll leave you alone, then ask you to stay and do it their way.
One of our CEOs burned $1 million on a side project we told him was a bad idea. We let him do it anyway. He learned the lesson himself and changed course — without us saying a word.
04
“I'll be golden-handcuffed to some MBA in a Patagonia vest.”
Simple, cash-heavy structures are the default. If a small earn-out genuinely helps bridge a gap, we keep it short and tied to milestones the team controls.
No new boss. No imposed culture. And definitely no vests.
05
“My team will never forgive me.”
When founders sell to us, their teams keep their jobs, their titles, and their Friday routines.
No layoffs. No imposed reorg. No one shows up on Monday to find a guy named Spencer from the "integration team" asking for everyone's org chart.
06
“The deal will drag on for months and then they'll change the terms.”
The average PE deal can drag on for months. We can often move quickly when the founder and the business are ready.
When Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett called us about selling Dribbble, we flew to Boston the next week. We asked them one question: “What do you hate about running this business?” They listed everything. We circled each one and said, “We’ll handle all of it.” Handshake deal.
“When we ran a process to find a new home for our Meteor business, Tiny moved at lightning speed, kept the terms straightforward, and didn't waste any of our time, which was very different from our experience with some other potential acquirers. We're very happy with how our partnership with Tiny has worked out.”
Geoff SchmidtCo-founder, Meteor
Tiny vs. The Other Guys
Strategic Acquirer
- Often the highest gross price
- CEO on Monday, VP on Tuesday
- Half the deal is stock with a 4-year vest
- Golden handcuffs, no exit
- Your roadmap often dies in someone else’s meeting
- Product often killed within a few years
Private Equity
- Full or partial cash out
- 3–6 month process
- Founders locked in with earn-out structure
- Layer on debt that can wipe out your equity
- Intervene and change your culture
- Typically flip your company in 3–5 years
Tiny
- Full or partial cash out
- $5M to $300M — we scale to you
- Move as fast as you want (as quick as 30 days)
- Founders can stay or go, we’re flexible
- Simple structure with cash upfront
- We don't run integration playbooks
- Holds companies for the long term
Learn more about the 21 companies we own and our how we got here.
Thinking about raising instead?
VC is a great bet for the fund.
A VC fund can afford to lose on most of its deals if one big winner makes up for it. You have one company, and the fine print decides how much money you actually take home.
The odds, roughly
- 3 in 4
- venture-backed companies never return their investors’ capital.
- ~1 in 100
- reaches the billion-dollar outcome the whole model is chasing.
- Last
- where your common stock sits at exit, behind every liquidation preference.
The real math
What you actually take home
$20M
$5M$100M
You walk away with $5.5M more by selling to us.
Simple, cash-heavy structures. Done.
A typical PE offer that looks great on paper
Headline offer
$26.0MDesigned to impress you. Here's what you actually get.
Cash to you (60%)
$15.6MIn this scenario, you roll 40% equity — PE has a 2x liquidation preference and an 8% annual preferred return. They get paid first.
Transaction & legal fees
-$780kAt least 6 months of lawyers, accountants, and diligence
PE transaction fee
-$390k1-2% fee the PE firm charges your company at closing
Up-front cash in your pocket
$14.4M(0% of headline in up-front cash)
What else you give up
- 40% of your company is still locked up — PE can get paid double before you see a dollar
- You report to a new board for 3–7 years
- Major budgets, hires, and strategy changes need their approval
- Monitoring fees get charged to the company during the hold
- 3–6 month process with $500k+ in legal fees
Our offer
All-cash offer
$20.0MLegal fees
-$100kSimple terms, fast close, not months of lawyers
Cash in your pocket
$19.9M(0% of offer in cash at close)
What you keep
- Your team keeps their jobs and culture
- You choose your role — stay, advise, or leave
- Earn-outs rare — short and milestone-tied when used. No clawbacks or ratchets in our standard terms.
- No monitoring fees charged back to the company during the hold
- Close on your timeline, as quickly as the business allows
Think selling 80% or 100% to PE is better?
We broke down every PE deal structure — the earn-outs, the preferences, the fees they don't mention until page 47. Almost always worse for the founder.
“Working with Tiny was one of the most seamless acquisitions I've ever been a part of. Fast, painless and respectful.”
Josh PigfordFounder, Baremetrics
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You've built something worth protecting. Let's talk.
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