The model
What A Partner Company Commits To
Every article about the model so far covers what the firm does. This one covers the other side. Five commitments a founder makes at signing, and why a partnership fails without them.
Magnor Equity Partners takes a minority position, funds the build, and owns client acquisition end to end. Every piece written about the model so far has described that side of the arrangement.
This is the other side. A partnership has obligations running in both directions, and the ones below are agreed in writing before any work starts.
What does the founder actually commit to?
Five things. None of them is selling, and none of them is marketing.
| Commitment | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Media budget | A minimum monthly ad spend, on the company’s own card and accounts, plus a share of new revenue reinvested while returns hold. Companies come in at $100,000 a month in revenue or more, so the floor is set against that |
| Delivery | Every customer the channel sends is served at the standard the company quoted |
| Access | Ad accounts, CRM, clean books, historical numbers, and a named person reachable for an agreed few hours a week |
| The sales process | The company’s reps follow the process the firm installs, and their calls can be reviewed |
| The team | No hiring the firm’s reps or contractors during the partnership or for a period after it |
Why is the media budget a commitment rather than a suggestion?
Because a starved channel produces no information. Below a minimum spend there is not enough data to tell a bad audience from a bad ad from a bad offer, so the money buys noise instead of an answer.
The budget is set as a floor with a percentage of new revenue above it. A fixed figure alone stops making sense the moment the company doubles. A percentage alone is worth nothing while the company is small. Both together scale with the business and protect it when returns stop justifying more spend.
Underfunding also voids any performance commitment the firm has made. That clause exists so a channel cannot be starved and then judged.
Why does delivery capacity matter to an acquisition partner?
Because leads arriving at a business that cannot serve them make the business worse. Refunds, bad reviews and a reputation that costs more to repair than the revenue was worth.
Magnor Equity Partners checks delivery capacity during qualification, and a company that would break under volume is told so rather than sold to. Where capacity becomes the constraint mid-partnership, acquisition slows until delivery catches up. The firm holds equity, so growth that damages the company damages the firm too.
Why does the firm need access to the books?
Because the revenue share is calculated on collected revenue above a baseline, and a baseline nobody can verify is a baseline nobody will trust in twelve months.
Clean books in accounting software, read access for the firm, and the baseline signed off by the founder before kickoff. That one hour of agreement prevents the argument that otherwise arrives every quarter.
What does the founder keep?
The company, the product, delivery, pricing, hiring outside of sales, and every operational decision. The firm owns the front of the business and nothing else.
That division is the entire arrangement. The founder does the part only they can do, and the part that was capping the company stops being theirs to carry.
Read how the Magnor Equity Partners model works, or see what the firm needs to evaluate a company.
Questions about what a founder is responsible for
Does the founder have to fund advertising?
Yes. Magnor Equity Partners funds the build and the team. Media spend sits on the company's own card, on accounts the company owns, at a minimum agreed before the work starts. A channel running below that minimum cannot be tested, only guessed at.
What happens if the company cannot deliver the new volume?
Acquisition slows until delivery catches up. Sending customers into a business that cannot serve them produces refunds and bad reviews, and that damage costs more to repair than the slow quarter the company started with. Delivery capacity is checked during qualification for exactly this reason, and the firm holds equity, so growth that hurts the company hurts the firm.
How much of the founder's own time does this take?
A few hours a week, agreed in writing before kickoff. One weekly call, access to the numbers, and a decision when the firm needs one. The whole point of the model is that the founder stops carrying client acquisition, and it still requires them reachable enough to answer the questions only they can answer.