Some bootstrapped founders take on practical growth equity funding even when their business is profitable and growing.
Not to take money off the table and “de-risk” as longtime lean founders.
Not to start spending (aka investing) on crazy new initiatives.
They simply want savvy advice and vested support for the next new phase of scale-up growth — which they can see is very different from their scrappy startup phase.
Lynn Burghardt is a fifth-generation owner of Burghardt Sporting Goods — the oldest family-owned sporting goods store in the country, founded in 1881.
Chipply grew out of that business: after years of hacking together their own tools for team apparel orders, Lynn and two brothers built the software solution the decorated-apparel industry didn’t have, funded by a $250,000 angel check from their father, Chip.
Chipply is e-commerce software for decorated apparel, the custom team stores where players, parents, and fans order their own gear online.
Started in 2015 and selling since 2018, it now powers about 1,500 active dealers, processing around $250 million in gross merchandise value this year at about $10 million in revenue, growing 35%. All with 50 employees.
Chipply charges a percentage of sales, “when they win, we win,” and is now adding Chipply One to become run-your-business software for its dealers.
Three years ago Lynn took growth equity from Growth Street Partners, not for the money but for the advice to scale up: adding the right senior leaders and structuring the business foundations, with a hands-on partner who engages every week while leaving control in the founders’ hands.
As Lynn describes it:
“Getting a good value for the business mattered, and so did what we were willing to give up to gain the right partner. But the decision was really about advice and expertise.
“It was about putting people in the right seats — on our board and in our business model — to help us take it to the next level. How do we find the perfect sales leader, the perfect engineering leader who can build exactly what we envision?
“That would relieve the pressure on me, our CEO, and the grassroots people who’d been running the business. We were spread too thin, and when we met Steve and Nate at Growth Street Partners, it was just a perfect fit — they gave us the autonomy we wanted.”
The deal preserved control of the product and the board for the founders, but gave them the advice and support she was looking for, with a little investment acceleration.
Check out this candid interview with Lynn Burghardt on the Practical Founders Podcast.
