P · Problem
When the Calls Won’t Stop and You Don’t Know Who to Trust
Frank Mercado did not set out to sell. He joined Gustafson Roofing in 2006, fresh out of Florida State University, arriving at the height of Florida’s hurricane season. Material backlogs stretched across hundreds of jobs. He spent the next several years cleaning up operations, reforming Better Business Bureau complaints, building out scheduling and field systems, and taking on every role the business needed.
By 2014, Frank had returned after a brief period in finance and lending to partner with Ryan and Mike Gustafson, the founder’s sons, in running the day-to-day operation. They purchased the business outright in 2023. In the two years that followed, they transformed it: doubling revenue, growing the W-2 workforce from the low twenties to the mid-to-high forties, acquiring additional facilities, and hiring a general manager and scheduler to formalize what had been an owner-run operation for decades. Three buildings. A campus. A culture that was finally their own.
The business was performing. An exit had never been the goal.
Then private equity came calling. And it would not stop.
Inbound texts, calls, and emails arrived steadily from buyers, brokers, and PE firms gauging their interest. Frank ignored most of it. He was focused on running the business. But when Ryan arranged a dinner with one PE group that had gotten through, the question neither partner had asked aloud became impossible to avoid: if the right opportunity existed, were they ready for it?
The fears were real. Frank had heard the stories: PE firms coming in, cleaning house, displacing owners, dismantling culture. The 3 owners had fought to build something they were proud of. They had a team they cared about, a culture they had shaped with intention, and a workforce that had doubled under their leadership. Handing any of that over to the wrong partner was not a trade they were willing to make.
There was also the question of personal sacrifice. Frank put it plainly: the business had already asked a great deal. Long days, personal capital poured back into growth, time away from family. The question was not simply whether to sell. It was whether to navigate a process neither partner had ever faced before, without the right person on their side.
A · Action
An Advocate Built on Years of Earned Trust
Frank already knew who he needed. He called John Buxton.
The relationship had been years in the making. It started with a chance encounter: one of the company’s sales appointments fell through, and Mike Gustafson Sr., the longtime owner, ended up going to the site himself. There he met John, who had recently sold his own commercial roofing business. What began as a conversation about the industry evolved into a consulting arrangement and, over time, a close professional friendship between John and Frank.
When the dinner with the PE firm made the exit conversation real, Frank reached out to John immediately. His position was clear. “I’m not doing any of this without working with John.”
John stepped into a role that went well beyond logistics. He organized their financials, helped build the pitch materials to take the business to market, and engaged prospective partners on their behalf with a specific mandate: find PE investors who would honor the team, respect the culture, and grow alongside existing leadership. Not just the highest bidder.
“My wife jokes about it,” Frank says. “It was one of the most enjoyable things I had done professionally in a long time.” The two worked closely, talking finance and strategy, analyzing the business from angles Frank had not considered on his own. John found value in the company that Frank himself had not seen.
John was available around the clock. Frank describes calling him at eight o’clock at night when something urgent came up with the PE group. He always picked up. He was also honest in ways that mattered: never sugarcoating, never hiding information to move a deal forward, never steering Frank toward something that was not right for him.
“If it’s not right, he won’t push you into that,” Frank says. “He would never, ever hide something to make you do the deal.”
There were difficult moments. Months into due diligence, deal terms shifted and exhaustion set in. Frank compares those low points to wanting to jump off a boat because you are seasick. John was the person who steadied him, engaged both sides professionally, brought everyone back to the table, and found a resolution that worked without alienating the people across from them. He did that more than once.
R · Result
The Right Partner, the Right Structure, and a Future Secured
Frank, Ryan, and Mike Jr. closed a private equity partnership that aligned with everything they had asked for from the start.
The deal structure exceeded what either partner had hoped for, in valuation, terms, and the profile of the investors they chose. The PE group shared their values: they respected the team, honored the culture, and were oriented toward long-term growth alongside existing leadership. “From the value perspective, from the structure perspective, from the partnership,” Frank says, “everything was either aligned with what John had hoped, or exceeded.”
All 3 owners remained in the business. The integration continued, and so did the work. The private equity partnership was not an ending. It was a new chapter with institutional backing and the financial security to make decisions differently.
On a personal level, what they had accomplished settled in gradually. “I’ve done what I only could have dreamed for my family,” Frank says, “which is make them secure and never have to worry about my children or my wife if something were to happen.” After 20 years of putting everything back into the business, taking chips off the table meant something.
For Frank, the most important call he made throughout the entire process was the one he placed to John. His advice to business owners sitting on the fence is direct: find someone who actually cares about you and the business, not just getting the commission. Find someone who has been through it, knows what it feels like from the seller’s side, and will advocate for you even when things get hard.
“If you’re considering this as an option,” Frank says, “you need to find an advocate that can help you through the process, because it’s very difficult. There are a lot of pitfalls for a seller that you could fall into if you don’t have the right person there to keep you from doing that. Talk to John.”
