ESOP Exit Podcast

In this special role-reversal episode, host Anthony Levi turns the mic around on his Tenor partner Gary Gray, who was once a client before becoming an ESOP advisor himself. Gary built a national subcontracting firm and sold it 100% to an ESOP in 2017, and he's back to walk through how each of the seven major ESOP benefits actually played out in his own business.
Gary shares candid, on-the-ground detail on:
The retirement "windfall" his employees received — including a story of a longtime employee whose ESOP balance outpaced 16 years of 401(k) savings
How customizing the deal let four partners with very different timelines and goals each get what they needed
Why he got full fair market value for his shares rather than "taking a haircut" to do right by employees
Staying on as CEO for five years post-close and running his own succession timeline
Turning the company into a 100% ESOP-owned S corp to eliminate income tax and what that freed up cash to do
The "second bite of the apple" and how it created a second windfall years after the original sale
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