Small businesses employ 62 million Americans and generate nearly half of US GDP. But as boomers retire by the millions — and their kids aren’t interested in taking over the family business — most face the same two exit. They can shutter a business they spent their life building or sell to private equity — a move which typically means slashed staff, jacked prices, and an owner who’s never set foot in the town.
William Fry, who launched American Operator late last year, is trying to offer a fresh alternative.
His Austin-based firm helps operators — typically a longtime employee or industry veteran — co-purchase retiring owners’ businesses. With AO’s help, the operators starts with 10% equity and a clear path to 70% majority ownership. Meanwhile, the seller gets their liquidity event and the business stays local.
Unlike PE, which buys to flip, often selling to another PE company, American Operator has no intention of selling the businesses it buys. Their goal is to keep Main Street in the hands of Main Street.
The model runs on domain expertise. “You need to know how an industry works and then we handle the acquisition,” Fry said. Retiring owners don’t just disappear either — most join American Operator’s advisory council, mentoring the next generation while staying connected to the business they built.
Over the last few years, PE firms buying up vets, dentists and home service businesses have jacked up prices and pushed out longtime employees — often installing outside managers who’ve never picked up a wrench or a drill.
PE-backed consolidators are now cited as the “root cause” of vet prices surging 32% to 60% since 2020, according to a Bank of America study, with visits actually dropping as pet owners skip care they can no longer afford.
Fry is no anti-capitalist, but he’s clear-eyed about PE’s impact. “PE will pay crazy prices but then gut what made the business work,” he told The Post.
American Operator can’t match PE’s prices — and doesn’t try to. The trade-off is stability: no flipping, no gutting, no disappearing. The firm also helps businesses modernize with bookkeeping, technology and AI tools.
But Fry is emphatic that integrating AI isn’t about cutting jobs. “In a small business, people are already doing multiple jobs. If you automate part of their work, you’re not trying to fire anyone — you’re freeing them up to do more,” he said.
Take Anne-Marie Rosario Flores is the founder of Anne the Plumber, a residential plumbing company serving Rhode Island communities since 2014. Rather than sell to a stranger or close up shop, she handed the reins to Wilson Molina, an operator she’d mentored for years who was backed by American Operator’s capital. Molina is now CEO with a clear path to majority ownership. Flores stays involved. The community keeps its plumber.
Long-term, Fry wants to give everyone the ability to have exposure to American Operator by putting the companies together in an ETF like structure and taking it public— and create a Main Street holding company that everyday Americans can actually invest in. Ninety-five deals and $300 million in transactions later, he’s building what he calls “a basket of the American dream.”
“Optimism matters,” Fry said. “As soon as young people think tomorrow is going to be worse, you’ve lost.” He’s betting they’re wrong.
This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC’s power players (and those who aspire to be).
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