“We hardly took any primary capital in 2018 i didn't i didn't want it... i didn't want to get stuck in a a growth model that's dependent on unsustainable paid acquisition right so um almost the entire deal was secondary capital.”

Take Almost No Primary Capital — Secondary Liquidity Lets You Stay Organic

When AllTrails raised $75M from Spectrum Equity, Ron structured it so almost all was secondary (buying out the founder and early investors) with minimal primary hitting the balance sheet. His reason: primary capital creates pressure to spend aggressively on paid acquisition, which conflicts with an organic-SEO-driven model. Taking secondary-only let the company maintain its growth DNA while giving the original stakeholders their exit.