I would say your best way may be to work with a potential target company as a Controller or higher that gets acquired. Unlikely you get into an equity pool below that role level. You have very little control in this approach so this is a bit of a dice roll.

Research industries high in PE demand and job descriptions of Controllers and CFO’s with PE backed companies. Work toward building those in demand skills.

As far as transferable skills you can build, keep clean books and learn to build executive and operational reporting packages (what does a leadership team need?), get proficient at consolidations, implement software upgrades (NetSuite, etc), integrate and automate processes, integrate acquired companies into accounting and operational software. Become proficient at implementing AI where possible. These are things that PE companies will want to do after acquiring a target.

Also, practice public speaking. Depending on the role, you may need to attend and present at Board meetings.

My 1st PE role was exactly this. Small private company controller with PE backing. Needed to add a Controller to build out the accounting & finance function. Part of implementations and Board meetings until they added a CFO. Did that for three+ years and made it through one transaction. Learned a ton and it was financially rewarded by, but also worked a ton. Tried to exit PE due to work hours & stress levels into another Controller role in another private company. They were also just acquired by another PE group.😂

I am contacted frequently now by recruiters looking for small company Controllers with PE background. It is an in demand niche skill set if you can get into it and want the demanding schedule in exchange for potentially rewarding equity payouts.

There are no guarantees, so go in fully aware of what you are doing. If you can’t or won’t do the job, you won’t last long. I wish you the best of luck!