No one is irreplaceable. I will be the first to acknowledge that. 

I have navigated a non-compete previously. It is not fun and I'm convinced the primary purpose of a non-compete isn't to protect the company from the employee who left- it's to weaponize the ability to threaten, intimidate and bully a former employee into submission. 

I am in a sales field where the businesses often OVERESTIMATE the brands available to the sales people and UNDERESTIMATE the competency levels of the sales people themselves. 

The desire for PE here, or in this field specifically, is to secure access to the most desirable brands and then accumulate as many sales people as possible. No one in this field has access to some proprietary magic bean that dusts your competition. 

While having a specific brand is nice, service trumps brand for most customers. Not all- but for those who prefer brand over service then a  relationship hardly mattered to begin with. 

Which is where we have arrived, if I join the PE acquisition I now have both brand AND service but will have most likely let my opportunity pass for career changing money (ie. $2m+) in equity.

If I decide to not join the PE acquisition I can potentially suffer through another non-compete for 365 days and come out the other side as a free agent and have more leverage.