I've had 200+ calls with searchers in the last year.
In each searcher's journey, there seems to be a common set of questions each ETA entrepreneur/searcher asks themselves in their journey.
Here's my top 10 Common ?s ETA searchers ask in their journey (note - the order of questions can vary depending on answers):
1 - What's the best search framework for me: Traditional, Accelerator, Single Family, Independent Sponsor, Self-Funded?
2 - Should I do a solo search? Partnered search? If partnered, who should I partner with?
3 - What's my focus - geography? Industry? Where do I have an edge? Where do I have passion?
4 - What size to focus on? 300-500k SDE? 500k - 1.5M, 1.5m - 3M? Where do I think I can win? What size company do I want to run?
5 - What's my sourcing strategy - brokered? Proprietary? Both? What sourcing sites to use? What data to buy?
6 - What's my tech stack and strategy for deal sourcing & maintenance? Data sources? CRM? Email outreach?
7 - Who should I use for 3rd party advisory - legal, bank, accounting, QofE, due diligence, tech due diligence, insurance?
8 - Who do I want on my cap table? What skill sets do I want? Traditional investors? Self-funded investors? Folks with experience investing in the sector? Professional friends/family?
9 - What management philosophy do I want to run? EOS? Rockefeller?
10 - And then the deal closes & the real work begins. How do I drive value for my customers? How do I build a great company culture? How do I build momentum in the business? How do I keep sanity in the ups/downs of entrepreneurship?
What key questions am I missing? What's your answer to the framework?
As always, as a serial entrepreneur and active investor in search, let me know how I can help - --@----.com I also recently created a light-weight monthly newsletter with my "musings" - sign-up at bit.ly/etamusings
10 Common ?s Searchers Ask in Their Journey
by an investor from University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
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Searchfunder is an online community and toolkit for searchfunds. Over 80% of those involved in searchfunds maintain a Searchfunder.com account to help them network, problem solve challenges, and keep up with the industry.
We maintain partnerships with database providers that make searching more effective, efficient and affordable along with features that help searchers find deals and investors and vice versa.
We maintain partnerships with database providers that make searching more effective, efficient and affordable along with features that help searchers find deals and investors and vice versa.
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