I'm excited to speak at the SearchFunder event on December 15th - "5 Tips from an Investor in Self-Funded Search" - https://www.searchfunder.com/event/view/280

I was working on my slides for the presentation for the event today and will be sharing my 5 best tips on December 15th.

But I thought I'd share some left-over tips in a post today.

Consider this the director's cut. The bonus tracks. The alternative version of the record.

1 - Ask if they prefer electronic signature on NDAs and if so use it. I've spent too much downloading PDFs, filling them out in Adobe Acrobat with my info, my save signature, and sending back. A couple of searchers did the work for me - filled out the info, put it in hellosign or docusign, and I signed it in 30 seconds and did it on my phone. Speeds up the process.

2 - Create your two-sentence blurb. This helps both catch the investors eye but also most investors know others and can quickly forward that info (versus they make it up). Ex. "2016 Wharton MBA self-funding deal in X industry, paying X amount and it's X Rev / X EBIDTA - X multiple. Raising X amount at X% pref / X% common. LOI accepted, SBA loan accepted, X of Y total raise committed with X% friends/family & X% search investors.

3 - Show your excitement / Why you are fired-up. With self-funded search, investors are really betting on the searcher since the searcher will be the majority owner. So I always want to know - why are you fired up? Why are you excited to leave your cushy NY PE / Banking job to move across the country, take a SBA 7A loan, and grind in a small business? And why is this business "the one" vs all the others? The best self-funded searchers exude excitement that is contagious and is needed to weather the ups/downs of entrepreneurship.

And that's it for now. Looking forward to seeing people on Dec 15th.

As always, let me know if I can help - DM or --@----.com - sign up for my monthly musings on ETA, search funds, and more - bit.ly/etamusings