Acquiring businesses with a non-MBA/finance background?

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April 27, 2021

by a searcher from University of Southern California in San Francisco, CA, USA

Hey everyone – I recently joined the community, as I am extremely interested in the acquisition entrepreneur route. I've noticed a large amount of folks here either have an MBA, business or finance background.

I however, do not. My professional background is in marketing, as I've led and managed marketing for a couple FinTech companies in the Bay Area (Robinhood, Chime). Being at these companies early on, I was however exposed to a large portion of the business.

I am curious if there is anyone who has a non-business background, who has successfully acquired a business or started/partnered in a search fund? And if so, how did you leverage your existing skill set, and what are some steps you took to acquire new skills that were vital to your success in search funding/acquiring a business?


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Reply by a searcher
from Western Governors University in Castle Rock, CO, USA
I don't have an MBA, just my bachelors in business mgt. Steps I've taken are network with people on sites like this, Twitter, YT-related channels who have experience in the deal flow process. I have performed DD on several listings so far, which is very enlightening and educational in and of itself. I've also taken a few "how to buy a business courses." It does seem like this site is has a lot of emphasis on MBA related searchers, just an observation. My corp experience from the last 10 years has been product and project mgr focused heavily around digital/software products and managing large teams of people. I feel confident based off of that real world experience and all the books I've read, groups I've joined, and the team I have been slowly putting together. Pay for access is a thing.
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Reply by a searcher
in Atlanta, GA, USA
Chelsea,
Thanks for posting this - I'm coming from a similar place and appreciate the opportunity to piggyback! My background is in tech for a mid-sized bank but I pivoted about three years ago to a smaller firm hoping to immerse myself in finance with basically no experience. It was only in the past year that I became aware of the search fund model (thanks Covid!) and only in the past few months that I've thought seriously about taking the plunge. Mine isn't a success story yet, but I thought of a few things that have been helpful for me to lay the foundation. The big ones have simply been free courses online and a few worth the money: Coursera has quite a bit of MBA material for free (if nothing else you can check out the syllabus for a reading list in topics you're less familiar with (for me that was accounting and business valuation)). That resource did wonders for my confidence in communicating with seasoned MBA's. I'm not saying it's apples to apples but it's a great insight into what 'real' MBAs have under their belt. MIT has A Lot of open courseware as well. And for me, being far removed from my last math class in college, Khan Academy was great for quick refreshers every now and then. I needed a handful of FINRA licenses for my transition and I'd highly recommend Kaplan if you ever have an interest in any of those. Just recently the rules changed so that a series 65 license qualifies you as an accredited investor - that is something I'm leaning heavily on right now. Lastly, I'm typing this with a totally straight face... I've gotten a ton out of Twitter. If you keep the entertainment follows to a minimum (I might even recommend a separate account for personal stuff depending on whether you use it currently) and curate towards "Fintwit," especially "SMB," you can make a little social network specific to your direction. Just like Searchfunder, it's amazing how many helpful folks there are looking to pay it forward. Best of luck!

Will
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