I write a monthly newsletter on Search, ETA, SMB, & more.


I thought I'd share an excerpt of the August edition I sent recently - sign-up at bit.ly/etamusings if want to get on the list (and I'll resend the full August edition later this week for new adds)


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It's great to be back at home after a long traveling work/vacation with the family.


August was a slightly slower month in the search world with many folks on vacation (especially in Europe where they honor vacations :) so fewer new searchers and a number of deals pushing to an end-of-year close.


But excited as we enter September for my favorite season of the year - Fall. Back to school, fall foliage, college football, Sam Adams Octoberfest, and more.


Recent investments


Traditional Search Investments:

We backed Mitch Pulver, a recent Booth MBA who is part of NextGen Growth Partners and will be focusing much of his search on GovTech.

Currently Raising? Are you a traditional searcher currently raising? Know one? We'd love to meet - just reach out --@----.com Investments: We invested in several interesting deals this month:

We backed independent sponsors Chris Breaux and Jon McLaughlin of Yamhill Capital in an interesting niche software acquisition.


Have a self-funded or traditional deal that is looking for equity investment? We'd love to see it - just reply to this email.


Deal & Diligence Assistance: We continue to dig in and help on deal-level analysis, deal structuring and sourcing directly with searchers on a number of software, business services and gov-related deals. If we can be of help, please reach out.



Content & Community


New Yale Case: Steve was quoted in A.J. Wasserstein's new Yale Case "Exploring Various Search Structures" which is a great updated summary of the many ways of launching a search fund.


Fun newsletter: Our friend Michael Girdley continues to pump out great content on Twitter and his Acquisition Anonymous podcast. He launched a new newsletter "One Interesting Deal"- which (you guessed it) provides an analysis of one interesting deal each week.


Guide: Our friend Lisa Forrest at Live Oak just released a new guide "From Searcher to CEO: Analyzing and Mitigating Acquisition Transition Risk" - Steve was honored to be quoted along with search luminaries like Jim Sharpe, Walker of WSC, and Cecilia of Relay.


Acquiring a Government Contractor: An Active Searcher's Perspective: We have been working closely with Jamie Warlick, a Wharton grad, Marine Infantry Officer and BCG Alum, who is actively searching for a business in the government contracting space. He shared a great overview of his first six months searching in the space here.


For full copy of newsletter & future editions - sign-up at bit.ly/etamusings