I keep shifting between going down the self-funded and traditional search and there's one thing that bothers me - deal size. I want to buy a company, not buy a job, and I want a management team under me.

I know that commonly it is said that self-funded searchers tend to target / end up with smaller businesses, whilst traditional searches target larger companies ($30m rev, $3-5m EBITDA).

Assuming the self-funded searcher has built an investor network, received 'letters of available capital' in exchange for right of first refusal, and kept investors regularly updated/ engaged during the###-###-#### month search.

As such Isn't the only difference between a self-funded and traditional search where the search money comes from (savings vs. investors), which would mean that both can technically target the same deal sizes with similar success? Or am I missing something?