Early Search Mistakes: What Should Every Searcher Know?

searcher profile

August 21, 2025

by a searcher in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Starting a search is exciting, but it’s also easy to go wrong initially. Some people spend months chasing the wrong industry. Others delay outreach because they want the “perfect” prospect list. And many underestimate how much time it really takes to keep the pipeline moving. Everyone makes mistakes in the early days. The important part is learning from them. So I’d love to hear from you: • If you’re just starting → what mistake are you most worried about? • If you’ve been searching for a while → what mistake did you make early on that others should avoid? Your answers could save someone else months of frustration.
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commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Pomona College in Asheville, NC, USA
particularly for smaller deals, don't spend money on qoe and legal dd until you spend a day or two looking through all the financial statements yourself. I blew >$10k on dd costs on a failed deal where SDE was overstated by 50% (likely due to deliberately fraudulent broker misrepresentation) and could have caught that myself with a bit of patience. This should be obvious but I was so excited to try to close as fast as possible.
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Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Nashville, TN, USA
Send your first LOI early and don't spend so much time in spreadsheets. Good deals will move fast so being comfortable with LOIs and different structures is important, the first one is always intimidating though. Also know that numbers before an LOI may be directionally correct but they will change so don't spend too much time agonizing over spreadsheets. I wasted months because of this.
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