Experience with ETA Programs?
February 13, 2025
by a searcher from Columbia University - Columbia Business School in New York, NY, USA
Has anyone had either direct or secondhand experience with ETA Programs, like a Codie Sanchez's 'Contrarian Thinking' or Ben Kelly's Acquisition Ace? I had some introductory calls with them some time ago to kick the tires, but didn't end up following through for a whole host of reasons.
Just wanted to see if anyone has had any experience/success/failure with these types of programs and would be willing to share their thought process.
from Purdue University in New York, NY, USA
And as far as the benefits of the “community” that comes with these programs - that is incredibly misleading. Think about who is part of these communities - look no further than other search funder posts of people who say they’ve taken the course - absolutely amateurs, 99% of which will never acquire. It’s a case of the blind leading the blind. Worse, it’s a case of blind liars (I would encourage you to do some research on how many times Codie was caught lying and extremely exaggerating about her work history or read Ben’s LinkedIn posts where people call him out on his BS) leading gullible blind people who don’t know any better.
I’ve been a search investor for many years and I’m an LP in ETA focused private equity funds. If someone reaches out to us and mentions they are part of one of these communities, we immediately (but respectfully because we don’t want to be jerks, it’s not their fault, it’s on these fake gurus selling a dream) respond than we are not interested. We would never back someone who took one of these courses.
Anyone who is serious about ETA does not take these fake gurus seriously. In my experience, people who speak positively about these courses fall into two camps: either they are paid shills or they are experiencing cognitive dissonance, they don’t want to admit they threw several thousand dollars in the trash for no reason so they’re trying to justify a terrible decision.
Lastly, I’m sure there are a handful of people who took these courses and then acquired. I’ve met one or two and the truth is they would’ve acquired with or without the course, and I would even argue they acquired not because of the course but despite it. But I would encourage you to think about this question: how many people actually acquire from these courses? Why aren’t these numbers published? Surely it should be decently high given you pay $5,000-10,000 right? If Ben and Codie are so successful, why isn’t more data on their acquisitions public? And I don’t mean the cherry picked data they publish on LinkedIn posts selectively about their acquisitions. If they are so financially independent and successful why are they making cringe worthy social media posts that clearly over promise? Why does most of their wealth come from selling a false dream to an unsophisticated audience instead of the success acquiring?
from University of California, Davis in United States
His free webinars and pods thru Acquiring Minds, free email courses, and free resources linked to them (his financial model is now everywhere) are IMO a very worthy foundation to entering this space well informed without paying a dime.
Getting on the phone with him and some of his colleagues have cleared up some of my deepest confusions. I haven't attended their in-person bootcamps but I imagine it's a similar experience.
After trying out some of the other communities, I really enjoyed Sam's "just here to help" vibes. He's plenty busy being an SMB boss.