Franchise Acquisition Search Tips

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Frequent asked questions:

What is Searchfunder.com?

Searchfunder.com is an online community of searchers, investors, lenders, brokers and other professionals. Over 80% of those involved in searchfunds maintain a Searchfunder account to help them network, hire, and mentor others.

What are the benefits of membership?

In addition to accessing the most active online network of business buyers, Searchfunder licenses research that is simply not cost effective for individuals. Access over 15,000 industry reports and 50,000 transaction financials. You also get monthly credits for contact information for your company sourcing campaign with the option to purchase more at drastically discounted rates. Searchfunder has pre-purchased access from these data providers in order to empower individual buyers and to help searchers level the playing field versus private equity.

Do you have deals?

While we are primarily a buy-side network, we do have hundreds of brokers that regularly post deals to the community.

Can I find an internship on Searchfunder?

Absolutely! We have the industry's largest intern job board. If you are considering a search, the first step is to help another business buyer so you can hit the ground running.

What does it cost?

Searchfunder is a subscription service. We offer flexible monthly, annual and lifetime memberships.

Monthly

$79 / month

Annual

$19 / month

Lifetime

$432 / once

Those who maintain an account with us for over 4 continuous years are permanently added to the community without the need for a membership.

Do I need an MBA to join?

While a large number of our members come from dedicated programs at Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Chicago Booth, and other top programs, searching is no longer reserved for the elite. With the current abundance of dry powder in private equity, and an increasing number of business owners reaching retirement age, good deals rarely go unfunded.

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by a searcher from Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, TN, USA

1yr ago

Franchise Acquisition Search Tips

I'm searching for a multi-unit franchise business and was listening to a podcast yesterday and heard a great tip that I thought I'd pass along. The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) lists every franchisee by state. So this can be great data to mine for reaching out to owners by brand or by geography. I'm using it to target franchisees with 3 units or less which is in line with my search criteria. But how to get the FDD without sitting through intro pitches on every single brand and submitting personal financial statements and kick-off calls with each one? Well, I have just the site for you. Thanks Wisconsin for cheese curds and wide-open access to the latest FDDs without any hassle. redacted By the way, connect with me if you want to talk franchise acquisitions.redacted

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reply by a professional 1yr ago
from University of Pennsylvania in Austin, TX, USA

Happy to talk all things Franchise related with anyone interested. My company (PeerView AI) has shifted focus to the franchise space because it’s a great combination of rich revenue data and high stakes decisions (relative to the people involved) but very little analytics.

reply by an intermediary 1yr ago
from The College of New Jersey in Princeton, NJ, USA

Franchimp is good but they don't always have the most up to date FDDs. FDDs aren't really even worth the paper they're written on. The best due diligence occurs during the 'franchisee validation' stage which means speaking with as many existing franchisees as possible before signing on the dotted line. Making a decision on a franchise before performing this crucial step (and only relying on the FDD) could cost the searcher a great opportunity.