How long was your journey to acquisition?

searcher profile

September 26, 2025

by a searcher from Palm Beach State College in Boca Raton, FL, USA

Fellow searchers, curious how long it took you to find and acquire your business. If you're up for sharing, would love to hear your timeline, industry, and any lessons learned. Always interesting to see how different the journey looks for each of us.
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commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Babson College in Fort Collins, CO, USA
in Novastone, we had one searcher purchase 3 companies in like 6 months... it took me 26 months to get mine done. I'd say complexity, network, focus, and tenure in a specific industry you are searching in are key factors to a search.
commentor profile
Reply by a professional
in London, UK
Bennett, at DealMatch we found that searchers typically look at###-###-#### CIMs before submitting an LOI. And then searchers typically go through 5 LOIs before actually buying a business. These numbers are, of course, for on-market search. Our rule of thumb is 2 CIM requests a day to close an acquisition within a year. If you have geo constraints, you won't be able to see this much brokered deal flow and you would need to complement on-market with outbound (something we support now too, if of interest!)
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