Narrow Search by Geography

Member resources:

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.

Post a question, deal, job, etc...

Make a post...

Complete registration to post.

by a searcher from IE Business School
in Longmont, CO, USA

7yrs ago

Narrow Search by Geography

I'm in the research phase exploring the search fund model. I'm wondering how you have thought through the issue of narrowing your search based on geography. Of course there are many variable to consider within this question (perhaps New York would offer more opportunities than Oklahoma City). In my particular case, I'm trying to understand how realistic it would be to design a search around a single mid-western US state (Iowa). Do you think that this is an important part of designing your quality of life, or does it result in a deal flow too low to support an effective search? If you do support a geographically based search, what criteria would you consider to be key?

16 Likes

457 Views

reply by a searcher 7yrs ago
from The University of Chicago in 2122 W Le Moyne St, Chicago, IL 60622, USA

I ran a geographically-focused search in the Chicago and Southeastern WI area, and would agree with the comments above. I found it less useful to develop highly specific industry theses, as they would usually point to very few such companies in my area. However, I was able to source a good volume through networking, which is obviously much easier locally.

reply by a searcher 7yrs ago
from University of California, Los Angeles in Honolulu, HI, USA

You can find deals in a narrow geographic focus if you are flexible on industry and open to unconventional opportunities. I had to work hard for deal flow, and focused on networking with trusted advisers (consultants, insurance brokers, accountants, attorneys, bankers) for referrals, because there weren't many brokers who focused on the same narrow geographical area. If you are already established in your area of choice, you will have credibility with your potential referral network, which will save you time and effort in getting referrals because you're a known quantity in your area.

I don't believe the conventional search fund investment community is interested in searchers with narrow geographical range, so prepare to self-fund your search. However, the network you build in sourcing your deal could turn out to be very valuable. If the deal you find is a good one, you should be able to raise capital through the same network.

Developing industry investment theses will be almost worthless in a narrow geographic search, but having rough parameters will be necessary to filter out poor prospects. Instead of having parameters that created a tight screen, I defined what I didn't want (no B2C, no F&B, no retail, no tech, no construction/trades, minimum size), and closed on a deal in 16 months.