I've been considering whether to pursue a self funded search or a funded search (or search at all) and believe I largely understand the qualitative pros and cons. I'm trying to get a better sense of the economics for the searcher of the two models in a typical deal size for a funded vs. self funded search. I understand the general structure of a funded model (i.e. 30% incentive units vesting in 3 stages) but was wondering if anyone had done any math or a very high level model comparing the two options and looked at both as a solo searcher vs. a partner search.
Thanks!
Self funded vs. Funded Economic Returns / Models for Searchers
by a searcher from Columbia University - Columbia Business School
More on Searchfunder
Searchfunder is an online community and toolkit for searchfunds. Over 80% of those involved in searchfunds maintain a Searchfunder.com account to help them network, problem solve challenges, and keep up with the industry.
We maintain partnerships with database providers that make searching more effective, efficient and affordable along with features that help searchers find deals and investors and vice versa.
We maintain partnerships with database providers that make searching more effective, efficient and affordable along with features that help searchers find deals and investors and vice versa.
Self-Funded: 1.1M EBITDA purchased for 5M, with 1.25 financed by investors. Assume carry is split 70/30 searcher/investor. Grow EBITDA 5% annually, sell after 6 years for same multiple, searcher gets $6.4M in cash flows from sale and cashflows from prior years (excluding salary), investor gets $4.3M.
Funded: $2.2M EBITDA purchased for $16M, with $9.3M financed by investors. Assume carry is split 20/80 searcher/investor. Grow EBITDA at same rate of 5% as in self-funded scenario, and also sell after 6 years for same multiple. Searcher's cash flows will be $4M (all from carry, no salary included), and investor's cash flows will be $26.3M.
Assumed 8% pref and 35% minimum distribution in both scenarios. So clearly with 5% growth, self-funded model is more financially attractive. Funded model requires more growth to unlock additional carry. If I adjust growth to 15% in both scenarios, and change carry in the Funded scenario from 20/80 to 30/70 searcher/investor (in this scenario, investor's IRR is 27%), then both payouts to the searcher are approximately even: 12.2M in self-funded, and 12.5M in funded. But the cash flows begin rolling in to the searcher faster in the self-funded scenario, whereas in the funded one all come in only at sale of the company.