Recently came across a few posts about highly recommended books by searchers, EtA enthusiasts and SMB operators for buying/operating businesses, and decided to compile them here for my own reference: https://kumo.substack.com/p/the-best-reading-list-for-books-on-4bd?s=w

Search and Acquisition Basics

• Stanford Search Fund Primer

• Stanford University CES Search Fund Data 2020

• HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

• The Evolution of Entrepreneurship through Acquisition from Chicago Booth

• Buy Then Build

• Buyout

• Search Funds & Entrepreneurial Acquisitions

• Buying A Business That Makes You Rich

• How to Prepare Yourself and Find the Right Business to Buy

• IESE International Search Funds: Selected Observations

Deals, Negotiating & Due Diligence

• Never Split the Difference

• Negotiation Genius

• How to Buy a Business without Being Had

• Here's The Deal

• A Practical Guide to Buying a Business

Operations & Management

• Built to Sell

• Measure What Matters

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things

• The Effective Executive

• The Outsiders

• Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink

• The E-Myth Revisited

• Entrepreneurial Finance, Third Edition

From the Seller’s Perspective

• The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers

• Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top

Search Fund Challenges

• Search Funds: Death and the Afterlife

• On the Nature of a Search Fund Not Working Out as Planned



Hope this might help anyone starting our on their searchfund journey! I added notable reviews and download links to each book where possible here: https://kumo.substack.com/p/the-best-reading-list-for-books-on-4bd?s=w Please let me know if there are books you think should be added to this list.