Update on the INSEAD coverage thread from last week.

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by a searcher from University of Greenwich
in Amsterdam, Netherlands

1mo ago

Update on the INSEAD coverage thread from last week.

Three European ETA practitioners are now on the record for the 2026 INSEAD Report. @redacted‌ in Belgium. Self-funded searcher, acquired a 20-person plumbing business in 2011 and built it into a 200-person renewable energy company, sold his stake to EDF Luminus inredactedNow active as an investor and INSEAD entrepreneur-in-residence. @redacted‌ in France. Traditional search fund, eight months into the search with a hybrid investor base that includes former bosses, experienced search fund investors, and a few investors from the startup world. @redacted‌ in the United Kingdom. Over two decades in consumer goods across multiple functions, 10 days into LOI on a UK FMCG business, currently in due diligence. Each of them was generous with their time and direct about what is actually happening in the European market in 2026 from their specific position. The combined picture across self-funded, traditional, and post-LOI is meaningfully different from what most ETA content describes. I also want to flag @redacted‌'s question from last week's thread, which has reframed how I am approaching one of the report sections. Sachin asked how investors are looking at AI in the search process. Not how searchers are using it. How investors think about it, what they want LPs to see, and what they are actually screening for. That question changes the angle on INSEAD's Session 2a entirely. Carrying it into the sessions and the hallway conversations. The report ships 16 May. Will post the top themes from the conference back to this thread once I am back in Amsterdam. For context for those who did not see the earlier post, this is for the 2026 INSEAD Report, which will be the first of three conference reports I am producing this year alongside IESE in October and RSM in November. redacted

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reply by a professional 1mo ago
from INSEAD in Denver, CO, USA

@redacted‌ I'll be eager to see the reports! I'm a GEMBA '22 in Denver and always love seeing/hearing about INSEAD ETA-ers :)

reply by a searcher 1mo ago
from HEC School of Management, Paris in Paris, France

Glad to be part of this snapshot, @redacted‌. From my vantage point 8 months into the search, what stands out most is how relationship-driven the process is in practice versus how it’s often portrayed. When people who've seen you work up close decide to back you, it changes the nature of the relationship. Less explaining, more building. That's the kind of investor base I wanted around a process that is, by nature, slow and uncertain. And that logic extends further: the biggest gap between ETA narrative and ETA reality, at least in France, is how relational everything is. Sourcing, conviction-building, seller trust. Looking forward to the INSEAD conference.