What's your best tip for someone beginning a self-funded search?

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November 21, 2025

by a searcher from Yale University - School of Management in New Haven, CT, USA

As I approach graduation from business school in the spring, I have decided that I am going to commit to a self-funded search (beginning in the next month or two). For those of you that have been in this position, what's something that you think is important to know going in?
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Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in München, Deutschland
Try to find other self-funded searchers, especially if you are on your own and not part of a team. The search is lonely from time to time and it helps a lot to share tasks. E.g. I am part of a group of five, one of us drafted a pre-DD-screening doc, one of us compiled a list of relevant online marketplaces and yet another one of us a list of M&A brokers.
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Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in New Jersey, USA
Just start. Get up early with your coffee and build. Use an LLM to put together a work plan. Nothing beats action. And no reason to wait. Just get going. Yesterday is better than today, today is better than tomorrow.
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