Answers to Recurring FAQs from Current and Prospective Searchers

February 29, 2024
by an investor from Harvard University - Harvard Business School in Toronto, ON, Canada
Many searchers understandably tend to have similar questions and areas of uncertainty. Indeed, in most instances, I had these very same questions and areas of uncertainty prior to raising my own search fund in###-###-#### As a result of the frequency with which I'm asked these questions, I've presented each of them today, and have also included my opinion on what the answers may be. Some of the questions I cover include:
- Constructing a cap table
- Differences between the Canadian and US search ecosystems
- Is the Search Fund market too crowded/saturated
- The trade-off between price and business quality
- What the best searchers do in their first 3-6 months
- Proprietary vs. brokered deal flow generation
- When to visit a prospective seller
- Success rates of industry agnostic searches
- Having an industry and/or geographic focus
- Why search investors seem to all be looking for the same thing
- How to spend your first week as a new CEO
- Should I create a 100-day plan?
- How to communicate the ownership change to customers
- ...and many more!
Answers to Recurring FAQs from Current and Prospective Searchers
from Ivey Business School at Western University in Toronto, ON, Canada