Any advice for an older searcher looking to start the journey
May 19, 2024
by a searcher from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Waxhaw, NC 28173, USA
I would like to have a chat with some of the older searchers (45+ years) to understand how their journey has been. The search fund model has traditionally been for fresh MBAs in their 20's and 30's. How did age/experience play to your advantage or against you. It would also be great to hear from investors who backed older searchers to understand why they did, the pros and cons.
I am also open to hearing from other searchers regardless of age who may have some insights and advice.
from University of Calgary in Calgary, AB, Canada
1) Had soft commitments from individual investors that valued the experience a mid-career search brought to the process; as I spoke with them it was apparent they too had become entrepreneurs mid career.
2) Well known funds have been inundated with PPM's given the exponential awareness of search/ETA, and are less likely to go mid-career given the volume of candidates that are more aligned with the historical profile.
3) Think you have a higher probability of a successfull raise as a mid-career searcher if the focus of your search aligns with past industry experence/can path to deal pipeline in your industry; I had broad focus given some macro issues with my primary market that were outside of my control and industry I had come out of was highly cyclical, so not of interest to me as a search theme/nor investors..
4) Interest in the asset class has expanded; since you are mid-career you may require less assistance in some aspects, so tracking down new entrants looking to back searchers may solve some of the gaps from historical sources
5) Investors that raised ~10 years ago as mid-career offered the following from their own experience:
i)some may take the view that you should be willing to take a unit in your own search/invest in your own deal given age/assumed earnings [my very credible "river guide" on the raise suggested this isn't necessary; it came up in less a couple conversations with investors.
ii) similiar to i, if no one from your network is investing then that is red flag (search concept is basically unheard of in my geography, so there was no interest regardless of strength of relationships]
iii)if you haven't acheived something by this point in your career to sufficiently fund a deal on your own, then that is a red flag.
6) Most were skeptical of a mid-career searchers willingness/ability to relocate for a deal given past precdents of other searchers renegging on relocating.
DM - happy to chat further.
from Augustana College in Madison, WI, USA
Here's the podcast episode. https://open.spotify.com/episode/61QQgig0zFwUPEUV94ini9?si=54ff7a2127334b9e