Hi all -

Interested in hearing if anyone in the community has done some sort of 'micro PE' or 'succession' fund in the past. It'd be similar to a traditional search but would attempt to limit downside risk of not acquiring a company:

*Principals would identify opportunities - pre-screen, owner outreach, etc. prior to any funding
*First fundraise would be small (<100k) to fund deal-related costs such as diligence - this round would receive the typical 1.5x step-up on acquisition
*Second fundraise would be for acquisition capital in combo with senior debt/seller note
*Principals would run company and/or install mgmt team
*Following acquisition, principals would continue to work at identifying future opportunities to bring to investors to fund the diligence round and repeat process

Focus would still be on SMEs and founder-controlled businesses in attractive niche markets, etc. that a typical search would go after.

Has anyone seen/done this before and willing to talk about their experiences?