Does Anyone Have Experience Purchasing a Company Without Extensive Industry Experience?

I'm exploring the search fund and acquisition entrepreneurship path and would appreciate hearing from those who have been through it. One thing I've been wondering about is how much industry experience is truly necessary before acquiring a business. Many of the success stories I've read involve searchers purchasing companies in industries they had little or no prior experience in. For those who acquired a company without extensive experience in that specific industry: What gave you confidence to move forward? How did you evaluate whether you could successfully operate the business? How important was the existing management team? What mistakes or surprises did you encounter after closing? I'm interested in learning from both traditional searchers and self-funded searchers. Any advice or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.