Experience & placement with Entrepreneur/CEO by acquisition programs?

October 13, 2025

by a searcher from New York University in Marina del Rey, CA, USA

Was recently exposed to Novastones CEO by acquisition program. I had not thought about that avenue in the past before. A little background. I worked in RE PE in my first years after college and then got my masters and worked in behavioral health for 10 years, the last 5 of which I started a company and bought one which I was able to grow fast and replace myself, covering my investment in year one and retaining the earnings while I continue to operate in acquiring a steady flow of small businesses in behavioral health which i've found to really work and be a realistic career evolution. However I have been self funding my acquisitions. Having backing like novastone offered would essentially allow me to jump 5 years ahead with where I hope my path leads. Novastone may pan out, but nevertheless I wanted to expand my search, no pun intended. Does anybody have any experience with other similar programs that would be of value to apply to? or reach out to in any capacity?

Reply by a searcher
from Stanford University in Healdsburg, CA 95448, USA

I'm not familiar with Novastones specifically, but there are a few other firms that do similar programs. A number of them are styled as PE firms where they look to install a CEO who is also a co-investor (Salt Creek Capital comes to mind), referring to the role as "executive partner" or something like a co-sponsoring operating partner. I've heard mixed reviews of the concept from the executive side and positive reviews from the sponsor side (the perspective is along the lines of installing a cost-mitigated operator). In these arrangements, the economics mostly work out as the CEO self-funding some-to-all of what would otherwise be offered as incentive compensation and equity, so unless the opportunity is sizable, it’s not a great deal for the operator. If you're looking to increase the size of the transaction you're working on by accessing outside capital, be sure to run the numbers on what you would be able to do individually. With the track record of acquisitions and scaling that you mention, you are a strong candidate to raise some investment funds of your own and leave bootstrapping behind. Some of the accelerator programs sound compelling, but in the balance, often times someone like yourself with operating experience isn't going to get much value from them beyond what you're capable of doing yourself.

Reply by an admin
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Portland, OR, USA

^redacted might be able to help with Searcher-In-Residence programs. If anyone else has questions or insights on In-Residence programs, please post them and I'll do my best to get the word out! :-)

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