I’m getting ready to officially start my self-funded search and have been trying to better understand what the capital-raising side of the process actually looks like once you find a deal. For those who have already gone through it, I’d love to learn from your experience. Once you were under LOI and knew how much outside equity you needed: 1. How difficult was it to actually raise the equity? 2. Where did your investors ultimately come from? Personal network, other searchers/operators, traditional search fund investors, HNW individuals, family offices, etc.? 3. Was finding willing investors the hardest part, or were things like diligence, negotiating terms, timing, and coordinating multiple investors bigger challenges? 4. Roughly how early in your search did you start building relationships with potential equity investors? 5. Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently before starting your search to make the equity raise easier once you found the right business? I’m particularly curious about the self-funded model where the searcher is putting meaningful personal capital into the acquisition but still needs outside equity to get the deal closed. I’m trying to understand this part of the process before I’m actually in the middle of it, so I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have already lived through it.