Locally Focused, Self-Funded Search?

searcher profile

October 12, 2025

by a searcher from University of British Columbia - Sauder School of Business in Victoria, BC, Canada

I’m looking to connect with self-funded searchers who chose to focus on a specific city rather than conducting a broad national search. I’m particularly interested in hearing how you navigated the tradeoffs, sourced deals, and structured your search within those geographic constraints. For me, the motivation is family and community roots — and I’d love to learn from others who’ve taken a similar path. I plan to continue working full-time, and expect the search to take longer vs. a traditional search.
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Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in Westport, CT, USA
I'm about 6 weeks into a regional search and here are some additive learnings: - given hunting ground is limited (I'm staying within 90 min drive of where I live), you can augment funnel by doing proprietary outreach. It's manageable to pick a space, find all the companies in it and reach out to them via emails/calls (I've been calling more often). You can do this on your own, or hire interns and/or buyside search firm. When you speak to owners, if they're not interested in selling ask if they know other people in their industry to speak with. Playing up that you're a local and not a PE firm/strategic builds goodwill and they're much more open to meet - ask everyone you speak with if they have suggestions of other people to meet with. Really try to ingrain yourself in the local business/search community
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Reply by a searcher
from University of San Francisco in Vancouver, WA, USA
Yes I'm running a regionally focused search. Happy to offer tips Specific to sourcing 1. Identify other searchers who are 3-12 months ahead of you and ask if you can get their list of brokers in your area so you don't need to start building your broker list from 0 (mostly people are building their list from bizbuysell leads so you can do it but way faster to get someone elses to start > they may be more open if they have already transacted vs see you as competition but most everyone is friendly) 2. Identify events where owners or intermediaries (bankers, brokers, accountants) may hang out so you can establish relationship then follow up for call/coffee depending on interest 3. Identify top connectors or intermediaries in your network and meet with them 1on1 + tell them what you are looking for. You should find other random events or suggestions from these folks. 4. Consider starting some ongoing update to the key folks in your network who are owners/acquirers/mentors/intermediaries who have provided true value/potential bankers/investors to keep your name + info top of mind as they interact with others About 2.5 months in I've learned (lots of stuff others already know) - Wide variety in quality of brokers and you will personally just connect with some better than others. If you do the basics (professional comms, have profile, letter from bank, etc) and be consistent you will see their deals and quality understand who brings quality + fair pricing to market - Huge amount of serendipity by just being out there (literally meeting owners on the street + at events, asking friend/parent if they know someone with a business, banker who does much bigger deals but knows everyone and passes your info to owners/smaller deals) - In my market there are definitely $200k-$1.5M+ SDE businesses that have not been inundated with other searchers/brokers. I know because I've either cold called and they immediately expressed interest OR they reached out to me after hearing about my search through some intermediary
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