Hi,
I joined searchfunder last month. I am a prior software SaaS entrepreneur who raised VC money and sold the business 7 yrs later. I have done a few other 0 to 1 businesses including starting and selling a trucking business. I am late to the ETA/Search Fund model and I wish I would have done this before instead of starting from scratch. I am looking to invest in 5 to 10 self funded searchers in the next 3 yrs. But, I am looking to meet more people in the ETA/Search Fund community. I live in Atlanta and I am starting to meet a few people here, but we need a lot more networking events in my opinion.
I would appreciate any comments from people who have actually attended ETA conferences in the past. I am looking to connect with searchers and investors. What conferences would you recommend? I want to learn the POV of a searcher as much as possible so that I could be a better investor. I am an operator at heart, so this is not just about writing a check. I want to advice and help as well. I see a few conferences coming up like:
- Wharton ETA Conference on Mar 21, 2024 $100.
- SMBash in April. Salt Lake City, UT. $3,500 to attend
- South East ETA Conference in September. Georgetown University in DC.
- ETA Conference Booth-Kellog in Chicago in November 2024
- HBS ETA Conference in Oct 2024
Any recommendations if these conferences are worth the travel, cost and time? Can someone also comment on the SMBash which is 3 days and costs more than the others?
Thank you in advance,
Mario
I helped to organize the MIT conference and I can share my perspective about HBS vs MIT, which are both in Boston: HBS is a bigger conference with 800 attendees, and MIT has 500.
Many investors mentioned that they prefer it to be smaller because of the quality of the network, others prefer it bigger for visibility. Another important difference is content-based conferences vs networking-focused conferences. HBS had excellent speaker sessions with few breaks, and MIT had a dedicated hour for networking on top of the sessions. Some would prefer to use this time for speakers, and others would see more value in networking, so I believe you should understand which one aligns the most with your goals.