New to Search Fund....well sort of

August 27, 2024

by a searcher from Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, IL, USA

Relatievely new to search funds. During my MBA, I interened in the summer helping out a searcher find a company for acquisition, which we did- a roofing company. Additionally, I did 2 PE internships during the fall and spring months to help me get familiariy with M&A, LBOs, financial analysis, etc. In the 9 months of internships, I learned a lot but still consider myself a novice. I am looking to start my search fund and eventually quit my full time job as I get deeper in. With all that said, can anyone help educate me or suggest a way to learn about raising funds, sourcing deals? I want to stay local to IL, however I am somewhat open to relocation. I would personnaly love to buy a food broker because of my passion around brand management and my career goals in that space. Additionally, my wife works for a food brokerage so a lot of education and training is alreay there with knwoledge transfer.

Any help would be greatly apprecaited.

Ray

Reply by a searcher
from Northwestern University in Antioch, CA, USA

Thanks for the mention ^redacted‌, ^redacted‌, happy to connect with another Kellogg Alumni. The overall Kellogg and Search community are both extremely helpful and supportive. Don't shy from cold reaching out existing and post operators directly both on this platform and on LinkedIn requesting time to hear about their experiences. There are two upcoming major eta conferences, ( HBS and Kellogg -Booth conferences), which would be great opportunities to continue to learn and build out your network further. Another under utilized approach is to reach out to individuals in the PE sector, as sourcing deals is a major part of what they do, and set up time to learn about how they approach it as part of their day to day work. Many of your present classmates or those who graduated a year before you, may be a good place to start for this approach.

Happy to connect as well if it would be helpful.

Reply by a searcher
from Northwestern University in Hinsdale, IL, USA

^redacted‌ - fairly new to the search myself, but as I can see from the thread, a lot of us Wildcats on the site. Did you ever access any of the ETA class information? One of my classmates is helping to teach the class and I can discuss some of the nuggets he passed on to me. DM me and we can chat. I also just signed up for the conference so hope to see you (and the rest of the folks here) there!

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