One year in the ETA world - AMA

searcher profile

August 28, 2023

by a searcher from Harvard University - Harvard Business School in Piedmont, CA, USA

About one year ago I joined Searchfunder as I was starting to poke around the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition world. I always wanted to run a company, but doing the startup thing never felt right. Fast forward one year, and I've left my job as a Product Manager at Meta, and I'm doing a traditional search fund.

I remember when I first got on Searchfunder I had a hard time digesting all the new terminology and figuring out what my options were in the ETA world. It took me about six months to understand the different ETA models, what it took to participate in them, and what the potential upside was.

I'm starting this thread for aspiring searchers who are new to the ETA world and have questions about how things work. There are no dumb questions - post in the comments and I can share what I learned.

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Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in Piedmont, CA, USA
My fundraising was more driven by my own timelines and when I wanted to leave Meta. I started building relationships in early 2023 and went full-on with fundraising in May###-###-#### It took me five weeks to close out fundraising.

In retrospect I realized my timing was probably pretty fortunate. It sounds like a lot of investors were fully committed on the search side by late summer. That said, I would still reach out now and try to build relationships.
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Reply by a searcher
from The University of Michigan in Miami, FL, USA
Hi Chris - how did you think about the timing of fundraising? I heard that it’s not recommended to start the fundraising process leading into Q4. What was your timeline and how much thought did you put into it? Thank you.

PS: Would love an opportunity to connect with you over the phone to ask a few more questions, if you have some availability :)
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