Search Fund KPIs for Reporting

May 22, 2025

by a searcher from Universidade de Coimbra in Lisbon, Portugal

Hello SF Community We're setting up a regular reporting for investors on the search activity. What KPIs do you usually track and share? What are the reference values you use for each to compare with? Cheers, Andre Pimentel

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Reply by a searcher
from Western Washington University in Nashville, TN, USA

^redacted‌ I don't have investors and I'm exclusively doing on-market, so others may have a more useful perspective to share with you, but I track: - Brokers contacted - NDAs signed - Deals reviewed - Qualified CIMs - Broker meetings - Seller meetings - LOIs submitted - Active deals

Reply by an investor
from McGill University in San Diego, CA, USA

I guess it depends on what your investors care about. If it's simply closing a deal, then the two primary ones that come to mind are: Number of in person meetings with business owners, number of submitted LOIs. Those two indicators are generally thought of as the best leading indicators of closing a deal If your investors are hands on and want to help you with sourcing, then there are no shortage of secondary indicators you can toss in to the mix. You can start at the top of the funnel and work your way down the funnel (number of emails/calls, email open rates, # deals reviewed, signed NDAs, to name a few; and then conversion metrics to show efficacy and where deals die) As a general matter, you may want to marry these KPIs with an update on the existing funnel (highlighting next steps), which industries excite you as a searcher, and any specific asks you have of the group. Looking forward to hearing what others think

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