Search Fund raise didn't attract a lead investor - looking for options

November 25, 2024

by a searcher from University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA Anderson School of Management in Pacifica, CA 94044, USA

Hello Awesome people!.
Our partnered search didn't anchor a lead investor - various reasons sighted ranging from: Over committed, Lack of gray capital, We aren't backing non-collocated searchers, we aren't sponsoring California focused search (we were explicit about whole of US in our discussions)
Decided to put a pause on partnered search till we accumulate more skills & create a compelling profile.
a. Has anyone here successfully changed an Investor's initial No --> Yes? (& willing to share tips?)
b. Is anyone looking to bring on Interns/consultant (pro-bono is fine) to do the due-diligence and financial analyses et al?

Happy to chat other strategies (including self-funded, buying small and re-connecting with a deal with investors) and compare notes incase anyone else has similar experiences! Looking fwd. to connecting! - hitesh

Reply by a searcher
from University of California, Los Angeles in Pacifica, CA 94044, USA

:) Thank for that perspective ^redacted‌ we did dig as much as it was politely possible, last year was overwhelming in terms of the # of searchers out there; agree that it's a numbers game, but when you truly look at the institutional investors that the individuals ones lean on to give a thumbs up, it's in the low double digits - and we hit 'em all virtually as well as irl. And all of them had a specific personna of searcher in mind that we weren't really fitting into. So decided to switch things up and go at it solo self-funded route. My empire will be built albeit with a smaller start :) Let's chat if you are up for it! DM'ed you!

Reply by a searcher
from University of Texas at Austin in Dallas, TX, USA

I probably wouldn’t throw in the towel based on that alone. I would double down and really try to get some more detailed feedback about your model and adjust to make it more compelling and add more value. Also how many investors did you reach out to? Raising money is a numbers game especially if you don’t have any warm intros from folks they trust.

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