Likelihood of Search Fund Success
I am AN1 in DIG who is interested in launching a search fund. Goal is to go into MM PE to SF. Is this possible in Canada?
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There are a trillion search funds in Canada. They are a dime a dozen (Source: Had to cold email a thousand of them a while back for internship). Perhaps look into many of the FoFs, such as Search Fund Partners (I used their list for leads). Also consider the fact almost all the searchers I saw were post MBA, so might be difficult as a preMBA associate. Grain of salt for everything I've said of course, am student.
Good to note thank you. I have no plans for an MBA, and was hoping the private equity exposure would be sufficient. An alternative route, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, is to try post-PE entrepreneurship to gain operational experience, and depending on the result, continue pursuing it. The difficulty with this of course being that 1) this is the practically the same as a SF so to speak but being the founder (arguably harder), and 2) MBAs are the best way to develop a network sufficient for fundraising efforts
Honestly I don't think I know enough to really help you in this situation, perhaps consider coffeeing some existing searchers and see where they got their funding. The GSB guide too of course, but you've probably already read it.
Any actually serious and competitve searcher will be ex-PE, just PE exposure won't be enough. To not waste your search years you ideally want as many advantages as possible (strong PE deal experience + operating experience in PE or consulting to convince LMM owners, good brand name MBA to find a co-searcher to lessen the burden or widen LP network and again using MBA brand to help legitimize yourself to LMM owners).
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