Employed search

Definition

Searching on a firm's payroll, inside its thesis, for equity on close.

Why It Matters

It is the third lane and the one nobody describes as a lane, because it looks like a job. The trade is specific: you take a salary and a diligence bench and give up the ownership a self-funded buyer keeps and most of the say in what gets bought, since the firm sets the box. Two things decide whether a given seat is worth it, and both are on the firm's own page: how much equity vests when a deal closes, and whether the firm has actually closed one with somebody in your seat before. A seat that ends with no deal ends with a salary and no company.

In numbers: A firm might pay $120,000 a year to search inside its thesis and vest 8% to 10% of the equity on close, against the 20% to 30% a funded searcher earns.