Acquisition Lab: Entrepreneur-In-Residence Program
The Position
Residencies & Placements. Committed capital before a deal exists, for a full-time searcher who signs the personal guarantee.
Cycle: No cohort or deadline published; the capital commitment comes first and the search follows it.
At a Glance
- Location
- Wherever the searcher runs the search; the program publishes no office of its own.
- Compensation
- No salary. A binding equity commitment of $500K to $1M, signed before a specific deal is found.
- What You Do
- A full-time search at twenty to thirty hours a week, sourcing the deal and signing the personal guarantee.
- Who Can Apply
- Searchers with significant operations experience who can bring about 3% of project costs at closing and more than $250k of accessible capital.
The Company
Acquisition Lab is reviewed in full in the directory, with its model, pricing, and the searcher case for and against it: read the Acquisition Lab review.
Interview Prep
These programs do not publish their interview scripts, so this is the shape a residencies & placements program hires on, what it is really weighing, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A rolling, relationship-driven introduction rather than a fixed cycle.
- A sourcing conversation: what you would buy, and how you would find it.
- A working session with the firm's small team.
- A match to a live acquisition or a committed-capital search.
What It Is Assessing
- Sourcing ability and a real point of view on where to hunt.
- Operator readiness for a specific kind of business.
- Whether you fit a small, hands-on team without a large structure around you.
How to Prepare
- Arrive with a sourcing thesis, not a blank slate. Buyer Profile Builder
- Show you can run a business, with evidence on one page. Buyer Profile Builder
- Understand the firm's committed-capital model before you talk terms. Investors
More on the Board
Search Fund AcceleratorNextGen Growth PartnersChenmarkTeamsharesEvergreen Services GroupAmerican OperatorFP PartnersSIG PartnersThesis Capital
A salaried seat is a form of capital: the employed lane on Investors weighs these programs beside the funds, and the Path Economics Comparer prices it against searching on your own money.