Entrepreneurial Capital
At a Glance
Worth the call before the LOI as well as after it, which is more than most of this shelf offers.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Searcher side: '$300k - $2m of capital + real operational experience, from LOI through close and beyond', against targets of 'Earnings of $750k+' and 'Under 5x Multiple'. Investor side, published separately: a $100,000 minimum, capital calls over a two-to-three-year investment period and a ten-year fund life; the '8% - 12% Preferred Return' and the 2x to 2.5x step-up on the same page are labeled typical deal-level economics, the standard self-funded search terms, and not the firm's own sheet.
- Best For
- A self-funded searcher who wants a capital partner reading the CIM before there is an LOI to fund
- Track Record
- A first fund raised and a second not yet open; its accelerator page says it is deploying $12.8m, where a podcast title of 2025 says $11.7m and two other cards $10.8m and $11m. It says it has invested in thirteen searchers and targets thirteen to eighteen businesses, and names one searcher deal it worked on, a Minnesota home care franchise, on its home page, and dates its founding nowhere.
- A raise the site states four ways, $10.8m, $11m, $11.7m and, on the accelerator page, $12.8m deploying, the newest of them. Thirteen searchers backed by its own count, which may include the founder's personal deals before the fund. Fund I is closed and Fund II is not open. No founding year and no portfolio list; two deals are named beside a person, the co-teacher's own HVAC purchase and a Twin Cities home care franchise its home page says worked with the firm. Read at: The home page, the investor page, the team page, the accelerator page and the media index.
- Lane
- Self-Funded
- Funds
- The deal only
- Based
- Chicago, Illinois.
- Invests
- Its criteria name an earnings floor, a multiple ceiling and two risk tests, and no territory among them.
- Buys
- Businesses earning $750k or more, bought under a 5x multiple, with low customer concentration and low capital intensity.
- Before A First Call
- No deal, and it says so. A named Preferred Searcher Program carries a searcher from before a letter of intent through to close, with deal review, investor support and proof-of-funds letters, while the money itself starts at the letter of intent.
- First-Time Operators
- A Preferred Searcher Program open to vetted searchers, with the vetting unstated on its pages and two posts publishing the firm's own heuristics instead: momentum, and whether it would be terrified to bet against the person. A searcher who has gone to a letter of intent and lost the deal is counted as a strength, so a prior deal is not required.
- How Long The Search Runs
- No length on the search and nothing about what happens if it ends without a deal, on the pages this review read. Ask what the clock is before you sign anything.
- Published Terms
- $300k to $2m into a deal from the letter of intent onward, as a minority investor without operational control, in its own words. Its investor page describes an 8% to 12% preferred return and a 2x to 2.5x step-up as typical deal-level economics, the standard self-funded search terms rather than its own sheet. Its own figures are a $100,000 minimum, capital calls over a two-to-three-year investment period, a ten-year fund life, a 3x to 5x entry multiple and a target of 24% net. A second lane, up to $500,000 of growth equity into trades owners who complete its paid accelerator, priced off their EBITDA.
- What A Searcher Gets
- Not published on the pages this review read. It is the figure a searcher most wants and most of this shelf does not print it, so ask before the first call rather than after.
- After The Close
- Supports its companies after the close, typically through advisory board seats.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes a searcher check range and a full set of investor terms, which is unusual transparency in either direction
- Publishes an earnings floor and a multiple ceiling, so a searcher can self-qualify before making contact
- Its Preferred Searcher Program gives pre-LOI searchers a described relationship rather than silence
- Explains the step-up with a worked example, the term searchers most often meet late, while labeling it the market's standard rather than its own
Cons
- No geography rule published at all, so a searcher outside the Midwest cannot tell whether they are in scope
- A count of thirteen searchers backed, which may include the founder's personal deals before the fund, and no founding year; the raise is stated four ways across its pages, from $10.8m to $12.8m
- The multiple ceiling reads as under 5x in one place, 3x to 5x in another and below 5x in a third, and the site never reconciles them
What Searchers Say
Searcher check range, earnings floor and the investor term stack all read from its own pages. Its posts say it has seen three hundred deals in fourteen months and spoken with seven hundred searchers, and it names one searcher deal it worked on, a Twin Cities home care franchise, on its home page.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how self-funded search capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- No conversation until you have a deal: gap capital comes in at the LOI, not before.
- A fast read on the specific target and your underwrite.
- An equity check to close the gap the loan and your own injection leave.
What It Weighs
- The deal itself: is the business financeable and fairly priced.
- Your underwrite, since there is no search track record to lean on.
- How much of the equity gap actually remains after the loan and your own cash.
How to Prepare
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end before you call. Underwrite a Deal
- Size the gap: sources and uses against what a lender and seller accept. Sources & Uses Builder
- Know your own number first. SBA Acquisition Calculator