# Stanford GSB: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

Where the model began, and the study.

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/mba-eta
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/mba-eta/stanford-gsb
Last checked: 2026-09-04

## At a Glance

- Club: A Search Fund Club, for students exploring the path and students already committed to it.
- Money: A stipend of up to $550 a week through the Entrepreneurial Summer Internship Program, on top of the $1,000 a week the school recommends the host company pay, for an eight to ten week internship at a company acquired within the last two years. Awarded on a rolling basis until the year's funds run out.
- Conference: The Search Fund CEO Conference, held on campus each year for searchers who have already bought a company rather than for students exploring the path.
- Its own page: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/centers-institutes/ces/research/search-funds

## The Classes

- Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (STRAMGT 543)
- Search Fund Garage (a project-based workshop) (STRAMGT 549)

## Who Teaches It

- H. Irving Grousbeck, who described the search fund in 1984
- Charles A. Holloway, who co-founded the center with him in 1996

## What It Publishes for Anyone

- The Search Fund Primer, the field's standard introduction, free to read.
- The Search Fund Study, published biennially since 1996 and the source of the returns figures most of this field quotes.
- A companion study following the funds raised outside the United States and Canada, which the main study leaves out.

## What Else It Runs

- The Entrepreneurial Summer Program, which places students inside a recently acquired search-fund company.
- The search fund study itself, which the center has published since 1996 over the funds raised since 1984; the 2026 edition carries data through the end of 2025.

## Where to Read It

- Search funds at the Grousbeck-Holloway Center: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/centers-institutes/ces/research/search-funds
- The center itself: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/centers-institutes/ces
- The 2025 CEO conference, the fifth: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/newsroom/school-news/stanford-gsbs-search-fund-conference-focuses-ceos

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