Northspring Partners
At a Glance
Worth a letter for a traditional search, and worth reading its team page first, since the people who will sit on your board have each sold a search-fund company themselves.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees. Nothing about ownership, carry, step-up or the searcher's split is published on its own site, and the one figure it gives investors is that it works only with accredited investors and qualified purchasers.
- Best For
- A traditional searcher who wants backers who have run a search and an exit themselves, and who will say so in their own biographies
- Track Record
- A dozen portfolio companies listed with investment years from 2022 to 2025, and an entrepreneurs index with a profile page per searcher naming their fund. Its partners' own biographies carry two search-fund exits: one company sold to a listed electronics distributor, and one grown from forty million to a hundred million of revenue and sold to a listed logistics company in 2021. An investor portal for a first fund.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- Based
- No office; a Twin Cities phone number.
- Invests
- The United States and Canada, by the geography line of its investment criteria; the portfolio it lists sits in the United States and one of its searchers is based in Toronto.
- Buys
- Its home page's investment criteria: $5 million to $40 million of strong, predictable annual revenue, revenue growth above 15%, $2 million to $10 million of EBITDA at 15% margins, and established businesses in business services, health care, software and more. It makes minority investments and calls itself an SEC-registered private equity firm.
- Before A First Call
- A contact form with a required inquiry type, searcher among four choices, and a required message, beside a line that it is always looking to connect with candidates for its next searcher cohort.
- First-Time Operators
- A description of the searchers it partners with as a select group with the commitment, grit and experience needed to grow a business, which is a tone and not a bar, and an invitation to candidates for its next searcher cohort. No condition on what anyone has run before.
- 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
- No check size, stake or fee on the pages this review read. Most firms on this shelf publish none, so ask early rather than late.
- 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
- Nothing about the years after closing on the pages this review read, whether a hold period, a first-year plan or a board role. Ask how long it expects to own the company before you sign.
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Every entrepreneur it backs has a profile page naming their search fund, which is where one deal record on this site found a vehicle no other page carried
- Its partners' own biographies carry two search-fund exits, one to a listed electronics distributor and one to a listed logistics company, which is a rarer thing to publish than a portfolio
- Says plainly that it guides searchers through every step, from searching through operating, and invites candidates for its next searcher cohort
Cons
- Its criteria are on the home page and nowhere else, and its entrepreneurs index carries no status, so whether a person is still searching lives only in each profile's metadata
- Publishes no terms of any kind, the category norm
- Names no office anywhere on its own pages; its contact page gives a Twin Cities phone number and two partners' biographies give their home cities
What Searchers Say
Read whole on its own pages. The lane statement, the two exits, the criteria and the portfolio years are the firm's own words.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how traditional (investor-backed) search capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A first conversation on your background and why search, before any deal.
- A deep dive on your plan: industries, criteria, and how you will source.
- Backing for the search itself, then a fresh underwrite when you bring a live deal.
- A board seat and governance once you close.
What It Weighs
- Whether you will finish a two-year search, not only start one.
- The quality of your thesis and target criteria.
- How you will behave on a cap table over a long hold.
How to Prepare
- Bring a sourcing thesis, not a blank slate. Buyer Profile Builder
- Know which firms lead versus follow, and on what terms. Investors
- Make your operator case on one page. Buyer Profile Builder