Pacific Lake Partners
Capital & InvestorsA committed fund founded in 2009 solely to back search fund entrepreneurs, co-founded by Coley Andrews and Jim Southern; describes itself as the largest dedicated search investor, with offices in Boston and the Bay Area, hundreds of searchers backed, investments in over 70 companies, and a fourth fund reported at $175M.
- Pricing
- Custom pricing, Investment terms, not fees: standard traditional search-fund economics, negotiated per the model's conventions.
- Best For
- Traditional searchers who want the scale player: the deepest bench, the most active portfolio network, and the resources that come with the category's largest dedicated fund
- Roadmap Stages
- 2. Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros
- Scale: the largest dedicated search fund investor by most accounts, with institutional fund size reported by trade press
- Full-time team and structured searcher support beyond capital
- A Stanford-rooted history at the center of the traditional model's ecosystem
Cons
- Traditional search economics apply; the structure trades meaningful equity for the backing
- Scale cuts both ways: you are one of many searchers in a large portfolio
- Highly selective, and terms are not published
What Searchers Say
Widely treated as the reference investor in traditional search, with trade-press coverage of its funds. Community sentiment emphasizes the network's value while noting that fit depends on wanting a large institutional partner rather than a boutique one.