Search Fund Accelerator
At a Glance
Publishes the number that matters most to a searcher, and stays silent on the one right behind it.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, The equity is published: up to 25% for a searcher, with no preferred return owed to investors and a small portion exchanged for an equal share in every other cohort member's company. It also names a term it refuses: 'No step-up on search costs (typically 50%).' The 25% against 15% line on its FAQ is the traditional model's split, footnoted as such. Nothing is published about pay during the search, about fund size, or about the deal size it targets.
- Best For
- A US-authorized solo searcher who wants a cohort, an office and committed equity behind the close
- Track Record
- Founded 2015; its home page still calls the 2024 intake its tenth cohort and counts forty-six searchers under a tile reading fifty and more, while its roster image carries searchers of the 2025 and 2026 intakes. Thirty chief executives beside twenty-seven companies on that image, eight of them exited, and seven searchers; an 85% acquisition rate since inception, by its own count.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The deal only
- Based
- New Orleans and Denver.
- Invests
- Nationwide searches inside the United States.
- Buys
- Six pages about how the program works for a searcher: the cohort calendar, the economics of a solo search against a partnered one, the collaborative deal process and the absence of an investment committee. Not one of them names an industry, a size band or an earnings floor for the companies it will fund.
- Before A First Call
- Four rules on its applicants' page, in its own words: solo searchers only, with no partnerships; a nationwide search in the United States rather than a region or another country; permanent authorization to work in the United States; and, typically, an MBA. Intakes join in August or March at the New Orleans or Denver office, by its FAQ.
- First-Time Operators
- That its entrepreneurs are typically highly motivated MBA graduates, which is where they come from rather than a bar, and an aside that a search partner has likely never run a business either. The applicants' page states four rules, solo, nationwide, US work authorization and typically an MBA, none of which is a bar on having run anything.
- 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
- A searcher earns up to 25% of the equity, and it takes no step-up on search costs, naming 50% as the figure it is refusing. Nothing is published about pay during the search.
- After The Close
- Holds weekly check-ins and monthly mini-board meetings after the close, on a board that starts as its own team and adds independent directors.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes the searcher's equity in plain numbers, which puts it ahead of most of this shelf
- Publishes a founding year, a cohort count, its own acquisition rate, and a roster of thirty chief executives and seven searchers, as one image
- States the geography and the work-authorization rule twice, unambiguously
- Discloses that it takes no step-up on search costs, and names the figure it is refusing
Cons
- Says nothing about pay during the search, which is the fact its own applicants most need
- Its FAQ prints the traditional model's solo-against-partnered split beside its own terms, while its applicants' page says solo searchers only and no partnerships, so read the rule on the page that states it
- The cohort figures carry no as-of date: its home page still calls the 2024 intake its tenth and counts forty-six searchers under a tile reading fifty and more, while its roster image carries searchers of 2025 and 2026
What Searchers Say
The equity split, the work-authorization rule, the solo-only rule and the step-up refusal all read from its own pages. It runs a searcher program and an internship placed with its portfolio chief executives, and this is the first whole read of the firm behind them.
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