# Search Fund Accelerator

A cohort program that publishes the equity split.

A cohort program for solo searchers that supplies committed acquisition equity, a bootcamp and a shared office in New Orleans or Denver, and publishes the equity a searcher earns, which most of this shelf does not.

- Category: Capital & Investors
- Pricing model: Custom Pricing
- Where it fits: Set Up & Fund the Search
- Website: https://searchfundaccelerator.com

## At a Glance

Publishes the number that matters most to a [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher), and stays silent on the one right behind it.

- 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.

## What It Costs

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

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: Publishes the searcher's equity in plain numbers, which puts it ahead of most of this shelf
- Pro: Publishes a founding year, a cohort count, its own acquisition rate, and a roster of thirty chief executives and seven searchers, as one image
- Pro: States the geography and the work-authorization rule twice, unambiguously
- Pro: Discloses that it takes no step-up on search costs, and names the figure it is refusing
- Con: Says nothing about pay during the search, which is the fact its own applicants most need
- Con: 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
- Con: 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.

## Sources

- https://searchfundaccelerator.com/
- https://searchfundaccelerator.com/faq
- https://searchfundaccelerator.com/sfa-economics
- https://www.searchfundaccelerator.com/apply-searchers
- https://www.searchfundaccelerator.com/searchers-ceos

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/capital.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/search-fund-accelerator
Last checked: 2026-09-23

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt