Shore Search Partners
At a Glance
A route into a large buyout platform's resources, and one where a searcher should be clear that the parent also bids.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees. No fee is charged to a searcher; what the firm publishes about its own side is in the row.
- Best For
- A searcher who wants the resources of a large microcap buyer behind them, and is comfortable that the same parent may be the other bidder.
- Track Record
- A second dedicated search fund closed at almost $225M, beside a parent that publishes more than a thousand microcap transactions and a portfolio its search page counts at sixty-plus companies.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The deal only
- Based
- Chicago, Illinois, with a second office in Nashville, Tennessee.
- Invests
- No investing scope on the pages this review read, so ask whether it will look at a search where you are.
- Buys
- Microcap only, described as the traditional search investment range, with no figure attached to it.
- Before A First Call
- An email address and two office telephone numbers. No searcher application, no cohort and no listing on its careers page, so a searcher approaches the same way anyone else does.
- First-Time Operators
- It says it backs experienced executives and calls its searchers Search Executives throughout, which reads closer to a bar than most language here does and still is not one. No sentence names a year count, a profit-and-loss condition or any prior seat.
- 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.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Backed by a firm with more than a thousand microcap transactions behind it, which is a resource no independent backer matches
- Its second dedicated search fund is sized publicly at almost $225 million
- Publishes a named team for the search arm specifically rather than folding it into the parent
Cons
- Publishes no search budget: the support it names is an accelerator program, a network and a toolkit rather than money during the search
- Calls its searchers executives and asks for experienced ones, which reads close to a bar without stating one
- The parent is an active acquirer in the same size range, so a searcher may meet it on the other side of a deal
What Searchers Say
The parent firm is already on this site's acquirer shelf, where its searcher program flag was wrong until this reading corrected it.
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