Smash.vc

At a Glance

A clear floor and a clear ceiling for the smaller self-funded deal, with the geography left unsaid.

Pricing

Custom Pricing, 'We generally can invest between $250,000 and $1.5 million per transaction, depending on the structure and opportunity.' Its own newer ranking of search fund investors puts its checks at $50,000 to $500,000, and both pages are served. Two floors rather than one: 'at least $750K of EBITDA' for a self-funded searcher, 'a minimum of $2M of EBITDA' for an independent sponsor. No ownership range, fees or carry published as figures; the same ranking says no one in its group will go over the equity threshold that requires a personal guarantee.

Best For

A self-funded searcher at the smaller end who wants to know the earnings floor before pitching

Track Record

Publishes no deal count, no fund size, no founding year and no portfolio page; the only completed thing it names is buying a marketing platform for its own team. Its own ranking of search fund investors, updated in 2026, files it third and calls it a group of individual investors who co-invest deal by deal with no limited partners.

Twenty-two pages and fifty-two posts, and the portfolio link on its own site is dead. Everything with a number on it is criteria rather than history: a check range, an EBITDA floor for a searcher and a higher one for an independent sponsor, and a rule about investing only after a letter of intent. The founder's page carries seventeen years and a dozen companies, all of it his own career and none of it the firm's. Three posts since speak of owning and advising dozens of companies and of a portfolio, and its marketing agency dates itself to 2012; none is a count of deals. Read at: Every page in both sitemaps, twenty-two pages and fifty-two posts, plus the portfolio URL, which answers 404.

Lane

Traditional, Self-Funded

Funds

The deal only

Based

Asheville, North Carolina.

Invests

Its FAQ states an earnings floor for each kind of buyer, one for a self-funded searcher and a higher one for an independent sponsor. Neither that page nor the criteria section on its home page, the apply page, the about page, the lower-middle-market page or the founder's page sets any rule about where the business sits. A post's mention of SBA loans implies the United States and states nothing.

Buys

Profitable home, consumer, healthcare, manufacturing, agency and B2B services businesses, plus minority recapitalizations, partner buyouts and, by its own at-a-glance list, traditional search fund deals, at $750K of EBITDA or more for a self-funded searcher and $2M for an independent sponsor.

Before A First Call

A signed letter of intent. Its submission page says the form is only for equity funding of post-LOI acquisitions, and that it does not invest in pre-revenue companies.

First-Time Operators

A preference for operators who want a flexible equity partner, and a deal-stage condition in place of a person-stage one. What it asks about the searcher is whether they have an LOI.

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

Minority equity checks of $250,000 to $1.5 million per transaction by its FAQ, and of $50,000 to $500,000 by its own newer ranking of search fund investors; it states outright that it does not fund the search phase. The same post says no one in its group will go over the equity threshold that requires a personal guarantee, that it prefers deals paying cash distributions from the first year, and that it works with buyers using SBA loans or private credit.

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

Describes searchers growing and improving the business they buy, usually over five to ten years.

Roadmap Stages

3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal

Pros and Cons

What Searchers Say

Read at the firm's own domain after the shelf was found carrying TWO rows for it. The site calls itself Smash.vc in its title, its site name and its footer; "Smash Ventures" is the name its own ranking post uses for itself in prose, and its privacy policy names the operating entity as SaaSicorn LLC. Nothing on the domain describes a second vehicle or fund. Check range, both earnings floors and the no-search-capital sentence read from its own FAQ; its machine-readable text files serve an older version of the site, including an ownership range the live founder page no longer states.

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

1. A first conversation on your background and why search, before any deal.
2. A deep dive on your plan: industries, criteria, and how you will source.
3. Backing for the search itself, then a fresh underwrite when you bring a live deal.
4. 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

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