Search Funded: The ETA Podcast

Most private equity returns over the last decade were not driven by operators. They were driven by cheap debt and multiple expansion. That playbook is breaking. In this episode, Lee McCabe, partner at Claymore Partners, explains what actually drives value creation now and why most lower middle market businesses are far less prepared than they think. At Claymore, Lee works directly with private equity firms and their portfolio companies to drive value creation across marketing, data, and techn...

In this episode, Ibrahim Abdel Rahim returns to share how ETA has evolved from a niche strategy into a rapidly globalizing asset class. Moonbase has expanded beyond Europe into markets like Brazil and India, where activity is accelerating, while countries like Spain continue to produce strong deal flow. But as the ecosystem grows, Ibrahim argues that deeper structural issues are emerging. He points to investor dynamics as a key pressure point. What was once a collaborative, trust-based model ...

Kevin Hong is a former searcher who was fired from the company he acquired and is now the founder of Caprae Capital, a tech-enabled lower middle market investment platform behind SaaSquatch Leads, Search as a Service, and a growing portfolio of businesses. After years as an entrepreneur, Kevin turned to search as a more de-risked path to ownership. But his experience running a data center services business turned into a battle over governance, board control, seller alignment, and strategy. In...

On this episode of Search Funded, we sit down with William D. Cohan, bestselling author, longtime financial journalist, and former Wall Street M&A banker, for a wide-ranging conversation that spans search fund investing, leadership, capitalism, and career reinvention. Before bringing moral clarity to the financial world through his journalism and books including Money and Power, House of Cards, The Last Tycoons, and Power Failure, Bill spent nearly two decades as an M&A banker at Laza...

New SBA rules are making self-funded search tougher—especially for non-U.S. citizens. In this episode, we explore why it might be time to look abroad and my personal reflections after spending the past few months traveling through the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Links to INSEAD Emerging Markets Podcast: Spotify, BuzzSprout, Apple. Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, legal, or investment advice. Please do your own research or consult a professional. ...

Lasean Smith is founder of CAGR Investments, a micro-PE firm that is part family office and part product studio.. Lasean holds a bachelor's in media and computer science from Southern Illinois University, a master's from Arizona State University, an MBA from Georgetown, and a professional screenwriting degree from UCLA. LaSean is also a veteran of the US Navy and has worked at Deloitte, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, and while doing so deployed over $450 million deployed across corporate R&am...

Gabriel Chick is the President and CEO of Cleveland, Ohio-based HVAC and industrial cleaning services company Service Tech Corporation (STC). Prior to STC, Gabriel served over 4 years as a Field Artillery Officer in the US Army where he led and oversaw a 40+ personnel team. Gabriel is a co-founder of GT Entrepreneurs, which he helped create while enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper Business School's full-time MBA program. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Find us on Apple, Spot...

Saumil Jariwala, of Feta Fund, (Founder-focused Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition) joins us on this episode to talk about his mission to help one thousand entrepreneurs acquire businesses in his lifetime. We dive deep into the philosophy behind Feta Fund, highlighting its unique approach to specializing in providing support during the search phase of the EtA journey, as well as stories of EtA entrepreneurs Saumil has helped in their journey to make exceptional financial return...

In this episode, host Nick Lall interviews Bakari Akil, Managing Director of Graves Hall Capital. They discuss Bakari's unique path to becoming a successful acquisition entrepreneur, including his most recent acquisition of a $30 million burlap bag manufacturing company. Bakari also shares his experiences as a lecturer at Cornell and Columbia Business Schools, his founding of New York's largest private equity hedge fund group on meetup.com, and what led him to launch Nomad Noir,...

Rafael is a solo traditional searcher looking to acquire an SME in France. He has 11 years of purchasing, sales, business development, strategy, and general management experience in Manufacturing (Steel, Textile) and FMCG (Personal care, Hygiene) industries, and France, Spain, Morocco, China and Australia. Over the past 8 years, Rafael has built a track record in managing crisis situations as well as organic growth strategies in privately held medium size companies (€20m to €90m of revenues)...

Ambit Partners is a dedicated Search Fund investor, enabling entrepreneurship through acquisition in traditional and developing markets. They combine a global investment mandate with deep SME transacting and operating experience - supporting a portfolio of exceptional entrepreneurs to find, buy, & build enduring businesses around the world. Subscribe to Search Funded: the ETA Podcast on Spotify or Apple. This episode originally appeared on the INSEAD Emerging Market Podcast. Send us Fan...

Dr. Campos is the Country Director of IE University in Brazil, Professor of Entrepreneurship at FGV EAESP, Visiting Professor at IE Business School (Spain) and ITA (Brazil) and Founder and Managing Partner of Newton Equity Partners, a company that invests in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) via Search Funds worldwide. Professionally, Newton's life is driven by reshaping Capitalism through entrepreneurship and technology, preparing leaders to thrive relentlessly in their quest to solve loc...