German ETA Association

Imagine a regular day in your corporate / banking / consulting job... You’re in the office, late in the evening, all by yourself, wondering if it's really worth it. Yes, you’re looking for fulfillment and purpose - but in the end, life isn’t free, and having a little seven-figure payday really would make things easier. You can stay in your job for another decade to get there, but you’re ready for a change, you’re ready to take a risk. What do you do? Your first thought might be to start the next-cutting edge tech start-up.?Find a solution to an unsolved problem, raise money from a VC fund, and have your big payday a few years down the line. Yes, that can work - but as most people know, only a few start-ups make it, and even if you get to an exit, liquidation preferences might significantly cut into your payday. Or you could bootstrap a business.?If you go for an innovative business, the risks around start-up product-market fit remain. If you start a ‘boring’ business, it might take a while to take off. And even when all goes well, it might take a decade or longer to reach a VC-sized exit. But what if there was another way - a more reliable way - to get your seven-figure payday???? Let’s talk about a path you might’ve not thought about yet:?Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA).?We’ll get into all of the details what ETA is, how it works, and what you need to bring for it to be a desirable path for you - but for now, let’s focus on our key motivation, getting that “seven-figure payday”: In 66 ETA transactions, over 70% of ETA entrepreneurs held equity worth more than $1M (!) at the point of exit.?Excluding exits over $10M, the average equity value stood at $3.3M, rising as high as $7.6M when including exits above $10M. Also worth highlighting is the hit rate: Almost half (66% acquisitions * 73% with a gain) make money on their deal, anecdotally much higher than with start-ups, at least from my experience. So to quantify these results:?Assuming you manage to close a so-called “search fund”, your average personal exit proceeds were between $1.6M and $3.7M. Of course, things are much, much more difficult in practice, and that payday is not guaranteed.?While still a less-taken path in Europe, ETA has picked up significantly in popularity since I first came in contact with it in 2022, with both former colleagues and my clients considering (or taking) that path. And the opportunity might only become bigger in the next few years. Want to learn more? More about the topic of ETA, this week, here on LinkedIn (and already in the inbox of my subscribers). #privateequity #searchfunds #eta

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the 6th IESE International Search Fund Conference a great community event. For the people who could not make it Sara Rosenthal and me wrote attached technical note containing some of the reflections shared during the conference. #eta #searchfunds #entrepreneurship

? Germany has seen the formation of 7 new search funds and 5 new acquisitions over the last 2 years. This and other key insights from Jan Simon and many other experts on search funds to be found in IESE Business School's 2024 International Search Fund Study. Check it out!

Mit dem Stuttgarter Nachfolgetag am 27. September m?chte die IHK Region Stuttgart für das Thema Unternehmensnachfolge sensibilisieren und L?sungsm?glichkeiten aufzeigen. In ihren Vortr?gen geben die Referentinnen und Referenten erste Hinweise für eine erfolgreiche Gestaltung des übergabeprozesses. Erg?nzt wird das Messe-Format durch eine Podiumsdiskussion, Nachfolge-Pitches und einer Infolandschaft rund um das Thema der Unternehmensnachfolge. Wir freuen uns auf Ihren Besuch. #Unternehmensnachfolge #Nachfolge #Betriebsübernahme #übergabeprozesses #Unternehmensbewertung #StuttgarterNachfolgetag https://lnkd.in/eBWjKqiH

? Searching for a company on your own savings or backed by investors? ?Developing your proprietary deal-flow or work with brokers and listings? ... ?There are many questions you have to answer when you set out to search for a business that requires a succession. ?? Sébastien Chartier from Search Funds News has dissected the important question of searching on your own or with a platform or accelerator. ?? While still a number of searchers end up not finding a business, it is worthwhile to explore the listed partners and exchange with other searchers on their experience. ?? At the German ETA Association you will find a community of like-minded searchers in Germany - an ETA Club not tied to a single business-school, but active all across Germany.

What is a "Search-Fund"? How does it work? And why is it important for the German Mittelstand? Thank you Benedikt von Hatzfeldt for this introduction and brief summary! (German only)