Legate Partners

Stanford MBA: Why Buying a Business Beats Starting One ???? In my latest episode of How I Invest, I sit down with Rob Cherun to break down search funds—a little-known path where investors fund you to acquire and scale an existing business. Shortly after graduating Stanford’s MBA program, Rob bought a small company and grew it to a $150 Million ARR business.? We discuss how he uses the search fund model and: ?? What’s a search fund? A model for buying small, profitable companies instead of building from scratch ?? ?? 35% IRRs?! Search funds have outperformed private equity and venture capital ?? ?? Why Harvard & Stanford MBAs are skipping startups to buy businesses instead ?? From $5M to $150M+ ARR: How Rob turned a small security firm into a global leader ?? The Asurion Playbook: How a small acquisition became a multi-billion-dollar empire #VentureCapital #VC #Startups #OpenLP Link to Podcast in Comments Below ??

After an incredible decade in the beauty and wellness software space, my journey there has officially come to an end. I parted ways with Zenoti (and de facto the prior search journey) in December, closing an important chapter filled with growth, challenges, and great friendships. I’m deeply grateful to Sudheer, Dheeraj, and Venkata for providing a home for me and many of my former SuperSalon (aka ProPoint Solutions) teammates after its acquisition. As for what’s next, I’ve realized something my wife, Stacey, already knew—I’m ready to step back into the CEO seat. Running SuperSalon was one of the most exhilarating and rewarding (and yes, anxiety-inducing) experiences of my life, and I’ve never felt more alive. With that in mind, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of?Jaan Capital, a search fund dedicated to finding, acquiring, and operating a SaaS business. This isn’t just about buying a business; it’s about putting the lessons I’ve learned over the past decade into action and building something exceptional. If you know of any SaaS companies whose owners are considering a sale or stepping back from day-to-day operations, I’d love to hear from you. We offer a significant finder’s fee for referrals leading to a successful acquisition. (You can find our criteria here:??? https://lnkd.in/gGWy7Eip ?? I’m also grateful to be partnering with some incredible CEOs and investors on this journey. Many of them have supported me since my first search fund, while others are leaders I’ve built strong relationships with over the past decade through the search community. Their trust means the world to me, and I’m excited to embark on this encore search with their backing. Here’s to the next chapter—putting the lessons of the past decade into action and building something extraordinary once again! Chris L., Clayton Sachs, Eric Giesecke, Hiten Varia, Joe Niehaus, Mahesh Rajasekharan, Ned Tomasevic, Peter Flick, Tom Jackson, Will Wright, Applied Equity, Archipelago Capital Partners, BK Growth, Endurance Search Partners, ETA Equity, Legate Partners, Marion Equity, Northspring Partners, The Operand Group, and Pacific Lake.

It’s long overdue but I'm thrilled to finally announce the launch of Alpine Vistas Capital (AVC) – an oversubscribed, investor-backed fund focused on acquiring and growing an exceptional Canadian/American business while creating pathways for broad-based employee ownership! Featured in Search Funds News earlier this week, AVC marks an exciting milestone as the first known traditional search fund explicitly committed to implementing broad-based employee ownership post-acquisition. Why entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA)? For me, it's the perfect intersection of three passions: (1.) Building high-performing teams and organizations, (2.) Creating opportunities for wealth-building through shared ownership, and (3.) Leading with purpose and long-term vision. After spending years studying ETA and employee ownership models at Harvard Business School (including extensive research of Peter Stavros's approach at KKR and Ownership Works; and those taken by classmates like Xander and Graeme/Nadim) and currently co-authoring case studies on the topic with Professor Dennis Campbell, I'm excited to put theory into practice. The opportunity to combine professional management with broad-based employee ownership isn't just good business – it's transformative. ?? We're actively seeking businesses based in Canada or the USA that have a strong history of profitability (+$1.5M-$10M in EBITDA) and growth potential, ideally in the essential infrastructure services space (healthcare, education, transportation, environmental services, logistics, building services). ?? Exciting opportunity: We offer substantial finder's fees ($100K-$250K+) to anyone who introduces us to business owners that lead to our acquisition. If you know great business owners thinking about succession, let's chat! I'm incredibly honored to partner with an exceptional team of entrepreneurs and investors who share this vision: Peterson Partners (Max Artz, Rodrigo Alfaro, Chalise Moore); Sage Capital Partners Inc. (Jon Piurko, Glen Silvestri), Blue Frame Capital Partners (Trevor Lwin, Bruce Moszcelt), Hadley Family Capital (River Ewing, James Scott (Breitmeyer)), Paltus Capital (Ramiro Alfaro), Cerralvo Capital (Santiago Perez Teuffer, Mario Sicilia), Legate Partners (Rob Cherun, William Gallagher), Mineola Search Partners (Steve Divitkos), Siwa Capital (Daniel Farag), Associés MAGNUM Capital Partners (Patricia Riopel, Enrico Magnani), The Cambria Group (Rene Lajous), Mazal Capital (David Farahi), Tarrus Richardson, and Mario Nigro. Many thanks goes to my wife (Tara) for embarking with me on this journey and my family for all of the support to date. Here's to building something remarkable together. https://lnkd.in/e3bfhRZN #entrepreneurship #searchfund #employeeownership #acquisition #leadership