Search Party Video-Podcast

Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) is a journey that requires a deep acceptance of risk, says Matthew Conley,?an MBA candidate at Kellogg School of Management as well as co-president of the Kellogg ETA Club. "From our perspective, it feels like the journey is worth it, and it has to feel that way to be willing to take this risk," Conley says. As a leader of Kellogg's ETA Club, Conley says he wants aspiring searchers to fully grasp the challenges of the ETA career path, including the daily rejection that comes with sourcing deals. "You have to be prepared for that and prepared to really sell yourself," he explains, particularly to skeptical business owners deciding whether to sell to an independent searcher. While capital for search funds has become more accessible—especially for graduates of top business schools—Conley stresses that raising money is only the first step. "If I can raise the capital, do I personally feel confident that I can find the business and run the business as well?" he asks. Dustin Sellers, Managing Partner at ETA private equity firm Next Coast Legacy, echoes this sentiment. "The capital is there," he says, particularly for graduates from elite programs like Kellogg, Stanford and Harvard. But securing funding is just the first step of the journey. "What you have to make the decision on is, do you have the faculties to go find that great business and then go run it?" Sellers warns that without both, searchers risk sacrificing key earning years and career momentum—an opportunity cost that should not be taken lightly. Watch the full interview with Conley and Kellogg ETA Club Co-President, Daniel Lazier, on the Search Party YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/e_QeMXFY Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor:? Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors:? Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/? Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg? Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #eta #search #privateequity #m&as #capital #entrepreneurhsipthroughacquisition

"Hope is not a strategy." Many first-time CEOs do not understand quite how their lower-middle-market companies have been growing, but hope they continue to, says Dustin Sellers, a Managing Partner at Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) private equity firm Next Coast Legacy. Time and again, Sellers says he sees ETA searchers struggle to articulate the real drivers behind a company’s past growth. "You ask a very, very qualified searcher, ‘Why has this business been growing?’ and the response is, ‘Well, it just grows on its own—it’s word of mouth. It’s just got it. It's the brand. It's number one in the marketplace and has just got the best product.'" These explanations often come straight from the seller—regurgitated into an ETA searcher's deck and pitched to investors without deeper analysis. Relying on seller narratives instead of concrete data is a dangerous trap for new CEOs. Without a clear, evidence-based understanding of what has driven past success, CEOs risk assuming growth will continue automatically. "It won’t," Sellers says. "Hope is not a strategy. I want a shirt that says that," he adds. Sellers shares his insights in the Search Party video-podcast episode, "New CEO, You Probably Don't Fully Understand Sales." The episode also includes Mark Mullins, Managing Partner at Street Smart Advisory Group, and Katie Walker, a Principal at Plexus Capital. Watch the full episode on Search Party's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/exXnrtqs Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV

What should an ETA searcher know about deal consideration structures? How the seller is paid in a lower-middle-market acquisition often is influenced by the direction of the economy, says Craig Frame, a Partner at law firm Mayer Brown who has worked extensively in the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) market. Structuring a transaction starts with a fundamental question: "How much are we going to pay you for this deal?" says Frame. In strong economies, when EBITDA multiples are rising, deal prices tend to be fixed. But in down markets, contingent considerations—such as earnouts—become more prevalent. "Since 2021, we see a lot more earnouts," Frame notes, as buyers hesitate to pay full consideration upfront and ask sellers to put some of their proceeds at risk based on post-closing performance. Beyond price, searchers must consider how payments are structured—whether in cash, rollover equity, or a seller note. "Is that going to be all paid at closing? Or are you going to structure those payments over time, whether or not they're fixed or contingent?" Frame asks. Additionally, tax considerations often dictate whether a transaction is structured as an asset or equity deal, with implications that shape overall deal terms. Search Party on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #ETA #privateequity #search #acquisition

Ten years ago, lower-middle-market CEO Markus Scott made a bet on artificial intelligence that ultimately led to the explosive growth of his security-camera business. Markus Scott, an Entrepreneur-Through-Acquisition (ETA) who became CEO of EyeQ Monitoring after acquiring it with partners, tells the Search Party video-podcast that in 2014, AI was on the horizon, but many didn’t yet grasp how it would transform the kind of human-driven tasks that EyeQ was seeking to automate. EyeQ seeks customers that rely on human guards to personally monitor assets, such as remote water towers. "The initial automation was, hey, let's just put a camera there," says Scott, who says his service allowed customers to reduced costs. "Once you actually have an IP camera, we can start to measure pixel changes. If we figured out how to take those pixels and reduce the number of active eyeballs, we could really hit a home run." Since taking the reins of EyeQ, Scott estimates the business has grown by a factor of 24. Scott shares his insights in the Search Party episode, "The Walk-On Linebacker Who Grew His Business 24x." Watch the full interview on Search Party's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eeyZBT8p Search Party on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eutVEaaH Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV

Ten years ago, a lower-middle-market CEO made a bet on artificial intelligence that ultimately led to the explosive growth of his security-camera business. Markus Scott, an Entrepreneur-Through-Acquisition (ETA) who became CEO of EyeQ Monitoring after acquiring it with partners, tells the Search Party video-podcast that in 2014, AI was on the horizon, but many didn’t yet grasp how it would transform the kind of human-driven tasks that EyeQ was seeking to automate. EyeQ seeks as customers businesses that rely on human guards to personally monitor assets, such as remote water towers. "The initial automation was, hey, let's just put a camera there," says Scott, who says his service allowed customers to reduced costs. "Once you actually have an IP camera, we can start to measure pixel changes. If we figured out how to take those pixels and reduce the number of active eyeballs, we could really hit a home run." Since taking the reins of EyeQ, Scott estimates the business has grown by a factor of 24. Scott shares his insights in the Search Party episode, "The Walk-On Linebacker Who Grew His Business 24x." Watch the full interview on Search Party's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eeyZBT8p Search Party on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eutVEaaH Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/? Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #eta #search #entrepreneurship #privateequity #security

'Pay it forward’ culture propels search-fund popularity: Columbia ETA club co-presidents. The "pay it forward" culture of the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition community is central to its increasing popularity, say the Co-Presidents of Columbia Business School's ETA club. In this clip, Next Coast Legacy Managing Partner Dustin Sellers shares his reaction to comments from Rohit Datta and Austin Fruchter, co-heads of the club as well as ETA search partners. The companies targeted by aspiring ETA searchers, says Sellers, are "human-sized businesses" that are "so different than the world that you came from, whether that was consulting, finance, investment banking, packaged goods, etc. These are real businesses and this is real America." Rohit reports the Columbia ETA club has "basically doubled this year," growth he attributes to a "community of people who really pay it forward. They treat their employees and their team well. I'm hoping that continues.” Fruchter echoes this sentiment, arguing part of ETA's appeal to aspirational searchers is the CEO's ability to have a direct impact on employees. “The people in the businesses drive the value creation,” Fruchter says. This “people aspect” is what drew Fruchter to the ETA career path. Sellers expands on this theme, referencing Yale School of Management professor A.J. Wasserstein’s concept of “human-sized businesses.” “You're going to make a real impact on people's lives, day one - hopefully positively," says Sellers, noting a lower-middle-market CEO has an opportunity to directly mentor "people who never thought that they were going to be able to grow into managers and future CEOs." Watch the full interview with Columbia's ETA club Co-President on Search Party's YouTube channel:? https://lnkd.in/esaN5e3H Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #search #searchfunds #eta #privateequity #humancapital #people

Before starting his ETA journey, Markus Scott used a decision tree to determine that spending "ten years chasing after something that didn't pan out" was a "worthwhile risk." Scott is now the CEO of EyeQ Monitoring, an AI-enabled video-security service that he found and acquired a decade ago. Under his leadership, the company's earnings have grown by a factor of 24. But before he set out on his Entrepreneur-Through-Acquisition (ETA) search, Scott was torn between that path and a more conventional private equity career. "I had a great consulting professor that talked about making decision trees when you're faced with these kinds of hard points in life," remembers Scott. "I sat down and I did a decision tree on both. I was prepared for the potential outcome that I was going to spend ten years chasing after something that didn't pan out." Scott concluded that the risk of ETA search gave him the "opportunity to go build something really special." Scott shares his insights in the Search Party episode, "The Walk-On Linebacker Who Grew His Business 24x." Watch the full interview on Search Party's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eeyZBT8p Search Party on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eutVEaaH Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/? Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #eta #search #privateequity #business #betonyourself

What are the most common restrictive covenants in an ETA deal? Restrictive covenants protect the value of a newly acquired company by limiting what sellers can do post-close, explains Craig Frame, a Partner at law firm Mayer Brown who has worked extensively in the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) market. “The most common covenants in an ETA deal are surrounding: what are you going to do to restrict those sellers after closing?" says Frame. The most common restrictions include non-competes, non-solicitations of customers and employees, confidentiality clauses, and non-disparagement agreements. These provisions are designed to ensure that sellers don’t immediately compete with or undermine the company they’ve exited. “You can’t compete with the company, and you also can’t target the company’s clients,” Frame explains. ETA searchers should know the enforceability of these covenants varies by state, with California being one of the most restrictive. Restrictive covenants typically appear in three key areas of a deal. Covenants within the purchase agreement governing the sale of equity are "usually the most enforceable," says Frame. They also appear within agreements related to rollover equity and, in certain states, within employment agreements if the seller remains with the company. Search Party on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #search #eta #privateequity #ETAdeal #restrictivecovenants

'The first big shock' for new CEOs is confronting a weak sales function. First-time CEOs of lower-middle-market businesses are often shocked at the extent to which they must overhaul the sales function, according to sales expert Mark Mullins, a long-time advisor to Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) backed companies. Many newly acquired businesses rely on legacy sales teams, but not all existing team members are equipped to drive scalable growth under new management. "One of my first questions is always: Is that person an A player?" Mullins explains. "Will they ever become an A player? And many times the answer is no. And so then that's the first big shock." This realization forces new CEOs to make tough personnel decisions early on. Some newly minted CEOs have difficulty transitioning to a sales mindset after completing the exacting work of looking for and acquiring an attractive, lower-middle-market business.?"They have to stop thinking in terms of spreadsheets, fundraising, and board decks," says Mullins. Instead, the focus must shift to sales execution—positioning, packaging, and presenting offerings effectively. For many operators, this is the first time they’ve engaged in a serious conversation about sales at this level. Mullins says success in the ETA model depends on building a high-performing sales team and refining go-to-market strategy. CEOs who fail to act quickly on optimizing their sales team risk stalled revenue growth and missed opportunities in competitive markets. Mullins shares his insights in the Search Party video-podcast episode, "New CEO, You Probably Don't Fully Understand Sales." The episode also includes Dustin Sellers, a Managing Partner at Next Coast Legacy, and Katie Walker, a Principal at Plexus Capital. Watch the full episode on Search Party's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/exXnrtqs Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gnzs4xSc Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #eta #search #privateequity #search #CEO #middlemarket #salesfunction

Why is it essential to establish a well-defined scope for a quality of earnings process? The scope of your quality-of-earnings exercise must be established early on, says Clay Brownlee, CPA, a Partner at Boulay who specializes in supporting Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) investments. Brownlee notes that every deal, every industry, and every target company is unique, and a well-defined quality of earnings is critical to making informed investment decisions. Whether it’s differences in industry dynamics or company-specific financial structures, ensuring alignment on key thesis points early in the process allows investors and ETA searchers to confirm assumptions before closing a deal. This process can help "make sure that the quality of earnings process isn’t just a check-the-box exercise, but is going to help validate those key points,” says Brownlee. “Our most successful searchers are communicating constantly with investors - and us - to make sure that we're tailoring those procedures to meet the needs of the searcher and investor,” he explains. This level of engagement ensures that due diligence is comprehensive, targeted, and capable of identifying potential risks before they become post-close surprises. For instance, Brownlee notes, failing to break down different significant revenue streams and analyze their respective margin profiles during diligence can lead to issues down the road. “It’s essential to confirm the margin profile of each early on, so that post close, there are no surprises as you start to operate the business yourself," he says. Watch full Search Party episodes on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/etDrBJyC Follow Search Party on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eY8KP_EW Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/? Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ Search Party video-podcast website: https://lnkd.in/efJEa6GV #eta #privateequity #duediligence #search #mergersandacquisitions #qualityofearnings