Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) can be a lonely path, with a lot of new challenges. From identifying attractive opportunities, to due diligence, to raising capital, there’s a lot on your plate before you become an operator. You might be trying to just get through this stage, so you can become an operator. However, the business you acquire has major, long-term implications on your success as an operator. Warren Buffett said it better than I ever could: “When management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”
If you’ve raised a traditional search fund or are part of an accelerator program, you might have some questions you don’t want to ask your investor group, or might run into a company or situation that your investor group isn’t well-positioned to help with. And if you’ve self-funded, you might be building a less formal network of advisors.
Two things you should know about me:
1) I really like to be helpful, for the sake of it. In college, I was the guy who hung out until the end of the party, throwing used solo cups and half-finished beer cans into a garbage bag at 3am, just because it needed to get done. That’s my attitude here too – let’s build a relationship, and the scoreboard takes care of itself over time.
2) I’ve done a lot of M&A transactions. From small software companies acquired by search fund entrepreneurs to middle market and large cap consumer businesses, from highly competitive auctions to proprietary deals, distressed, growth, cross-border, add-on…I’ve seen a lot of things at least once or twice.
Whether it’s thoughts on the merits and risks of an industry, helping develop a diligence work plan, or being an early set of eyes on an investor presentation, let’s work together to understand your business, so your reputation for brilliance remains intact.
Mount Philo Partners 