Knowledge & Resources
Search Funds and Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA), a curated selection of books, studies, podcasts, and articles.
Search Funds and Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA), a curated selection of books, studies, podcasts, and articles.
Jan Simon
A comprehensive practical guide for Searchers and an established reference in the international Search Fund and ETA ecosystem, widely associated with Jan Simon and IESE.
amazon.de →Rich Ruback & Royce Yudkoff
A practical guide from the Harvard Business Review series that explains, step by step, how buying a small business can be a path to entrepreneurship.
amazon.com →Walker Deibel
Explores how to achieve success by buying an existing business rather than starting one from scratch.
amazon.com →Stanford Graduate School of Business
This official introduction (“Primer”) from Stanford University provides an unbiased overview of the search fund model from the perspectives of entrepreneurs and investors, as well as practical tips from past search funds.
gsb.stanford.edu →Stanford Graduate School of Business
The 2026 Search Fund Study reports on the financial returns and key characteristics of search funds formed in the United States and Canada since 1984. This report updates the previous 2024 study with data through December 31, 2025. The report also introduces data on 67 long duration enterprises.
gsb.stanford.edu →Yale School of Management
A series of case studies and research papers by Prof. A.J. Wasserstein (over 100 cases/notes) that examine various aspects of the search fund model. Examples include “Questions Potential Search Fund Entrepreneurs and Investors Might Ask Each Other” and “Exploring Search Fund Entrepreneur Economics.”
som.yale.edu →IESE Business School
Comprehensive study on search funds outside North America (covering 320 international search funds). Provides insights into success rates, Searcher profiles, and returns worldwide, and complements the Stanford study with international perspectives.
iese.edu →HBS
The Harvard page on search funds provides an overview of the model as well as videos on relevant topics. HBS also hosts the blog of Jim Sharpe, an experienced ETA expert. Sharpe is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School and shares practical insights into search funds and acquisitive succession planning on his blog.
hbs.edu →Dartmouth Tuck
A brief overview (“Note”) from the Tuck School of Business that summarizes the search fund model in just a few pages, a good starting point for beginners to quickly grasp the basics.
tuck.dartmouth.edu (PDF) →Professors Rick Ruback and Royce Yudkoff explore the path to entrepreneurship through the acquisition of a profitable small business. Based on their course “Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition,” the episodes offer firsthand insights from acquisition entrepreneurs and other stakeholders, supplemented by practical guidance for this path.
Focuses on entrepreneurship through acquisition. Host Will Smith speaks weekly with people who have purchased companies (including search fund entrepreneurs and self-funded Searchers). Very popular and highly rated in the ETA community.
Dedicated specifically to the topic of search funds. Here, Searchers and investors share real-world insights into each phase, from raising capital to the exit. Due to its niche focus, it’s a valuable source of detailed knowledge.
One of the best-known podcasts in the ETA space. Host Alex Bridgeman interviews Searchers, CEOs, and investors about their experiences buying and running companies (often covering search fund topics as well). It offers deep insights into the operational and strategic challenges faced by Searchers.
Other podcasts worth listening to: Buy & Build, Search Funded: The EtA Podcast, and Let’s Buy a Business, which are also frequently recommended and have good ratings.
Financial Times, 2024
Newspaper article in the FT about the trend of MBA graduates increasingly preferring individual company acquisitions (search funds) over traditional career paths. It highlights the pros and cons from an investor’s perspective.
ft.com →Wall Street Journal, 2022
WSJ report on the rising popularity of search funds among MBA graduates and investors, including some success stories and statistics.
wsj.com →Harvard Business Review, 2017
Influential HBR article by Ruback/Yudkoff (authors of the HBR Guide) that introduces the concept of “Entrepreneurship through Acquisition” to a broader audience and argues why buying a company can be an attractive alternative to starting one.
hbr.org →The Economist, 2016
An early media article in The Economist that highlights search funds as an emerging path to entrepreneurship. It provides a concise overview of the model and cites early successes.
economist.com →Succession via Search Funds - Platforms and Articles:
deutschland.de, Juli 2024
Provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the topic in German. It explains how search funds function as a succession solution for small and medium-sized businesses and mentions that there are now approximately 15 search funds active in Germany. The German federal government also supports “nexxt-change,” a platform that brings together prospective buyers and sellers.
deutschland.de →Consulting.de, 2022
An article by Eva Riemann on Consulting.de about the search fund model in the German context. The article explains the origins of the concept in the 1980s (Stanford/Harvard), describes how it works, and highlights challenges (e.g., high search risks and hurdles for investors). A good introduction that also mentions alternative approaches such as the NCA program from Switzerland.
consulting.de →Deutsche Unternehmerbörse DUB, 2024
Guest article by two German Searchers (Norma Bühling & Pia Surhoff) about their own search fund (Thallo Unternehmensnachfolge). The article combines an explanation of the model with a concrete example of its implementation (the first all-female search fund team in Germany) and demonstrates how the concept is being put into practice in Germany.
dub.de →The recommendations above are based on widely read and renowned resources from the search fund community, including publications from Stanford, Harvard, and IESE, as well as curated collections from industry players. This list is intended to serve as a starting point for further research and has been supplemented with German-language content to facilitate a quick introduction in both languages. Please note that some links (e.g., studies) may require free registration.