The Ultimate Guide to Search Funds: Why Buying a Business Is the New Startup
An AI-Generated Podcast from Clearly Acquired's 2025 Guide to Search Funds
In this episode, we explore The Ultimate Guide to Search Funds (2025 Edition) by Clearly Acquired—a comprehensive briefing on how search funds are redefining the path to entrepreneurship, wealth creation, and legacy building.
Search funds offer a compelling alternative to startups. Instead of building a business from scratch, aspiring entrepreneurs—called “searchers”—raise capital to acquire and operate existing, profitable businesses. These businesses, often valued between $5M and $50M, sit in the “missing middle”: too large for most individuals to buy outright, yet too small for traditional private equity. With baby boomer retirements creating an unprecedented transfer of business ownership, search funds are emerging as a strategic, scalable, and less risky path to ownership.
We trace the evolution of the model—from Stanford MBA roots in the 1980s to today's tech-enabled, globally adopted, and increasingly diverse world of entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). The modern searcher is no longer just a freshly minted MBA but also includes mid-career professionals, seasoned operators, and industry experts seeking autonomy, control, and impact.
Clearly Acquired is at the forefront of this movement. Their platform empowers searchers with proprietary deal-sourcing tools, real-time lender data, SBA loan brokerage, investor networks, educational playbooks, and coaching. Whether pursuing off-market opportunities or structuring complex capital stacks, Clearly Acquired supports buyers from first deal to final close—and even invests directly in promising operators through its Catalyst Fund.
We also dive into the mechanics of deal structuring:
Traditional vs. self-funded search funds
SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, seller notes, and revenue-based financing
Creative equity structures and investor expectations
Tools to balance risk, ownership, and upside
For corporate professionals, search funds offer a powerful pivot—ownership without startup risk, equity with real upside, and the chance to preserve and grow established businesses that matter to communities. But the transition is not without challenges: mindset shifts, skill gaps, personal risk, and the need to build a solid team of advisors and capital partners.
Finally, we compare search funds to other models like private equity and venture capital, showing how searchers uniquely combine lower risk, strong cash flow, and meaningful operator-led growth.
Key Themes Covered:
What search funds are—and why they’re growing fast
The evolution from MBA-only to globally accessible ETA
How Clearly Acquired supports searchers with capital, coaching, and tech
Equity and debt structures that power small business acquisitions
Corporate-to-ownership transitions and the skills required
The future of ETA and the legacy opportunity
This AI-generated podcast is based on Clearly Acquired’s 2025 Guide to Search Funds—created to help more entrepreneurs and investors understand and act on one of the most powerful trends in modern business ownership.
Whether you’re exploring your first deal, raising capital, or advising others, this episode delivers a clear, actionable snapshot of the search fund ecosystem and how you can participate in the next wave of Main Street entrepreneurship.