Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) may sound like a niche corner of the finance world, but at its heart, it’s about something simple:

Buying a business, growing it, and creating value.

For those who want to skip the uphill battle of starting from scratch, ETA offers a proven alternative — acquiring an already successful business and building from there.

It’s not just an idea; it’s a strategy that’s gained traction among ambitious entrepreneurs and investors alike.

First time hearing of this? Let’s break it down.

What is Search?

Search is the process of finding, vetting, and acquiring a business.

It’s the work of finding and buying a real business — one with cash flow, customers, and a foundation to build on. A “searcher” is the entrepreneur hunting for small to mid-sized businesses with strong fundamentals and an owner ready to pass the torch.

There are two main paths searchers take:

1. Traditional Search: Backed by outside investors (often called search funds), searchers raise money upfront to fund their search and acquisition.

2. Self-Funded Search: Searchers use their own money—often alongside an SBA loan or seller financing—to fund the deal and maintain more control and equity.

It’s not easy. For every promising business, there are dozens of others with red flags: declining revenue, poorly kept financials, or no clear growth opportunities. But those who stick with it can find life-changing opportunities.

And What About ETA?

ETA is the broader strategy — acquiring an existing business instead of building one from scratch. It’s not a shortcut. It’s not an easy button. It comes with its own challenges, from inheriting a team and culture to fixing broken processes and navigating the expectations of a retiring owner. But it also comes with momentum: cash flow, customers, and a business that already works.

For many, it’s a faster, more pragmatic path to entrepreneurship. Instead of grinding through years of product-market fit, you start with a foundation and focus on making it stronger. But ETA isn’t just about skipping the early struggle — it’s about taking something good and making it great.

How Do You Even “Find” a Business?

This is the part that trips people up. How do you actually go from “I want to buy a business” to sitting at the table with a seller? The answer is: a lot of legwork.

The search process is messy, repetitive, and often tedious. Here’s what it looks like day to day:

1. Sourcing Leads

   • You’ll spend hours scouring business-for-sale websites like BizBuySell or Axial. These are the public listings, and while most are overpriced or underwhelming, hidden gems can surface.

   • You’ll also build a proprietary pipeline by reaching out directly to business owners. This involves cold emails, cold calls, and even handwritten letters to stand out.

2. A Lot of Networking

   • Brokers and advisors are key players. They often have access to deals before they hit the market. Building relationships with them can give you a shot at higher-quality businesses.

   • Beyond brokers, networking with lawyers, accountants, and other professionals and close advisors to business owners can lead to referrals.

3. Screening Deals

   • Most leads won’t pass your filters. You’ll screen for size of business, location, industry, and deal structure (can it be financed with debt?).

   • The goal here is to quickly weed out bad opportunities so you don’t waste time chasing something that doesn’t fit.

4. Making Offers

   • Once you find a promising business, you’ll draft a Letter of Intent (LOI) to formally express your interest and outline the terms of the deal. This kicks off negotiations and the deeper diligence process.

5. Due Diligence

   • For every deal that passes your initial screen, you’ll dive deeper — requesting financials, analyzing the P&L, and looking for red flags that could kill the deal. Miss something here, and it could cost you.

6. Relationship Building

   • ETA is as much about people as it is about numbers. You’ll spend time getting to know the seller, understanding their motivations, and building trust. They want to know their business—and their employees—are in good hands.

Every day as a searcher involves some combination of these steps. You’re a dealmaker, a forensics specialist, and an operator-in-training all at once. It’s a grind — long stretches of dead ends punctuated by the hope of a breakthrough.

How Do I Afford to Buy a Business?

This is the question everyone asks — and for good reason. Most searchers aren’t sitting on millions of dollars in cash. The good news? You don’t have to be. There are several ways to finance a business acquisition, each with its own pros and cons:

1. Seller Financing
   Many sellers are willing to “carry paper,” meaning they finance a portion of the purchase price themselves. For example, you pay 70% upfront, and the seller finances the remaining 30% over time. This not only lowers your upfront cash requirement but also ensures the seller has skin in the game and believes in the business’s future.

2. SBA Loans
   In the U.S., the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers loans specifically for acquiring small businesses. These loans typically require as little as 10% down and offer competitive terms, but they come with extensive paperwork, strict underwriting, and a personal guarantee   meaning your entire net worth is on the line.

3. Equity Partners
   If you’re pursuing a traditional search or need more capital than you have, equity partners can help bridge the gap. Investors provide the money, and you provide the deal sourcing and day-to-day operating. The trade-off? You’ll give up a portion of ownership and control in exchange for their capital.

4. Personal Savings and Debt
   In a self-funded search, you’ll likely dip into personal savings and pair it with a combination of SBA loans, seller financing, or even a home equity line of credit. It’s a higher-risk, higher-reward route — but it means keeping more of the equity for yourself.

5. Creative Deal Structuring
   Not every deal is cash-heavy upfront. You can negotiate earnouts, deferred payments, or performance-based milestones that allow you to stretch payments over time. These structures make deals more affordable while aligning your incentives with the seller’s.

The Key to Affording a Business? Creativity, persistence, and knowing how to structure a deal that works for everyone involved. You don’t need to be rich to buy a business, but you do need to be resourceful.

I Just Graduated Top of My Class With a Fancy MBA. Am I Ready?

Your MBA is impressive. Your dad’s endorsement as a PE-backed CEO? Even better. But here’s the tough truth — none of that means you’re ready for ETA.

This path isn’t about spreadsheets, case studies, or polished pitches. It’s about running a business that someone else built from the ground up. And that requires something you don’t learn in a classroom: operating chops.

A Stanford Graduate School of Business found that 25% of acquired search fund businesses result in losses for investors — even with smart, well-educated operators at the helm. And that’s after making it through the search phase, where only 57% of searchers successfully acquire a business.

Why? Because running a small business isn’t the same as analyzing one. It’s not about valuations and frameworks. It’s about managing employees, handling customer issues, and navigating the messy, unpolished realities of day-to-day operations.

You’ll have days where you’re plunging toilets, chasing down late payments, or begging a vendor to ship a critical order. Fancy degrees and family connections won’t prepare you for that. What does? Grit, humility, and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

So, are you ready? If you’re willing to leave the corner office dream behind, prove your competence on the floor, and learn as you go, then maybe. But if you’re here for the title or prestige, this isn’t the game for you. ETA rewards operators, humility, and hard work…not theorists. Be prepared to earn your stripes.

Does ETA Work?

One of the most striking examples of ETA in action, and certainly one of the most cited proof points, is Asurion. Here’s their story:

In 1994, two Stanford MBA graduates bought a small, intriguing business doing $6 million in sales. It looked like a towing company on the surface, but they saw something others overlooked — a recurring revenue stream selling roadside assistance insurance. That business was Road Rescue, and those graduates were Kevin Taweel and Jim Ellis.

They acquired the company for $8 million, not just for its towing operations but for the untapped potential in its subscription-based roadside assistance plans. Their bet? Scale that steady, high-margin revenue stream while using the towing side as a stable foundation.

It worked. As the business grew, they expanded into new markets and made strategic acquisitions. After a few acquisitions they renamed the company Asurion, and today Asurion does billions in revenue in 14 countries with 19,000 employees.

They didn’t invent search, but their success proved what was possible. Asurion became a blueprint, inspiring many to pursue ETA as a serious path to business ownership.

Asurion a case study in how ETA—when done right—can take a good business and turn it into something much bigger.

So, Is This What You Do at Decada Group?

Yes and no. We take cues from the search fund playbook, but our approach is different. Instead of buying businesses to flip, we acquire them to operate and grow for the long haul — modernizing systems, reinvesting profits, and steadily improving what’s already there.

We focus on businesses with strong fundamentals but owners who are ready to retire. Maybe the company has been underinvested in. Maybe it’s been coasting on reputation. Maybe the seller wants to step away but doesn’t have a clear succession plan. We acquire the company, giving them the liquidity to move on while ensuring their business is in good hands.

But we don’t do it alone. Great businesses need great operators, and we make it a priority to put the right people in leadership. We work closely with them helping solve problems, guiding strategy, and ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed.

We’ve seen firsthand how this approach plays out. Our first acquisition was a fine art school — small, undercapitalized, and ready to enter its second chapter. In year one, we 4-5x’d revenue. The second year, we 5x’d it again. By year four, we had paid off every dollar of acquisition debt.

It wasn’t easy. The infrastructure was failing, cash flow was tight, and the early J-curve ran deeper than expected. But we put in the work, made the right investments, and had the right operator leading the charge. Today, that business is our strongest in free cash flow as a percent of revenue. (I wrote about this in Decada Group’s 2024 Annual Letter)

That’s how we think about ETA. Buy good businesses from retiring owners. Roll up our sleeves. Invest in people. Build for the long haul. We’re not in this for quick flips — we’re in it to run great companies.

Is Search Right for You?

The timing couldn’t be better. Millions of Baby Boomers are retiring, many without a clear succession plan. They’ve built businesses that provide jobs, serve communities, and support families — but they need the right buyer to take them forward.

For searchers, this presents an opportunity — not just to acquire a business, but to carry on its legacy. To step in, earn trust, and build on a foundation that already works. ETA isn’t about chasing the next big idea. It’s about taking something real—something with history, people, and potential—and making it better. It’s about leadership, execution, and shaping a company that has more to give.

Some people are drawn to starting from scratch. Others find purpose in building on what already exists — modernizing, leading, and pushing something forward.

If that’s you, search might be the most rewarding work you’ll ever do.

That’s a wrap.

That’s it for this week — thanks for following along. I enjoy reader feedback + ideas on what to write about next. Just hit reply.

Have a great week ahead 🤙

Chase Murdock