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Search Funds & Entrepreneurial Acquisitions
How to Acquire a Business and Succeed
Search funds emerged in the mid-1980s when Harvard and Stanford MBA students began pursuing a distinct path: acquiring a company, becoming its CEO, and growing into its long-term owner with board support and a rigorous acquisition process.
Written by Jan Simon, Academic Director of the IESE International Search Fund Center, the book draws on best practice and community experience to explain how search funds work—and connects the model to venture capital, private equity, M&A, and corporate governance.
Why the Chinese edition
A different path into the ownership of established businesses
The Chinese edition begins with the succession, transition, and renewal of small and medium-sized businesses. Many have customers, teams, and accumulated industrial capability, yet are reaching a new stage of ownership. Acquiring an established business gives an aspiring entrepreneur another starting point: taking responsibility for an existing foundation through long-term operating and governance work.
Search-fund research and practice have accumulated over decades in business schools and investment institutions abroad. As the first systematic Chinese translation to introduce this body of work, the edition brings those experiences into local discussion, where seller trust, succession, deal structures, financing, and post-acquisition ownership need to be assessed in the realities of China and Asia.
The book's structure
Five movements, from choice through exit
Search and raise capital
Build a repeatable learning process through a search thesis, investor dialogue, and company sourcing.
Acquire and transition
Assess valuation, financing, diligence, negotiation, and transition as one operating decision.
Operate and govern
Address the first days of ownership, organisation, boards, and value creation.
Exit and begin again
Consider exit paths, timing, and the personal choices that shape what comes next.
Contents
Eleven chapters along one complete path
From career choice, search, and acquisition to operating, governance, and exit.
View the full table of contents +
- 01
There Is No Rehearsal: Make Your Choice
- 02
Money Has Many Faces: How to Raise Capital
- 03
Continuous Improvement: Sourcing I
- 04
In Search of the Holy Grail: Sourcing II
- 05
Reconnaissance: The Acquisition Process I
- 06
Doing the Deal: The Acquisition Process II
- 07
Surviving Year One: Management I
- 08
The Groundwork of the Early Years: Management II
- 09
The Seasoned Operator: Management III
- 10
Boards and Corporate Governance: Management IV
- 11
Letting Go: Exit
Author & translator
Author
Jan Simon
Executive Partner at Vonzeo Capital, Professor at IESE Business School, and Academic Director of the IESE International Search Fund Center. Over more than two decades in investment, he has also worked at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs.
He has taught at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Cambridge Judge Business School, Rotman School of Management, and Beedie School of Business. His qualifications include law degrees from KU Leuven, an MBA from IESE, and a PhD in Finance from ESSEC Business School.
Chinese translator
Leo Wang
An advocate for search funds and entrepreneurial acquisitions in Greater China, with a focus on the development of privately owned small and medium-sized businesses. His work sits at the intersection of impact investing and management science, and he holds a Project Management Professional credential.
He previously worked at China Minsheng Investment Group and holds an Executive Master of Management from Yale School of Management, an MBA from HKUST, and a BSc in Finance from NYU Shanghai, where he was part of its inaugural graduating class.
Praise for the book
From scholars and practitioners who have shaped the field
Well-researched yet decidedly practical, this comprehensive book makes a significant contribution to the literature on Search Funds and Entrepreneurial Acquisitions.
Never before has such a practical and complete guide to entrepreneurial acquisitions been written. It is a must-read for any aspiring searcher.
A must-read for anyone interested in the tactics, core values, and pay-it-forward ethos that underlie this remarkable community of leaders and investors.
An outstanding how-to roadmap for search fund entrepreneurs: insightful, thorough, and packed with actionable tips and strategies.
Purchase
Buy the Chinese edition on Tmall