Searcher Academy
Six weeks. One goal: an LOI on a real deal.
$17,000 / 25 seats / application only
A six-week intensive for searchers who are done browsing. Weekly live training, office hours, and deal reviews on your actual pipeline, inside a private cohort capped at 25.
Who it is for
Not for tire kickers.
Ryan Whitehead went into one of our weeks as, in his words, the proverbial tire kicker. He came out a professional searcher. That is the transformation the Academy industrializes. It works if you have an active search, real capital access, and the hours to do the reps.
For
- Searchers with an active pipeline who want an LOI out the door.
- First-time buyers serious about closing inside 12 months.
- Independent sponsors building a first thesis.
- Operators leaving corporate with capital ready.
Not for
- People still deciding whether to search.
- Passive course collectors.
- Anyone who wants a guarantee. Nobody honest sells those.
The six weeks
Built backwards from the letter of intent.
WK 01
The Professional Search Framework
Run your search like a fund runs coverage: targets, cadence, conversion math.
WK 02
CIM Mastery and Deal Screening
Read a CIM in 20 minutes. Kill bad deals fast. The 12 Red Flags, applied.
WK 03
Financial Analysis Without an Analyst
Rebuild the numbers yourself: earnings quality, working capital, the adjustments brokers bury.
WK 04
The LOI and Negotiation
Structure, price, and terms. Write the letter. Defend it.
WK 05
Due Diligence and the Deal Memo
The diligence checklist that comes from crash reports, how to hire QoE and legal partners who work for you, and the memo that convinces capital.
WK 06
The Capital Stack and Close Execution
SBA, seller notes, investor equity. Sequencing the close without losing the deal.
Format
How it runs
A private cohort on Skool, capped at 25. Weekly 90-minute live training. Weekly office hours. Deal reviews on your real pipeline, not case studies. Every participant’s actual deals get reviewed, live. That does not scale past 25, so it doesn’t.
“I went into the week as the proverbial tire kicker and came out as a professional searcher.”
“We closed yesterday.”
“Jed's off-market search process is AMAZING! The most valuable part was when we walked through the software that Jed uses to do his searches and how they integrate with one another.”
“Hearing how Jed trained a custom AI assistant using past deal data to analyze new opportunities was incredibly motivating. It inspired me to start building a similar AI-driven workflow for deal screening.”
The application
Twenty-five seats. Bring a real search.
Every application gets a real read. If the fit is wrong, you will hear it straight, usually with a pointer at the Challenge or the free community instead. If the fit is right, we talk before any money moves.
Questions
Straight answers.
Why $17,000?
Because it is priced against what a stalled search costs. Run the math on your own runway: most searchers spend far more than that per quarter just existing. The Academy exists to compress the timeline.
Is the LOI guaranteed?
No. It is the goal we build toward, and every week is structured against it. Nobody honest guarantees deal outcomes.
When is the next cohort?
Apply and you will get the next start date with your decision. Cohorts are small and fill in order.
What if I have not done the Challenge?
Challenge graduates get priority, but the application is open. Sourcing fundamentals are assumed on day one.