Exploring Entrepreneur Partnerships in the Search Fund Ecosystem
Lacey H. Wismer, Billy Bennett, A. J. Wasserstein. (2024)
Yale Case, no number printed, August 1, 2024
Sample. "we surveyed 190 ETA CEOs, current searchers who have not yet purchased a company, and prospective searchers contemplating ETA on topics related to partnerships." (p3). Breakdown (figure, p26): 69 current CEOs (56 partnered, 13 solo), 93 actively searching, 23 planning to search, 5 closed without acquiring. Distribution method, response rate, dates, geography and funding type: not stated. Headline numbers. "Of the survey participants in a partnership who were either currently operating a company or still searching, 98% rated their partnership very good or good" (p8). "93% of CEO partners had a direct personal relationship with their partner prior to launching a search ... Business school is fertile ground for finding a partner, with 42% of all partnerships finding their mate there." (p14). "44% of CEO partnerships created this type of document before officially engaging." (a written partnership agreement, p14). "for solo CEOs operating a business, 8% said they always wish they had a partner, and 46% claimed they often wish they had a partner." (p9). Limits. Authors: "we think it is premature to conclusively say partnerships supersede soloships". Reader's notes: strong survivorship (only 5 respondents closed without acquiring; broken partnerships are unlikely to answer); the solo-CEO percentages rest on 13 people; denominators shift between statements; the partnered-IRR figures in the note (40.5% versus 30.3%) are Stanford's, and Yale's own demographics study above does not find a significant partnership effect.