Search Party

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Search Party is a video-podcast dedicated to elevating knowledge of the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) strategy, an increasingly popular model for private investing and wealth creation. The thought-leadership series is hosted by private capital journalist David Snow, and features expert commentary by Next Coast Legacy’s Dustin Sellers and Anthony Walker, two veterans of the ETA strategy. Search Party explores the ”searcher” model for wealth creation in the lower-middle-market, and offers expert guidance about career building, investment sourcing, due diligence, deal structuring and operating value-creation techniques. Search Party is produced by Elatromme. Season 1 of Search Party is sponsored by Next Coast Legacy, Avidbank, Mayer Brown and Boulay.

  1. ٣ نوفمبر · فيديو

    Two Friends Became ETA Searchers and, Miraculously, Are Still Friends

    An in-depth conversation with good friends Casey Schuler and Hutson Prioleau who, in late 2019, acquired PalCare, a healthcare technology company that powers nurse-call systems for assisted living and memory care communities. That's when the real pain began.  What began as an exemplary Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) investment quickly turned into a crisis when COVID-19 disrupted senior living facilities across the country. Within three months of the close of its acquisition, 80% of PalCare’s projects came to a halt as care facilities locked down. However, the duo's complementary strengths—Schuler’s operational rigor and Prioleau's sales chops—helped them prove PalCare's resilience. Working (and commuting) side by side, Casey and Hutson stabilized the business, cut costs, and automated their systems. Today, the company stands as a preeminent healthcare technology platform in senior care. In conversation with Search Party host David Snow, joined by Dustin Sellers, Managing Partner of Next Coast Legacy and August Felker, Founder of Oberle Risk Strategies, Schuler and Prioleau reflects on their journey from MBA classmates to stress-tested CEOs—and the lessons learned along their ETA journey. Some takeaways:  Partnership is power.  Schuler and Prioleau's experience confirmed the power of two. As Sellers notes, “When partnered searches work, one plus one equals four.” The duo’s trust in one another and delegated strengths proved decisive when “the worst-case scenario” hit. Operator-market fit matters more than margins. Early in their search, the pair passed on seemingly lucrative opportunities in industries they couldn’t see themselves running. “What’s your life going to look like for the next half decade?” Prioleau says, and “does this business need the skillset that you have?” Resilience beats timing. COVID put their company to the ultimate test, but it also proved the value of Palcare. "Even if everything goes to hell, people are not going to rip out their emergency nurse call systems," notes Schuler. Now, with a new COO and CRO in place, the founders are shifting from survival to scale—spending more time on culture, vision, and how AI might redefine senior care technology. “Let's keep growing a great business,” Schuler says. “Exit will take care of itself.” Follow Search Party on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel/ Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital, LLC Capital https://plexuscap.com/

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  2. ٢٧ أكتوبر · فيديو

    From MMA to ETA: Quality Revenue Helped Diego Cuenca Fight a Covid Slump

    In the middle of COVID, when parking-garage volume was down 80%, Diego Cuenca, the first-time CEO of a parking garage tech platform called TickeTech, was feeling beat up.   Having acquired TicketTech just months earlier as part of an Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) search-fund investment group, Cuenca was beginning to have visions of himself as leading “one of the worst search-fund outcomes in history,” he tells Search Party.   Fortunately, Cuenca had a background in both entrepreneurial and fighter perseverance. In his darkest moment - while hand-delivering tickets to empty garage clients - Cuenca, a former wrestler and mixed-martial arts (MMA) athlete, remembered advice from his coach: Just score the next point.   The TickeTech investment ended up becoming a success notable enough that Columbia Business School now has a case study on it. In this Search Party episode, Cuenca, now a second-time ETA searcher looking to acquire a business with high-quality revenue, shares his TicketTech story with Katie Walker, Principal at Plexus Capital, Tatiana Gaspar, a Director at Next Coast Legacy and host David Snow.   Among the key takeaways of this fascinating conversation:   Revenue quality beats everything. After guiding Ticketech through crisis and exit, Cuenca says his next search fund is centered on one principle: “The biggest lesson from TickeTech is revenue quality.” His fixation on recurring, durable cash flow reflects his realization in the wake of TickeTech turnaround that the company was saved by high-quality revenue.   Understanding the business before the balance sheet. Before ever studying accounting, while living in the Philippines as a child, Cuenca says he learned about cash flow from his Filipina mother businesswoman, who made him tag along to collect rent. “I think I understood yield very early,” he recalls. That grounding in practical economics later gave him a unique feel for operational risk and opportunity—skills that proved invaluable as a CEO.   Don’t chase someone else’s thesis. Early in his search career, Cuenca admits he “chased after the winds of the past,” following sectors that had already yielded investment successes, rather than overlooked sectors primed for growth. He now believes true advantage comes from differentiated focus: “It gives you a distinct advantage coming in as a new CEO.”   Follow Search Party on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel/   Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p   Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital, LLC Capital https://plexuscap.com/

    ٣٨ من الدقائق

  3. ١٦ سبتمبر · فيديو

    Search is an 'Entrepreneurial Journey,' Not a Career, Says ETA-Backed CEO from Brazil

    Entrepreneur Henrique de Freitas is barely a year into his ETA journey, and he's already the CEO of a lower-middle-market business-process outsourcing company called Reliable Premium.  De Freitas tells Search Party the founder of Reliable Premium " built the business over 20 plus years. It had grown into something bigger than he probably ever imagined it could, and it turned out to be a win-win - a liquidity event by somebody who would take care of the people and the culture and the legacy." De Freitas, a native of Brazil, says he worked in investment banking and private equity after moving to the US. But then he "started learning about search, about the model. I was tremendously impressed with the world-class people who were doing it, both CEOs and investors, and how welcoming they were." When de Freitas came across Reliable Premium Management after a six-month search, he realized it checked all of his search boxes: it provided a solution for small businesses, and it was growing more quickly than the founder had anticipated. Bringing his expertise in technology, de Freitas knew he could help it scale up. Now, seven months into his role as CEO, de Freitas has helped Reliable Premium Management reach about 10,000 small businesses. In this episode of Search Party, de Freitas explains the mindset that has helped him succeed on his “entrepreneurial journey.” Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gPiiSkDR Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital, LLC Capital https://plexuscap.com/

    ٧ من الدقائق

  4. ١٥ يوليو

    How Haley the AI Agent Transformed a Sales Function

    Artificial intelligence has reached the lower-middle-market, as seen in the case study of Haley, an AI agent deployed by Entrepreneur-Through-Acquisition (ETA) Tyrel Sulzer to win customers for his commercial driving school, TransTech. In a fascinating conversation with Search Party, TransTech co-CEO Sulzer and his investment partner, Dustin Sellers, Managing Partner of ETA private equity firm Next Coast Legacy, share details of Haley's rapid implementation, and how the AI agent has transformed the sales function of North Carolina-based TransTech.  In a recent week, Haley, programmed with a slight southern drawl and "aw shucks" charm, exchanged 16,000 text messages with potential customers, as well as 300 voice calls. Over that time, Haley's lead outreach enjoyed a staggering 66% response rate.  Most real people to have interacted with Haley, including Sellers, couldn't tell she was an AI agent. "It's working. . . it's not clunky," says Sellers.  Among the episode highlights: Having developed a reputation as a technology laggard, the lower-middle-market is now rapidly adopting AI-powered tools to transform business functions, including sales-qualification outreach. " If you're not using technology in the lower middle market, um, you're likely gonna get left behind," says Sellers, who estimates that platforms like Haley may add 100 to 200 basis points to a company's bottom line.  Sulzer set up Haley in a single afternoon after learning from a friend that the same technology had outperformed a human sales team.  As TransTech grows and scales, Haley is facilitating greater revenue-per-internal employee, and important metric of success. Haley has exhibited great ingenuity in responding to customer requests, but at one point had to be programmed to not surreptitiously change identities as a sales tactic.  Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/

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  5. ١٦ يونيو

    From Google to Search-Fund Success in the SaaS Vertical

    Curt Black, CEO of a growing SaaS business, was a successful Google executive before deciding to pursue the path of Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition. His ETA journey introduced him to the founder of Aproove, who agreed to be acquired by Black and partners, then called the whole thing off.  Black finally managed to acquire the Aproove business in January 2025.  Through deal-search twists and turns, Black tried to differentiate himself as leader with a talent for solving SaaS go-to-market challenges, he tells Search Party. His search put him in contact with many successful SaaS CEOs, some of whom were looking for expansion ideas instead of exit events. Some highlights from Curt Black's conversation with Search Party's David Snow: • From Google sales to ETA operator. After nearly a decade at Google, Black leveraged his SaaS sales and management background to pursue ETA search. He built a search focused on software companies where technical founders needed commercial leadership. "My thesis was always, if I could find a good product, a good team and a founder who was more technically oriented, I could be the right person to lead that company moving forward." • The deal process paused and stalled before "boomeranging" a few months later. Black first connected with the Belgium-based founder of Aproove Work Management in late 2023, and discussions stretched over a year. In mid-2024, the process paused and both sides walked away. "A couple months later we got back together and we both decided this was a great fit for the future of the company." • Younger SaaS founders require a different ETA approach. Unlike aging Baby Boomer business owners often targeted by ETA searchers, Aproove's seller was a technical founder still interested in staying on as CTO. "The best sellers that I encountered were not as old as you might think," says Black. • ETA requires resilience when pipeline dries up. During the pause in negotiations, Black faced the uncertainty that haunts many searchers late in their funded search window: "I underestimated how challenging it can be. Some of the weeks you don't have deal pipeline. There’s a lot of lows in ETA that you need to have the grit to push through." Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/

    ٢٣ من الدقائق

  6. ٩ يونيو

    Building a High-Impact Board in a 'Stretched-Thin' ETA Market

    A board of directors should hold the CEO accountable and evolve with the company's growth, say veterans of lower-middle-market business building. In a conversation with Search Party, Megan Webster of law firm Mayer Brown, Max Artz of Peterson Partners and Anthony Walker of Next Coast Legacy share observations about the positive impact a board can have on a lower-middle-market business, and the challenges the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition community faces recruiting board members in a market where top talent is "stretched thin." Among the key takeaways of the Search Party episode, "Building a High-Impact Board in a 'Stretched-Thin' ETA Market:" • As demand for experienced, value-adding board members has expanded across the growing ETA community,  the supply of these high sought after individuals has not kept pace, and so ETA investors are having to get creative in sourcing board members from non-traditional backgrounds. • The right board Isn’t a checklist — it’s a strategic fit. ETA searchers-turned-CEO often seek a mix of roles—industry expert, advisor, peer—but risk treating board building like a shopping list. Peterson’s Max Artz warns against overly rigid templates: “It’s not so much like you can go into a supermarket of board members.” Instead, CEOs should prioritize accountability and character: “I want directness, I want honesty…folks who are gonna hold me accountable.” • Independent board members bring balance and experience. While capital partners often dominate ETA boards, independent members can offer crucial objectivity. "Independent directors are a wealth of knowledge,” says Mayer Brown's Megan Webster. These independent board members "bring independent viewpoints that are outside of management...and shareholders.” These experienced outsiders can help CEOs navigate crises and maintain long-term perspective. • Strong boards evolve with the business. Value creation demands different capabilities at different phases of the hold. As Anthony Walker explains, “Our first few board member meetings are usually spent aligning on what are the key leading and lagging performance metrics.” Later, boards become instrumental in strategy shifts, M&A, and exit planning—requiring members to adapt their focus alongside company growth. • Effective boards require clear communication and trust. Early-stage CEOs may overwhelm boards with minutiae or rely too heavily on retrospective reporting. Artz cautions, “What they should be doing is focusing on the future, being more strategic.” Anthony Walker echoes the need for interpersonal rapport: “We're going to have difficult conversations...you're able to have those more seamlessly when there is a relationship.” Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ #M&A #search #privateequity #eta #searchfund #insurance

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  7. ٢٨ مايو

    Deal Sourcing in the Fading Era of Email Outreach

    A decline in email response rates is forcing deal searchers to be more creative, says Entrepreneur-Through-Acquisition searcher Christine Koval, currently on the hunt for a lower-middle-market, back-office services business to acquire.  In an interview with Search Party, Koval notes the increasing competition to find deals in the vast US lower-middle-market, as well as the ubiquity of powerful business-outreach platforms that help deal searchers discover and contact business owners. The problem is, as every searcher has become armed with turbo-charged sourcing capabilities, business owners are becoming so inundated with inbound interest, their response rates have begun to plummet, requiring searchers to revert to pre-email methods, like cold-calling. “It is back to the olden days a little bit where your boots are on the ground, you're getting out there to learn, you're getting your face in front of business owners,” she said. Among the key takeaways of Koval's interview: Email outreach is fading—searchers must build in-person, personalized relationships. Koval emphasizes that email has become commoditized as more searchers adopt AI-enhanced bulk outreach, lowering reply rates and forcing a return to personal, high-effort engagement.  ETA differentiation has diminished—searchers must now sell themselves, not just the model.  As many pockets of the lower-middle-market M&A landscape becomes saturated with investors, ETA searchers can no longer rely on the novelty of their model to stand out. “Just selling the alternative to private equity isn’t a differentiator anymore,” says Koval. “So I focused on, where do I have a unique insight or what are the industries that I've worked in my past career where I can draw an initial connection with that business owner.” A compelling personal brand is now critical for effective deal sourcing: With searchers facing lower response rates and heightened competition, Koval has embraced thought leadership, podcasts and LinkedIn as essential tools for building trust before a first call. “As search continues to evolve, think of yourself as a personal brand,” she says. “You need a unique value proposition. You need to be different, and you want owners to get to see that as early as they can in the process.” Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel⁠ Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy ⁠https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p⁠ Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/

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  8. ١٢ مايو

    Upgrading the Finance Function: Critical for Lower-Middle-Market Success

    Professionalizing the finance function of a lower-middle-market business is one of the most impactful forms of value-creation a new CEO can pursue, according to a panel of Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) market experts. To learn the importance of the finance function in ETA investments, Search Party convened a conversation between Anthony Walker, Managing Partner at Next Coast Legacy, Sam Swan, CEO of TaskRay, Eric Lougher, CFO/COO of TaskRay, Emily Young, Transaction Advisory Manager at Boulay and Jake Bitz, Consulting Controller at Boulay. TaskRay is an ETA-backed SaaS company that saw its operations transformed when it brought on board Lougher as CFO. The story of TaskRay's professionalized CFO function is at the core of this authoritative, candid and lively conversation.  Among the key takeaways of this episode of Search Party: • A common feature of founder-led companies in the lower-middle market is a heavy emphasis on cash flow and little emphasis on forward-looking financial metrics. Anthony Walker noted that this dynamic often leaves new owners without the reporting foundation they need to lead effectively. “They've measured the performance of their business by how much cash is in the bank account," says Walker of many lower-middle-market founders. "They're not looking at sophisticated metrics or KPIs.” • To build a finance function that supports both operational decision-making and investor transparency, operators must first assess the starting point and align it with their growth horizon. Emily Young described this as a deliberate diagnostic process that should precede any hiring or systems decisions: “The first step is - know the business. Know where it is today, know where you want it to be tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now.” • For first-time CEOs, the limits of their own financial fluency often surface early. Sam Swan reflected on his own transition, recalling how the budgeting process made it clear that finance couldn’t remain an isolated back-office task: “It was a struggle and that to me was a pretty clear indicator that I need someone who could do this with me.” Ultimately, a professionalized finance function doesn’t just improve decision-making in the present—it lays the groundwork for eventual exit. Jake Bitz underscored that buyers, lenders, and future acquirers all expect reliable financial operations: “Hiring the key people and having that process put in place for how you close the month and how you report is the foundation.” Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/search-party-channel Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay - Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital https://plexuscap.com/ #M&A #search #privateequity #eta #searchfund #insurance

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Search Party is a video-podcast dedicated to elevating knowledge of the Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition (ETA) strategy, an increasingly popular model for private investing and wealth creation. The thought-leadership series is hosted by private capital journalist David Snow, and features expert commentary by Next Coast Legacy’s Dustin Sellers and Anthony Walker, two veterans of the ETA strategy. Search Party explores the ”searcher” model for wealth creation in the lower-middle-market, and offers expert guidance about career building, investment sourcing, due diligence, deal structuring and operating value-creation techniques. Search Party is produced by Elatromme. Season 1 of Search Party is sponsored by Next Coast Legacy, Avidbank, Mayer Brown and Boulay.

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  • سنوات النشاط
    ٢٠٢٤ - ٢٠٢٥
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    Search Party

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