Search Funded: The ETA Podcast

Ian Reynolds began his ETA journey in 2017, initially pursuing a traditional search before pivoting to a self-funded acquisition of Zibtek, a software services company he operated alongside its founder. After several years as an operator, he went on to build Thesis Capital, which has now invested across more than eight portfolio companies and closed over $100 million of transactions. Thesis has developed a differentiated model around identifying experienced operators first, ...

Chaitanya Rathi has spent two decades as an operator, entrepreneur and investor in India. He helped build Sula Vineyards’ wine tourism business, later returned as COO and helped take the company public, and in between worked in both private equity and venture capital, investing in and helping build consumer businesses across India. He eventually began exploring an acquisition of his own, discovered ETA, and instead decided to build Searchlight ETA, becoming the first dedicated search fund inv...

Kevin Fleming left Wharton during COVID to pursue an unconventional search thesis: combining ETA with his background in real estate private equity. In this episode, we discuss: Why Kevin chose independent hotels despite their asset intensity and operational complexityHow he financed Avenir Hospitality’s first acquisition in Cannon BeachWhat he learned going from investor to hands-on operatorWhy Avenir focuses on supply-constrained leisure markets and independent hotelsHow the strategy has evo...

In this episode of Search Funded, we sit down with entrepreneur, investor, and holdco founder Vadim Rogovskiy to explore one of the most important emerging trends in entrepreneurship through acquisition: the intersection of AI and small business ownership. Vadim shares his journey from building and scaling venture-backed startups, including AI company 3DLOOK, to founding Rebel Capital, a holdco focused on acquiring and modernizing software businesses with AI. He explains why more founders and...

In this episode of Search Funded, we are joined by Nikita Gossain, founder and principal of PPR Capital, an Australian investor who has acquired, operated, and exited small businesses through a permanent-hold acquisition model focused on durable, founder-led companies. Nikita shares her path from KPMG, where she worked on large acquisitions, IPOs, and complex transactions, into the much more personal world of small business ownership. After completing her MBA at Cornell, she set out to ...