Before Launch Series: Overview

Four-part newsletter series to help you prepare for the first day of your search

I closed fundraising for White Cedar’s search capital in November 2021 and had a few months to prepare before launching formally in March 2022. With some time on my hands, I managed to travel a bit and spend quality time with my family. Since I was anxious about not being ready on day one, I spent a good deal of time building the foundation of my search. After much trial and error, I progressed to a place that helped me begin having owner conversations in the third week of my search. As I reflected on this preparation period, I found that much of the struggle in getting started was not the tasks themselves (those are pretty straightforward) but which ones to complete without investing too much time and money. I learned that testing out what works best for you is also highly valuable, especially before it matters.

That brings me to this newsletter series I’ll share with you over the coming months, the Before Launch Series. My objective is to guide you on how to build the foundation of your search fund with minimal expenditures needed. I believe that many of these aspects apply to all types of searchers, not just funded ones, especially as many acquisition entrepreneurs will take some time between deciding to search and actually searching. You need as little as a month to get through these thoroughly and a few hundred dollars.

This guide is a working document that will update with time as I receive feedback from readers and continue to reflect on my journey as a funded searcher. As articles publish, you will be able to find links below directing you to each of these guides so that it will search more as a directory. If you have any suggestions or feedback on what’s worked well for you in your prep, please share those in the comments or feel free to reach out directly if you’d like to include them in this guide.

Here’s what to expect:

• Part 1: Administrative

  • Locking down an attorney and account

  • Setting up a bank account

  • Deciding on tech stack

  • Gathering useful templates

  • Familiarizing yourself with lenders and diligence providers

  • Networking

• Part 2: Branding

  • Simple brand identity

  • Core contents

  • Building a website

  • Marketing materials

• Part 3: Operations

  • Industry first, company second

  • Developing repeatable sourcing processes

  • Data infrastructure

  • Testing email campaigns

  • Qualifying owners

• Part 4: Team

  • Composition

  • Recruiting

  • Managing intern workload

  • Delegating

  • Educational content

  • Mentorship

I am a firm believer that preparation leads to success. While there are many ways to accelerate the preparation of your fund to get in front of owners more quickly, you should focus on getting the fundamentals right first. From there, you will have the structure and processes to develop quality deal flow, evaluate opportunities objectively, and work more efficiently, all in a more consistent manner.

Expect the release of these guides to be released over the next couple of months. If you would like me to cover anything in particular in these guides that I have not outlined above, please let me know, and I’ll do my best to address it to the best of my knowledge.