4.8 | Search Funds & Entrepreneurial Acquisitions

Not every entrepreneur starts from zero... Some just buy a company and step in as CEO on day one. How? In this episode of Notas del MBA , we break down the core ideas from the Search Funds & Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition class at IESE Business School , taught by Professor Jan Simon We explore the full search fund journey : raising capital, sourcing a company, negotiating and structuring the deal, taking over as CEO , growing the business, managing crises, and eventually exiting the business and monetizing the decade-long effort This episode explains why acquisition entrepreneurship is a viable path for operators who want ownership , cash flow, and scale without building the business from scratch We discuss how investors think about risk and returns, what makes a good acquisition target , why the first year as CEO is critical, and how value is created through people, sales growth, and operational discipline (not financial engineering alone) This is not about theory. It’s about understanding what it really takes to buy, run, and grow a real company . All the analysis is tailored to digital businesses and SMEs in LATAM , using examples and mental models I apply to my own e-commerce businesses in Mexico My goal is simple : share what I’m learning in the MBA and make it useful for entrepreneurs in our region... openly and for free Follow @fede_alatorre for more.