Search Fund

This was a weird week - with a national holiday on Wednesday and then the Search Fund conference on Thursday and Friday, it felt like a short week. It was still a week with very little physical activity, but at least I got some more sleep in.

Completely random note, Vitaly, my neighbor in class, and I wore matching pants on Tuesday. It was just a funny occasion that I felt the need to record. In case that wasn’t obvious in the photo, here’s a close up.

On Tuesday we got to hear from Cristina about VC, PE, family offices, investments, and how she brought her experience from working at Apple, Prada, and Gucci to where she is now. For an investor - think about who you are as an investor, why do you want to invest and in what. The other aspect was more interesting for me, in terms of what she looks for when she decides who to invest in - the 5 Ps. Person, Passion, Performance, Potential (of the market), and Persistence. She also made a conscious decision of focusing on the 1%. At the networking dinner, I asked her what about the 99% that you don’t focus on. Her answer was that the 1% was (generally) the group that had resources to make changes with large impacts. And once the 1% changes, or starting calling for change, it’s more probable that the world follows. This gave me a very new perspective to think about. Are we perpetuating the wealth gap and classist structure in our world this way, or are we concentrating our resources on avenues where changes are actually possible?

On Wednesday, my roommates and I decided to get some Lebanese food. The food was ok but the company was much better :) Navigating a new environment where you build a new community is weird. Everyone is trying to find the people that they connect with. The questions that get asked now have shifted from where are you from, what did you do before coming to the MBA to what do you want to do this summer and what are your plans after the MBA. While it’s true that those questions do make up a portion of who we are as a person, we all agreed that we were interested in learning about other aspect of the new friends we were all trying to make. I had the idea of creating a more intimate dinner club (dinners capped at 6 people) but have not moved to the implementation phase of it yet :P Maybe by the next time my next update comes up, I would’ve started.

Now the highlight of this week - the Search Fund Conference. Search Fund was first coined 1984 in Stanford. At a very high level, it is an opportunity for a entrepreneur to look for a company ($5 - $50 million range) that has a healthy recurring revenue to acquire and operate as CEO. This was something that I learned about after I got to IESE but immediately become a very viable option to fulfill my entrepreneurial dreams. The first day was filled with presentations from CEOs (the entrepreneurs that have successfully acquired a company and are now running the company) and searchers (entrepreneurs who are in the process of finding the right target) meeting with their investors to discuss their progress. The energy level was high and awesome, but one thing that jumps out at me was the lack of women all throughout the conference. Amongst the ~500 attendees, we probably had around 10-15 women :( If you’re interested in learning more, you can also find the latest report. Yes, everyone needs to enter information to download the report….myself included.

This was the earliest I’ve ever been to school, and we did get a nice sunrise view with the city as the backdrop. Lauren and I after a long day standing and directing people to the right rooms. Parts of the larger group also volunteering at the search fund conference. The next day where I got to meet some of the women that were still in the city who went to the conference. Mar on the left has already closed her fund raising and is in the process of searching for the right company to acquire. Karen and Vani in the middle are both women in the investment space looking for ways to support other women. Liudmila, second to the right networked with a lot of investors and is thinking about starting her own search fund very soon. I loved hearing about all their stories, and how they’ve gotten to know themselves better going throughout strenuous parts of their careers. The big takeaway for me was to create an environment where women feel comfortable and can thrive if and when I start in a management position.

The rest of my Saturday was spent at one of section mate Marta’s house. Meet the group of people who I spend 5+ hours with from at least Monday to Friday :) Large social events aren’t really my thing, but I was glad I’ve gotten the chance to have longer conversations with a couple people.

One recurring theme was long-distance relationship, the same one I’m in. Time difference, physical distance, mismatched expectation, lesser time spent together, and constant sleep deprivation all add to the strain on the relationship. While it’s definitely not easy (and definitely won’t become any easier), it was comforting to hear that each couple have slowly found ways that worked best for them. And of course I’m glad I’m also in this process learning about how Pratik and I act and react when there are so many other factors that weren’t in play before.

Next week is our first career forum/fair where there will be A LOT of networking. Until next week :)