The Upside & Downside of Search, from a 20-Year Veteran

ere's the scene. It's 4pm at the end of the first day of the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas a few weeks ago. It has been a full day. Great content, 200 attendees, by all accounts tons of value. But, in general, people are tired by the end of the day at a conference. And there was one more agenda item, the closing talk of the day, a fireside chat between me and Kent Weaver. Kent Weaver has 2 decades of experience in search. He was a self-funded searcher, buying, growing, and owning to this day a major home health care business in Northern California. He then became a search investor, in both traditional search funds and self-funded searches. He has invested in over 80 businesses that were acquired by searchers. So Kent is someone with a towering amount of experience in the world of search — someone people look to for guidance, someone people listen to. Case in point, despite a long day, the audience was rapt as Kent shared his insights in the interview you're about to hear. It was a highlight of the conference. My favorite points in the interview? When Kent talks about both the upside & downside of search. On the upside , he encourages us all to think bigger. On the downside , he makes a great point about what buying a business can do for your career, even if it doesn't work out the way you hoped. Now unfortunately the audio quality wasn't great; what you'll hear is actually a big improvement on the raw recording. It works, but you might miss a word here or there, so thanks for your understanding on that. OK, please enjoy this fireside chat with Kent Weaver of Granite Point Partners.