LenderHawk analysis. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Search Funded: The ETA Podcast.
Dr. Newton Campos describes why he invests in search funds as a way to modernize small and medium-sized businesses while pursuing more sustainable capitalism. He explains how effectuation, operational patience, and responsible entrepreneurship shape his search-fund thesis across emerging markets and developed economies. The conversation also covers his plans to scale his impact through a fund, courses, and a global platform for family businesses.
Aspiring searchers, ETA investors, and operators who want to understand how search funds can be used to modernize real-economy businesses and create social impact, especially in emerging markets.
Search funds can be framed as a tool for updating existing SMEs rather than starting from zero, which makes them attractive for people who want to build through acquisition.
Campos prefers searchers who are not only entrepreneurial but also environmentally and socially responsible, because he sees modern entrepreneurship as incompatible with pollution and corruption.
In his view, the first 1-3 years after acquisition are mostly about learning the business and doing operational work, not major innovation.
A searcher’s prior background matters less than their ability to act like an owner after closing, because the acquired company brings employees, customers, suppliers, and regulators into the platform.
Emerging markets offer larger upside because many industries are less developed, so a well-executed acquisition can create more growth than a comparable deal in Europe or North America.
Campos wants to back entrepreneurs with capital that originated from entrepreneurship, especially family offices that understand the value of real-economy businesses.
He sees search funds as a bridge between private equity and venture capital: the business is a PE-style asset, while the searcher is the VC-like bet on a person.
He expects his own impact to scale through a fund, educational content, and a broader platform rather than through one-off direct investments.
A view of entrepreneurship that starts from the resources and relationships already at hand rather than from a grand prepackaged idea. Campos links it to the idea that most successful businesses emerge through lived experience and constraint-driven problem solving.
When to use: Use it when evaluating entrepreneurs who can create value from the assets and stakeholders already present in a business.
Campos describes search funds as combining a PE-style acquisition of an operating company with a VC-style bet on a person. The model matters because both the asset and the operator are central to the outcome.
When to use: Use it when explaining why search-fund underwriting must evaluate both deal quality and searcher quality.
Campos says he has made 15 investments around the world in search funds.
He uses that experience to explain why he needs to scale his process and support infrastructure.
He speaks with roughly 100 to 150 searchers per year today.
He notes that this could rise to 500 if search funds become mainstream.
He says his investments have produced returns around 50% per year on a calculated basis.
He mentions this while distinguishing strong returns from his deeper motivation to create impact.
He estimates that growing organically with his own resources would have affected about 50,000 people in five to 10 years.
He says that number is too small for the scale of change he wants.
He describes emerging-market SME activity as a huge share of the economy, citing figures in the 70% to 80% range in some countries.
He uses this to argue that updating SMEs can reshape capitalism at scale.
The laptop-and-smartphone rental company he references extended equipment life from about 8 years to 11 years.
He cites this as an example of operational changes that reduce environmental impact.
He says the company became the largest in its segment in Brazil.
He links scale with responsible recycling and service design.
He says startup capital often runs out in 1-2 years, while building a company usually takes 7-10 years.
He uses this to argue that acquisition entrepreneurship offers a better platform than starting from scratch for many founders.
Back searchers who combine entrepreneurial drive with responsibility around environment and corruption, because modern capitalism rewards operators who can create value without creating externalities.
Why: Campos believes this combination is essential in the current century, not optional.
Expect the first years after acquisition to be mostly managerial and technical, because the business must be understood before meaningful innovation can happen.
Why: He says the searcher needs time to learn the company, customers, and industry before they can meaningfully apply their background.
Use educational content and repeatable processes to scale investor support, because one-to-one advisory time does not scale with search-fund growth.
Why: He is already building courses and tools to avoid being constrained by his own time.
Prioritize investors whose wealth came from entrepreneurship, because they are more likely to understand the realities of operating small businesses.
Why: He wants aligned capital that understands family businesses and real-economy value creation.
Focus on emerging markets when you want more room for growth, because underdeveloped industries can offer larger upside than mature markets.
Why: Campos sees greater development gaps and therefore larger opportunity sets in these geographies.
A pair of searchers bought a small rental business and shifted it from mostly B2C toward B2B growth. They also changed the operating model so equipment lasted longer and recycling became systematic, which helped the company become the largest in Brazil's segment.
Lesson: Operational improvements can create both category leadership and measurable environmental benefit.
Campos describes a 30-year-old company serving newborns and mothers that he is discussing with a searcher in Japan. The team is exploring whether its products and services could be adapted for elderly care, including diapers and support services.
Lesson: Existing customer capabilities can often be extended into adjacent demographics to create new growth paths.
He recalls a business that became the market reference after a successful software product launch, briefly making the family feel wealthy. The company later failed, which made the emotional value of money seem far less durable than building and loving meaningful work.
Lesson: Wealth is fragile; purpose and attachment to the work matter more over time.