I’m taking 4 weeks off (here’s why)
Building ETA Europe: the infrastructure European searchers need. First 50 get founding member access.
Hello, and welcome back to Buyout Diary.
I’m taking four weeks off from Buyout Diary.
No newsletters until March 1st. No LinkedIn posts. Complete silence.
Not because I’m stepping back, but because I’m building something that requires my full attention. Something European searchers have needed for years. Something I desperately needed eighteen months ago when I started this journey.
But first, thank you. Thank you for reading, for replying, for sharing where you are in your search journey. The response to these newsletters has been overwhelming in the best possible way. People like Midas writing thoughtful responses about mistakes being part of the learning process. Others sharing their own challenges, asking questions, offering advice. In a world where everything feels mediated by AI, these human conversations matter more than ever.
What started as me documenting my own search has become something bigger. ETA Amsterdam has grown to 200 members. We’ve expanded to three chapters: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels. The WhatsApp group has become genuinely active, with daily exchanges between searchers helping each other navigate challenges. I’ve realised this isn’t just content anymore. It’s infrastructure.
The Realisation
In December, I had a conversation with an M&A lawyer who asked me a simple question: “Why aren’t you raising a fund?” I’ve thought about that conversation constantly over the past month. The answer, I’ve realised, is that there’s something else I need to build first. Not a fund. Infrastructure.
When I started my search eighteen months ago, I needed specific things that simply didn’t exist in one place. I needed templates: LOIs, NDAs, valuation models, due diligence checklists. I needed investor contacts, not just names but actual information about who’s investing in European search, what they look for, how to reach them. I needed other searchers to learn from, not just quarterly meetups but ongoing conversations with people facing the same challenges at the same time. I needed service providers who actually understand acquisition entrepreneurship, not generic advisors who’ve never worked with a searcher before. I needed a real community, not scattered WhatsApp groups where knowledge disappears into message history.
The problem is simple: this infrastructure exists in the United States. Stanford, Booth, Search Fund Accelerator, Shareholders Ventures, Acquisition Lab. These institutions provide comprehensive support for American searchers. They exist because the search fund model has been refined there over decades.
This infrastructure doesn’t exist in Europe. We have excellent university programmes and many valuable local initiatives across the continent. People are organising round tables, hosting events, supporting each other in their cities. I appreciate everyone doing this work, genuinely. But we need infrastructure that connects the entire continent, not just individual countries or cities. We need something built specifically for European acquisition entrepreneurs who face regulatory complexity, language barriers, different business cultures, and longer deal timelines than their American counterparts.
So I’m building it.
What I’m Building: ETA Europe
ETA Europe is a membership platform for European acquisition entrepreneurs. Not another networking group or event series, but comprehensive infrastructure with everything a searcher actually needs.
Here’s what’s inside:
A member directory where you can find other searchers by city, stage, and sector. Not just names on a list, but actual profiles you can search and connect with. Find someone in Brussels who’s looking at manufacturing businesses. Connect with a searcher in Berlin who’s in due diligence. Learn from someone in Amsterdam who closed their deal six months ago. The directory makes the invisible visible.
Here’s what this looks like in practice: you’re evaluating a manufacturing business in Rotterdam. You open the member directory and find three other searchers who’ve already looked at manufacturing deals in the Netherlands. You message them. Within twenty-four hours, you have a call scheduled where they share their valuation models, warn you about specific legal issues with Dutch manufacturing acquisitions, and introduce you to an advisor who understands the sector. What would have taken you two weeks of cold outreach happens in one day. That’s the power of proper infrastructure.
A resource library with more than fifty templates, playbooks, and models. Everything I wish I had eighteen months ago: deal sourcing frameworks, valuation models, due diligence checklists, legal document templates, post-acquisition integration guides. These aren’t generic business templates. They’re built specifically for European acquisition entrepreneurship, accounting for our regulatory environment, our deal structures, our cultural context.
An investor database with more than one hundred European search fund investors and backers. Who they are, what they look for, what sectors they focus on, how to reach them. This took months to compile, reaching out to investors across the continent, understanding their criteria, building relationships. Information that took me weeks to find will be searchable in seconds.
A service provider directory with vetted advisors who understand acquisition entrepreneurship. Lawyers who’ve worked with searchers before. Accountants who understand search fund structures. M&A advisors who know European deal timelines. Banks that actually finance these acquisitions. No more wasting money on advisors who don’t understand what you’re trying to do.
An online community with searchable discussions, not scattered WhatsApp messages. Ask questions, share insights, learn from others who are six months ahead of you or six months behind. The community preserves knowledge rather than letting it disappear into chat history. You’ll be able to search for topics, follow threads, contribute your own learning.
Monthly virtual calls focused on specific topics with peer learning from other searchers. Not presentations, but actual discussions about deal sourcing challenges, due diligence questions, negotiation strategies, post-acquisition operations. Learning from people who are doing this work right now, in Europe, facing the same challenges you face.
And local on-site meetups across Europe. Not just Amsterdam, but Rotterdam, Brussels, and expanding to other cities throughout the year. Events stay free. This is about making sure people can connect in person, not just online.
Why does this matter? Because when I started my search eighteen months ago, I spent weeks finding basic information. I made mistakes because I didn’t know who to ask. I wasted money on advisors who didn’t understand search. I felt alone even though other searchers were going through exactly the same challenges at exactly the same time. ETA Europe solves this. Everything a European searcher needs, in one place, built specifically for our context.
Why I Need Four Weeks
I can’t build this properly whilst writing weekly newsletters and posting on LinkedIn. I need to focus entirely on getting this right. One hundred and twenty percent focus on building something that actually works.
Here’s what needs to happen over the next four weeks: building the member directory with seventy-five profiles already compiled and more being added daily. Finalising the resource library with templates being reviewed and refined. Completing the investor database with outreach and verification ongoing. Vetting service providers and confirming their willingness to work with the community. Setting up the community platform and testing everything to ensure it actually functions smoothly. This is detailed work that requires full attention.
The timeline is straightforward. I’m taking four weeks off from Buyout Diary. This is newsletter twenty-three. The next newsletter will be March 1st. No LinkedIn posts during this period. Fully focused on building ETA Europe. The platform launches early March, with the exact date to be confirmed based on when everything is genuinely ready.
What this means for you: no newsletters until March 1st, but you’ll be the first to know when ETA Europe launches if you join the waitlist. Founding member spots, limited to the first fifty people who join, will have special access and pricing reserved exclusively for waitlist members. After those fifty spots are filled, the platform opens to everyone at regular pricing. Founding members will be permanently certified as such on the platform, recognising that they believed in this vision early.
Join the Waitlist
Here’s what happens if you don’t join the waitlist:
You’ll miss the founding member spots, which are limited to the first fifty people. You’ll pay regular pricing instead of founding member pricing when the platform launches. You’ll wait for the general launch instead of getting early access to the directory, resources, and investor database. You’ll miss the chance to shape what gets built by suggesting specific resources you need. And you won’t receive the progress updates over the next four weeks showing the platform taking shape.
Here’s what happens if you do join:
You’ll be the first to know when doors open. Founding member spots, those first fifty positions, are reserved exclusively for waitlist members. You’ll get early access before the general launch, meaning you can start using the directory, the resources, the investor database immediately rather than waiting. And you’ll help shape what gets built by suggesting resources you specifically want to see in the library, advisors you’d like vetted for the directory, topics you want covered in the monthly calls.
When you join the waitlist, you’ll fill out a simple form asking for your email, your name, and where you are in your journey. Then you’ll receive progress updates as things are being built. Week two updates showing which templates have been added. Week three updates sharing how many investors are now in the database. You’ll see the platform taking shape. You’ll be first to access when it launches in early March. And you’ll know that the events in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels will always stay free, because ETA Europe is for people who want more comprehensive support, not a replacement for in-person community.
This Is What I Needed
This is deeply personal for me. When I started searching eighteen months ago, this is exactly what I needed. I spent weeks finding templates, searching through forums, asking people who barely knew me for introductions to investors. I wasted time with advisors who didn’t understand search fund structures, who treated my acquisition like a standard business transaction. I felt isolated even though I logically knew other searchers existed somewhere in Europe. I made mistakes that could have been avoided if I’d had access to someone who had already faced the same challenges three months earlier.
Now this infrastructure will exist. For the searcher starting their journey today. For the MBA student exploring whether acquisition entrepreneurship makes sense for them. For the operator thinking about acquiring the business they currently run. For the investor looking for European deal flow and wondering where to find serious searchers. For the seller who wants to understand what this model actually means and whether it’s right for their business.
This is infrastructure Europe genuinely needs. Not just another community or another networking group, but actual tools that solve actual problems. Actual resources that save weeks of searching. Actual connections to people who understand what you’re building.
See You March 1st
Thank you for following this journey. Thank you for the replies, the questions, the support. I’m not disappearing. I’m building. I’ll share progress updates with waitlist members as things develop over the next four weeks. Back on March 1st with Buyout Diary, but hopefully by then you’ll already be inside ETA Europe, using the directory, downloading templates, connecting with other searchers, booking your seat at the next monthly call.
See you March 1st. Let’s build European acquisition infrastructure together.
Alexander