Nine months in. Two deals broke. Here is everything I learned.
Everything I got wrong, everything I would keep, and what is coming next.
Hello, and welcome back to Buyout Diary.
This week is a little different. Not a deep dive into one concept, not a case study. A pause to look back.
I launched this newsletter in August 2025. In January 2026 I ran a reader survey and started publishing a new issue every Monday. When I lined those issues up next to each other recently, I noticed something I had not fully planned.
The newsletter started with me writing about my own mistakes. The first issue of the year was literally called “I Wasted 6 Months in 2025.” Five months later I am publishing a structural comparison against the Stanford Search Fund Primer. Somewhere in between, the newsletter travelled from confession to argument. That mirrors my own development as a searcher. I know more than I did in January, and I am more sure of what I think.
If you had asked me in January what the hardest part of European acquisition entrepreneurship was, I would have said finding the right business. Nine months into my own search, I no longer believe that. The hardest part is that Europe does not yet have its own infrastructure for this. No shared playbook, no shared documents, no map. Europe is not one market, it is 27, and that fragmentation is the reason we have been borrowing a playbook built for somewhere else.
A short, honest word on where I am. The newsletter now reaches more than 1,000 readers across 40 countries. In the search itself I have signed two letters of intent, and both deals broke before closing, for reasons of price and structure. No acquisition closed yet. My pipeline is working in the background, and I am running the search part-time and self-funded, so I have made a deliberate choice: build the media-first approach properly while the deal flow develops, rather than rush a bad deal to have something to show. I would rather build this honestly. Thank you for being here while I do.
I want to be plain about one thing, because it matters. I write about acquisition entrepreneurship every week, and I have not closed an acquisition. That is the honest position this newsletter is written from, and it is the reason the mistakes and the broken deals go in rather than getting quietly left out.
So this week, a round-up. If you joined recently, this is your map. If you have been here a while, some of these are worth a second read.
The Thread
Every issue I have published this year has been making one argument from a different angle.
The American playbook for entrepreneurship through acquisition does not transfer cleanly to Europe. And the searcher who imports it unchanged pays for it, in wasted time, in lost credibility, in deals that do not close.
That is the spine. Here are the issues.
New here? Start with the third one, the American playbook issue, then read the rest in any order.
1. I Wasted 6 Months in 2025, Part 1: The Planning Mistakes
The issue that opened the year. Four mistakes I made before looking at a single deal seriously: searching without a written thesis, ignoring whether a business was resistant to AI and to recession, not committing to a region, and forcing an industry choice far too early. If you are at the very start of your own search, the honest place to begin.
2. The 3 Execution Mistakes That Cost Me the Most
The companion piece. Where Part 1 was about planning, this is about what went wrong once the search was live: the relationship mistakes and the timing mistakes that cost momentum rather than clarity. Best read straight after Part 1.
3. The American ETA Playbook Does Not Work in Europe
If you read one issue before the others, make it this one. The full argument, laid out: four structural differences between the US and Europe, across capital, succession culture, the search fund model, and seller psychology. The map the rest of the newsletter fills in.
4. Before the Bank Opens Your File, They Have Already Decided
Financing, written from both sides of the table, because before I started searching I worked in bank debt advisory. The four things a European credit officer needs to feel before they open your model, and a country-by-country read on Dutch, German, Belgian, and UK lenders.
5. Why Financial Engineering Alone Will Not Generate the Returns You Need
The post-acquisition issue, written in answer to a survey question: how do you actually create value once the deal is closed. Three durable levers that work at the scale of a small business — operations, the technology stack, and the finance function.
6. Stanford’s 2026 Search Fund Primer Is Out
The most recent issue and the most rigorous version of the whole argument. Stanford released the new Primer, the global reference for the model. Three domains where it does not transfer to Europe: the investor base, the deal structures, and the operating environment.
From the Replies
The replies to this newsletter are genuinely the best part of running it. Two that stayed with me.
Midas, a searcher in the Netherlands, wrote back after the mistakes series. Translated from Dutch:
“Good that you also share the mistakes, because they are very instructive. You cannot say you wasted six months, that is being too hard on yourself. The mistakes are exactly what give you more insight.”
He is right. The mistakes are the insight. That is the whole reason I write them openly.
John, a searcher in Australia, wrote back after the Tiffany issue:
“I could feel the enjoyment you must have had from writing this. The position around negotiation, where a financial change is the outcome yet not the language and frame used during the negotiation. Class.”
I share these for one reason. When I ask you to hit reply, I mean it. I read every reply, and the good ones change what I write next.
ETA Europe comes to Brussels
The first ever ETA Europe event in Brussels is happening, and it is genuinely a milestone for the community.
ETA Europe Brussels #1: Investor Insights with Adrian Carniol (Novadvice)
Wednesday 3 June, 5:00 to 7:00 PM CEST, central Brussels. Hosted in partnership with Novadvice, one of Belgium’s leading SME acquisition boutiques.
Adrian Carniol will share his perspective as an investor who has backed multiple acquisitions across Europe: what he looks for in searchers, how he structures deals, and where he sees the opportunity developing in the Benelux. After the keynote, a panel with Charles d’Ursel, a searcher, Eyal Kaplan, an operator, and Marc Michiels, co-founder of Novadvice, then open Q&A and drinks.
Few seats still available. Whether you are actively searching, exploring ETA, or investing in the space, you are welcome.
The INSEAD ETA Conference Report 2026
If you missed it, my first digital product is out: the 2026 INSEAD ETA Conference Report, available now as a single report.
It is 41 pages across seven chapters. Four European searchers and investors on the record, across Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain, alongside direct observation of the conference itself and the hallway and dinner conversations that gave the report its shape.
It is primary research from inside the room. The European ETA map as it actually looked this May, not as it is described in American playbooks that do not quite fit. The report covers the routes into ETA as they work in practice, what investors are looking for in 2026, and where the next twelve months point.
One worth your time
This one is not mine.
The ETA Database, from Acquiring Minds. Will Smith has taken five years of the Acquiring Minds podcast, more than 450 acquisition stories, and turned them into something you can actually search. Filter by industry, by deal size, by geography, by the buyer’s background.
If you are testing a thesis in a particular sector, it is the fastest way to find someone who has already bought a business in that space and hear how the deal was structured and where it nearly went wrong.
It is US-heavy, and that is exactly why I rate it. Read it as the deep case library, and read this newsletter for what changes when you bring those lessons to Europe.
One thing on the horizon
This September I am launching the Buyout Diary podcast. Long-form conversations with European operators and investors, in video and audio. Named voices, real deals, and the conversations that do not happen on a conference panel.
It is the same project as this newsletter, in a format that lets the people doing this work speak for themselves. Watch it on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
If you want to know the moment it goes live, the waitlist is open. You will get one email at launch, with early access before any of it is public:
Next Monday’s issue is still open. I have not decided the topic yet, so this is a genuine question, not a rhetorical one.
Reply and tell me one thing: which of these six issues do you most want me to go deeper on. I read every reply, and next week’s issue will come from your answers.
See you next Monday.
Alexander