In The Trenches

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oberle Risk Strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the leading insurance brokerage and insurance diligence provider for the search fund community. The company is led by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠August Felker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (himself a 2-time successful searcher), and has been trusted by search investors, lenders, searchers and CEOs for over a decade now. Their due diligence offering (which is 100% free of charge) will assess the pros and cons of your target company’s insurance program, including any potential coverage gaps, the pro-forma insurance pricing, and the program structure changes needed for closing. At or shortly after closing, they then execute on all of those findings on your behalf. Oberle has serviced over 900 customers across a decade of operation, including countless searchers and CEOs within the ETA community

*

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Symphony⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Symphony not only performs technical due diligence engagements for search funds, Private Equity firms, and strategic acquirers, but they also partner with those buyers on an ongoing basis on all things product (outsourced development, team augmentation, new product prototyping, UI refreshes, QA professionalization, and so on). Symphony is offering a full 15% off of any of their services for listeners of In the Trenches. ⁠⁠⁠Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact form on their website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and tell them that you’re a listener of the podcast to receive this discount!

*

*

I have debated whether to write this blog post for quite some time now. Because topics related to mental health tend to generate more engagement than other more commercially-oriented content, I didn’t want this post to be interpreted as being hollow or self-promotional in any way, to the extent that it generates higher-than-normal clicks or page views for me. In spite of this, two things compelled me to finally publish this: (1) I wanted to simply discuss the topic of anxiety publicly, in hopes that my doing so will play some small role in helping others feel comfortable doing the same. (2) My hope is that some subset of

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oberle Risk Strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the leading insurance brokerage and insurance diligence provider for the search fund community. The company is led by ⁠⁠⁠⁠August Felker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (himself a 2-time successful searcher), and has been trusted by search investors, lenders, searchers and CEOs for over a decade now. Their due diligence offering (which is 100% free of charge) will assess the pros and cons of your target company’s insurance program, including any potential coverage gaps, the pro-forma insurance pricing, and the program structure changes needed for closing. At or shortly after closing, they then execute on all of those findings on your behalf. Oberle has serviced over 900 customers across a decade of operation, including countless searchers and CEOs within the ETA community.

*

*

I have spent the past several weeks going through almost 3 years of In The Trenches archives to tease out all of the best insights that we’ve been able to collect from each of our guests specific to Compensation. I won’t need to convince any CEO of how important compensation is, and how fraught with peril it can be when it isn’t done right. Below is a list of our guests and topics, which include timestamps, so you can skip between the segments that are most interesting to you:

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Symphony⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. On September 8th, 2023, Symphony will be live-streaming a webinar on searchfunder.com all about the technical due diligence process when acquiring a software company. Use this link to sign up: ⁠https://www.searchfunder.com/event/view/1200⁠. Symphony not only performs technical due diligence engagements for search funds, Private Equity firms, and strategic acquirers, but they also partner with those buyers on an ongoing basis on all things product (outsourced development, team augmentation, new product prototyping, UI refreshes, QA professionalization, and so on). Symphony is offering a full 15% off of any of their services for listeners of In the Trenches. ⁠Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact form on their website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and tell them that you’re a listener of the podcast to receive this discount!

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oberle Risk Strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the leading insurance brokerage and insurance diligence provider for the search fund community. The company is led by ⁠⁠⁠August Felker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (himself a 2-time successful searcher), and has been trusted by search investors, lenders, searchers and CEOs for over a decade now. Their due diligence offering (which is 100% free of charge) will assess the pros and cons of your target company’s insurance program, including any potential coverage gaps, the pro-forma insurance pricing, and the program structure changes needed for closing. At or shortly after closing, they then execute on all of those findings on your behalf. Oberle has serviced over 900 customers across a decade of operation, including countless searchers and CEOs within the ETA community

*

*

My guest today is Dr. William Irvine, author of the best-selling book A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, and one of the world's most influential writers on, and practitioners of, stoic philosophy. Dr. Irvine spent 38 years teaching at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, having recently earned Professor Emeritus status there. Dr. Irvine earned his BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Michigan and an MA and PhD in Philosophy at UCLA.

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Symphony⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. On September 8th, 2023, Symphony will be live-streaming a webinar on searchfunder.com all about the technical due diligence process when acquiring a software company. Use this link to sign up: https://www.searchfunder.com/event/view/1200. Symphony not only performs technical due diligence engagements for search funds, Private Equity firms, and strategic acquirers, but they also partner with those buyers on an ongoing basis on all things product (outsourced development, team augmentation, new product prototyping, UI refreshes, QA professionalization, and so on). Symphony is offering a full 15% off of any of their services for listeners of In the Trenches. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact form on their website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and tell them that you’re a listener of the podcast to receive this discount!

*

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oberle Risk Strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the leading insurance brokerage and insurance diligence provider for the search fund community. The company is led by ⁠August Felker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (himself a 2-time successful searcher), and has been trusted by search investors, lenders, searchers and CEOs for over a decade now. Their due diligence offering (which is 100% free of charge) will assess the pros and cons of your target company’s insurance program, including any potential coverage gaps, the pro-forma insurance pricing, and the program structure changes needed for closing. At or shortly after closing, they then execute on all of those findings on your behalf. Oberle has serviced over 900 customers across a decade of operation, including countless searchers and CEOs within the ETA community

*

Recently, searchers have voiced an increasing level of interest in targeting “VC orphan” companies as acquisition targets: These tend to be healthy and modestly growing companies that have raised at least one round of institutional venture capital, have achieved product/market fit, but have failed to produce the triple-digit growth rates that are all but required for them to continue to command the time, attention, and capital of their VC-backers. Might searchers also consider this very different company profile, in addition to that which has served as the foundation of the Search Fund investment vehicle over the past three decades? Today's episode attempts to explore this question, presenting observations that both support and refute the thesis.

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Symphony⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Symphony not only performs technical due diligence engagements for search funds, Private Equity firms, and strategic acquirers, but they also partner with those buyers on an ongoing basis on all things product (outsourced development, team augmentation, new product prototyping, UI refreshes, QA professionalization, and so on). Symphony is offering a full 15% off of any of their services for listeners of In the Trenches. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the ⁠Contact form on their website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and tell them that you’re a listener of the podcast to receive this discount!