Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Programming

Tuck has long offered events and programming around Entrepreneurship through Acquisition. In 2019, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Speaker Series at Tuck was founded by T’20s Ryan Turk and Jim Prial and the center has grown and operated ETA programming since.

In 2023, the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Club was created to bring together students interested in this form of entrepreneurship.

In 2025, the center created the first Center for Entrepreneurship ETA Pathway Fellow role for second-year students. This leadership role works directly with the center on ETA initiatives of value and impact.

What is Entrepreneurship through Acquisition? 
Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, or ETA, is when a person acquires or buys an existing company to own and operate, rather than starting a new company or venture from the start. If using outside capital to purchase the company – such as through a search fund – the intent is to innovate and grow the purchased company to exit at a target date to return invested funds. 

What is a search fund? 
Simply put, it’s an investment fund an entrepreneur uses to raise capital in order to search for a company to acquire and run as CEO. It is one of several means to ETA. 

Tuck also offers the elective course Entrepreneurship through Acquisition taught by Professor Mark Anderegg. The course provides an introduction to the various pathways to ETA, as well as a detailed exploration of the various phases of an entrepreneur’s journey. 

The center has refocused ETA programming back to the core mission of showing all facets and pathways of ETA, not just the search fund model. 

Past ETA Speakers have included:  
Archipelago Capital Partners 
BK Partners 
Brydon Group 
Chenmark 
David Dobson 
Endurance Search Partners 
Footbridge Partners 
Futaleufu Partners 
Generational Transfer Entrepreneurs 
GT Entrepreneurs 
Kamylon Holdings 
GJ King from RIA in a Box 
Maven Equity Partners 
Mineola Search Partners 
Miramar Equity Partners 
NextGen Growth Partners 
Pacific Lake Partners 
Red Forest Capital 
Search Fund Accelerator 
IP Due Diligence in Acquisition with Sheehan and Phinney 
Karen Spencer, Founder of Fetch Strategy 
Trilogy Search Partners 
Ventura Search Capital 
WSC