How It Works
1. Accelerate Your Search
LEARN TO SEARCH
The SFA experience starts with an intense Bootcamp during which the SFA team teaches you everything you need to know about our proprietary techniques, best practices and technologies.
LAUNCH YOUR SEARCH
By the end of Bootcamp, your search will be fully up and running. By your fourth week at SFA, you be focused on speaking with sellers to find interesting deals.
BUILD BONDS
During Bootcamp, you will get to know the other members of your cohort, the preceding cohort and the SFA team better than you would ever imagine. These bonds will grow and prove invaluable during your search and in the years that follow as a CEO.
2. Build Your Outreach
TAILOR YOUR OUTREACH. OPTIMIZE YOUR PROCESS.
Targeted, well-managed, and well-executed outreach is the key to search success. This requires mastering a complicated process: efficiently identifying companies in select industry niches and intelligently reaching out to owners.
PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
SFA searchers focus on industry niches where their backgrounds and professional experiences give them credibility in the eyes of company owners and a huge advantage as new CEOs.
3. Find Your Company
ENGAGE WITH THOUGHT PARTNERS
While informal interactions occur every day, each searcher has a weekly “check-in” with the SFA team to discuss industry niches, the search process and deals. We push you to evaluate opportunities critically and objectively.
THINK LIKE AN INVESTOR
Thinking like a dispassionate investor does not come naturally. It is learned. It requires significant discipline, practice and patience. SFA coaches its searchers by helping them evaluate opportunities thoughtfully and efficiently.
"TRUST THE PROCESS"
Our searchers adopted this phrase, which captures the robustness of SFA’s processes: if you follow the playbook and work diligently, you will find a great company. You will also find one that uniquely fits your personality, experience and interests.
4. Close Your Deal
MANAGE THE TRANSACTION & CLOSING
The SFA team works with our searchers to conduct thorough due diligence, negotiate terms, and create a solid plan for transitioning to managing their business. We also help them manage the inevitable rollercoaster of emotions they will experience as closing nears.
WORK WITH OUTSTANDING DEAL PARTNERS
SFA searchers work with outstanding partners throughout the transaction process. We pride ourselves on our close relationships with firms that provide legal, accounting, IT, HR, and risk management due diligence services. SFA has also built valuable relationships with experienced banking partners for debt financing.
KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING
SFA works with its searchers to ensure that their outreach continues while due diligence on a specific opportunity is underway. Having other interesting opportunities to pursue gives our searchers the confidence to walk away from a deal if necessary.
5. Transition to CEO
CONGRATS – YOU’RE AT THE STARTING LINE
Closing your deal is a momentous and important step in your journey. You are finally a CEO. But the transition will be harder than you imagine. The first can be overwhelming. It’s the moment you will have been waiting for during months of searching, but the real work begins now!
MANAGE THE TRANSITION
SFA works closely with our searchers during the due diligence and closing phases so they are prepared to step in as CEO on day one. Since we know the challenges they will face, we spend extra time preparing our searchers for a smooth transition. We also have weekly check-ins, monthly mini-board meetings, and ad hoc calls and visits after close. Getting off to a strong start is crucial!
6. Manage Your Company
GROW THE BUSINESS
SFA’s CEOs focus on growing their businesses. They drive sales and intelligently allocate resources to build their organizations. The SFA team works closely with our CEOs as board members by leveraging the mutual trust built during the search and deal process and an in-depth working knowledge of the company allowing us to provide effective advice.
BUILD YOUR BOARD
SFA selects its entrepreneurs because of their ability to be great CEOs but we recognize that successful CEOs need an engaged board of directors. While our searcher’s Boards are initially compromised of members of the SFA team, we help our CEOs find independent directors overtime.
7. Capture Value
LEVERAGED RECAPITALIZATIONS
SFA’s CEOs want to create personal wealth. One way to achieve this is by returning capital to investors through leveraged recapitalizations. Since our CEOs are shareholders, they receive their share of the distributions. It is an excellent way for our CEOs to build wealth while alleviating pressure to sell a growing company.
EXITING
At some point, it will make sense to sell the business. We help our CEOs think through potential exit options and plot a way forward. We help them extract the maximum value for their years of hard work. Given SFA’s strong alignment with our CEOs’ incentives, we work together to ensure an outstanding outcome for everyone.