Many Paths to Entrepreneurship
The following post is from David Mungai MBA’17, co-founder of Newton Tree Capital, a spring 2017 hatchery business. Newton Tree Capital is a search fund that is looking for an established and successful small business to acquire and operate.
David Mungai MBA’17, Founder of Newton Tree Capital
In Olin Hall there is a big banner that says “Entrepreneurs Of All Kinds,” meaning we should not restrict ourselves in the way we define an entrepreneur. While startups are great, exciting avenues to pursue entrepreneurship, it’s worthwhile to consider other ways to build something that provides value for customers and investors. There are many ways to be an entrepreneur, and the search fund model is one great example.
Entrepreneurship through acquisition is a path to owning a business for anyone who wants to “be their own boss” and build a business, but might not want to take the startup route to get there. The model is straightforward—search for, acquire and operate an existing business that has potential to grow. Through a funded search, one can learn a variety of essential business skills: raising funds, analyzing industries and businesses, how deals get done, operating a business, just to name a few. In today’s world, there are startup stories around us everyday, certainly here at Babson, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that every business was once a startup, and no business can survive without new ideas and growth at some point over it’s life
Opportunities to be an entrepreneur can be found anywhere, and acquiring an existing company is just one example. The point is not to limit thinking to just the startup world. We are all different kinds of entrepreneurs and our paths along the journey can take many turns if we are open in our thinking and creative with our approach.