60% Concentration That Killed an Exit

Raj In 2015 you bought a software business in what ended up being a hot category. So you were sitting pretty there for a minute, then the rug was pulled out from under you by one of your customers, no less. This is one of the more dramatic search stories I've heard.

Let's get into it starting with some background on you, please.

It was exciting, it was fun. I was in the middle of Wall street, this is the early 2000s, and then decided I wanted to go to investment banking. And I ended up finding an opportunity at a company called Hu Loki, working in their telecom and financial restructuring group.

Did that for a few years, enjoyed the work. But at the same time I decided I knew I wanted to go to business school. I ended up taking a year off and traveling in between my job and what I thought was going to be business school.

During those travels I ended up getting an offer to basically run the finance side of a family office. I was young and it was a, it was a amazing opportunity, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to help manage and run and do that and kind of like my first quasi entree to search as I was looking for deals for the founder and the guy whose money we managed. I signed and July of 07 started in…

Meanwhile the market was going in a tailspin and it lasted about 13 months before we parted ways. And then I decided I wanted to Go back to business school. Even though, like when I was going in 07, I withdrew my applications to take that offer.

And then Post, I, I moved back to London where my brother was, stayed with him for a few months. Decided, you know, just to relax before grad school. And I rented an apartment on the Amalfi coast and lived for 12 weeks and hung out.

And then I started at USC. I did mostly like entrepreneurship and strategy and communications was kind of my field and the classes I focused on at USC and Post, I didn't think I wanted to be a banker, but a few guys I worked with at Houlihan had gone to another firm and I decided to join them. And I did that for a couple more years doing financial restructuring.

But I got to a point where I was like, this isn't where I wanted my career to go. Nothing against the profession. I just, this is not what I wanted for myself.

You know, I kind of been in the advisory role for 10 plus years and I wanted to go like seguent to, from coach to quarterback. And I started hearing about Search, this is back in 2013, because a friend of mine from grad school, he had done it. And this is when it was pretty quiet.

Like there was maybe, I don't know, 10 to 15 of us in 2011 that were really doing it. Most of them came out of Harvard or Stanford or Wharton or some of those schools. And he was kind of the pioneer from our school, from USC or one of the really early ones.