Season 3, Episode 2: The fundamentals of the Australasian Market for EtA and Search: Exploring the three pillars with Jake Nicholson, Managing Director at SMEVentures

This year, the Australian EtA and Search Fund community is looking forward to its first big event for the region. The EtA Forum (www.etaforum.com.au) will be held at the Manly Pacific Hotel, on Manly Beach in Sydney, on Friday 16th September.

In this episode I speak with Jake Nicolson, Managing Director at SMEVentures.  I asked Jake about his experience on bringing a search fund based business model to a new market and why he chose Australia. Jakes tells us that in all the markets he explored, they needed to line up with the 3 pillars of capital, deal flow and talent. The answer came clearest and quickest from Australia.

You can hear more from Jake at his session at the EtA Forum as he reveals how the Australian market is doing compared to the US and how we can identify some early indicators of where success and failure might be.

Please stay tuned as we count down the days and be sure to yell out if you have any questions or comments to offer, so we can make the EtA Forum a great event for all involved.

Listen here:

Tickets available at: www.etaforum.com.au

Connect with Pete

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What we discussed: 

03:53 Jake talks about the process of bringing a search fund based business model to a new market.

11:16 Jake tells us what he is currently seeing in relation to the talent in Japan.

13:03 Pete asks Jake his perspective on Australia when it comes to search fund, and is it an environment that's appropriate for search fund activity?

14:47 Jake talks about what we can expect to see from his session at the EtA Forum and the comparison work he is doing with US market.

21:06 Pete discusses potential challenges in Australia right now and in particular, talent.