Entrepreneurship through acquisition, or ETA, is seeing a surge of interest among B-school grads. In high school, Nick Wheeler dreamed of becoming a Green Beret. He achieved that during a decade-long Army stint, eventually leading a 12-man special forces team deployed in Eastern Europe.
After serving, Wheeler applied to a few MBA programs. The day after his interview at Harvard Business School, he met with a fellow Green Beret enrolled there and asked about his plans. When the veteran said he’d like to start a “search fund,” raising money to find, acquire and then run a small business, Wheeler was baffled. “What the hell is that?” he recalls asking. “It sounded like a ridiculous concept.”
Wheeler’s path is becoming a more common one for business school graduates. Called entrepreneurship through acquisition, or ETA, it differs from the better-known, venture-backed startup model because it entails buying an existing company, not starting one from scratch, with the potential for more autonomy and ownership
“Our alumni have been screaming about ETA for the better part of a decade,” says Xavier Stewart, senior associate director at the Wharton School’s Venture Lab, an entrepreneurial center for students. “They said the school needs to focus on this.”
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