A Decade in ETA: When Search “Goes Wrong”

In this episode of the ETA Insider Podcast, our 10-year anniversary series concludes with Matt Taylor, EMBA '17, founder of WFGT Holdings and CEO of a commercial landscaping business in Sun Valley, Idaho. When Matt first joined the podcast in 2016, he was a Marine Corps officer-turned-Booth student raising a traditional search fund with his best friend. The search never closed — and the partnership didn't survive it. Matt returns to talk candidly about what went wrong, the string of operating roles that followed, and why a self-funded search a decade later succeeded where the first attempt failed. He digs into stress-testing a partnership before you sign, search fund fatigue at the lower end of the market, what sellers look for beyond a résumé, and the daily "covenant" he keeps with the workforce he now employs.