What a Legendary Wall Street Insider Looks for in Search Fund Entrepreneurs, William D. Cohan

On this episode of Search Funded, we sit down with William D. Cohan, bestselling author, longtime financial journalist, and former Wall Street M&A banker, for a wide-ranging conversation that spans search fund investing, leadership, capitalism, and career reinvention.Before bringing moral clarity to the financial world through his journalism and books including Money and Power, House of Cards, The Last Tycoons, and Power Failure, Bill spent nearly two decades as an M&A banker at Lazard, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, and GE Capital.But what many people do not know is that he has also been a search fund investor for many years, backing entrepreneurs in the U.S. and internationally, including a decades-long investment that ultimately exited to the Pritzker family.In this episode, we cover:Why search fund investing appealed to Bill compared to traditional private equity, especially around incentives, fees, and alignment (00:03:30)Patterns he has observed across successful and unsuccessful search fund investments, and why outcomes are often unpredictable (00:06:45)The risk of greed creeping into search funds, parallels to SPACs and private equity, and why modesty still matters in entrepreneur compensation (00:17:52)Bill’s career pivot from Wall Street to journalism after being fired post-9/11, and why taking control of his work and time led to a more meaningful life (00:22:35)Send us Fan MailSupport the showFind us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and YouTube.