Search Fund Internship

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Search Fund Sourcing Internship

I'm excited that you share our vision of helping a small business owner sell their company to a person instead of a large private equity group.

Ranch Road Equity is a private investment company led by Jarod Angehr and backed by eight investment groups. Our goal is to find, acquire, and operate a single lower-middle-market business in the United States.

We primarily focus on founder-led, mission-critical service businesses ideally in the Sunbelt and other high-growth regions.

What you'll actually do

The majority of this internship will focus on finding great businesses and getting us in front of their owners.

You’ll work directly with me to research industries, identify companies that fit our investment criteria, find the right decision-makers, and help execute outbound sourcing campaigns. This is one of the most important parts of the search fund process.

Your work will include:

  • Researching industries and identifying attractive niches for investment

  • Building lists of companies that fit our acquisition criteria

  • Researching business owners, executives, and other key decision-makers

  • Helping execute email, LinkedIn, phone, and other outbound sourcing efforts

  • Finding new brokers, intermediaries, and proprietary deal sources

  • Tracking outreach and opportunities through our sourcing and CRM systems

  • Using data and AI tools to improve the efficiency of our sourcing process

As businesses enter our pipeline, you’ll also get exposure to deal evaluation and diligence. That may include reviewing financial statements, analyzing revenue and EBITDA, researching customers and competitors, building financial models, and helping us decide whether an opportunity is worth pursuing.

These are real companies that we may actually acquire. The goal isn't to give you hypothetical finance exercises. It's to give you exposure to the actual process of finding, evaluating, and eventually buying a small business.

What you'll learn

By the end of the internship, you should understand how a search fund actually creates a pipeline of acquisition opportunities and how investors decide which businesses deserve a deeper look.

You’ll learn how to find companies that aren't obviously "for sale," identify and reach business owners, research unfamiliar industries quickly, evaluate acquisition opportunities, and think about businesses through the eyes of a buyer.

You'll also leave with practical experience using the sourcing, research, CRM, financial analysis, and AI tools that are increasingly becoming part of the investing process.

Who we're looking for

We're looking for students who are curious, persistent, organized, and comfortable taking initiative. A large part of sourcing is being willing to dig for information, try different approaches, follow up, and figure things out when there isn't an obvious answer.

Previous work in private equity, investment banking, sourcing/business development is preferred.

An interest in investing, entrepreneurship, sales, or eventually owning and operating a business is a plus.