Up until just a few years ago, women represented fewer than 10% of all traditional search funds raised. Sara Rosenthal and Lacey Wismer, investors and friends, had spent many hikes and conversations puzzling over the absence of women in the ETA space given their strong conviction that women could be incredible CEOs of search-acquired companies. In the fall of 2019, they decided to bring together the small but mighty group of women in the search fund community to see what kind of spark they could all light together to encourage more women to consider the search path.
What started as an informal gathering of ~15 women at the 2019 Stanford CEO conference has grown to over 500 members today, ranging from prospective and active searchers to CEOs, investors, service providers, and friends of the WSN.
Over 100 of our members are women who are actively searching full-time (via traditionally-funded, self-funded, or accelerator models) and current and former CEOs from around the world.
In the past five years, we have celebrated the first handful of exits by women, a strong cohort of women who have acquired companies, and a meaningful increase in the number of women who are actively searching for a company to acquire.
Today, we remain focused on celebrating our members’ successes, empowering the next cohorts’ entrepreneurial journeys, and encouraging more women to follow in their footsteps. We welcome the ETA community to join us as partners as we continue to lead the way in fostering increasing diversity in search funds.
