For Anica John, the pandemic was a revelation. Initially of the lockdown, she had a 5-year-old baby and labored in product administration at Walmart Labs. John, whose husband is a professor at Stanford College, grew to become the default father or mother whereas working remotely.
By the point return-to-office mandates started to roll in, John had two youngsters and was working at Amazon.
“Issues grew to become inconceivable,” she says. “We outsourced family duties as a lot as we might, however I didn’t really feel like life was getting higher. With the implementation of AI, the expectations elevated at work and it grew to become an increasing number of inconceivable.”
John started on the lookout for different profession paths. “I had all the time been an entrepreneur at coronary heart, however I didn’t need the inflexibility of constructing a venture-backed enterprise once I had two young children at residence.”
Then she realized about entrepreneurship via acquisition: shopping for an current enterprise.
In April 2025, she left Amazon. A couple of months later, she purchased DiggyPOD, a e book printing enterprise, utilizing a $10 million mortgage from the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA). All of her workers, except for those in manufacturing, work remotely.
“We’re all tending to households and dealing,” John says. “It’s been fantastic as a result of I lengthen the identical flexibility to my group that I get pleasure from myself.”
It’s no secret that girls in company America are struggling: Caught between the calls for of their jobs and parenting, many are selecting to depart their employers. In 2025, more than 455,000 women left the workforce, and virtually half (42%) cited caregiving as the highest purpose.
However selecting to depart doesn’t imply formidable and proficient girls wish to cease working. It usually means they’re not in a position to deal with the system, and opting out of a job could also be extra possible than scaling again on caregiving. Many of those girls are channeling their ambition and expertise into entrepreneurship, the place they’ll make the principles.
Particularly interesting is entrepreneurship via acquisition (ETA), the method of buying an current small enterprise slightly than ranging from scratch.
Lisa Forrest, a senior SBA enterprise improvement officer at Northwest Financial institution who has spent virtually 40 years specializing in SBA loans for ETA searchers, says established companies normally have the next chance of long-term success than a brand new enterprise, although she notes that there isn’t credible business knowledge on the five-year survival charge of ETA companies. (One estimate from Angora, an organization that makes a speciality of launching companies on Amazon, places the five-year survival charge of ETA companies between 70% and 80%.)
That stated, the soar from worker to CEO might be perilous. How perilous? In 2023, the Yale Faculty of Administration revealed a paper titled “Ten Reasons to Absolutely Not Pursue Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition,” citing lengthy hours, private monetary danger, and an excruciating search course of to search out the proper enterprise.
But as Krystal Duarte and Lisa Kaplowitz wrote in a recent analysis for Fast Company, “What must be alarming to corporations is that many ladies nonetheless view entrepreneurship because the extra sustainable choice for his or her lives regardless of these dangers.”
We spoke with greater than 10 moms who’ve chosen to depart the company world and purchase their very own enterprise. Learn on, and also you’ll study:
- Why so few girls have pursued ETA, and the individuals and applications making it extra accessible
- 4 methods to fund an acquisition, and why one specifically is rising in reputation
- What one professional recommends it’s essential to do earlier than pursuing an ETA
- How buying and selling a company job for operating your personal firm is a life-style selection, however you’re not buying a life-style enterprise
The way to fund an acquisition
Usually, aspiring entrepreneurs fund their acquisitions via considered one of 4 methods. Within the conventional search mannequin conceived in 1983 by then-Harvard professor Irv Grousbeck, entrepreneurs increase capital from a bunch of traders who help them whereas they seek for a enterprise. The entrepreneur will get a wage throughout their search however can find yourself giving up 75% of the equity of their firm.
Subsequent is self-funding: Somebody makes use of private funds and should get a mortgage from the SBA, as Anica John did. Nevertheless, anybody who owns 20% or extra of the corporate is required to make a private assure. Morli Desai, a single mom with two youngsters, ended up utilizing her home as collateral when she obtained an SBA mortgage to purchase Amaira Natural Skincare in 2022.
Third, they’ll be a part of an incubator or accelerator program that may present sources similar to a wage, schooling, and mentorship—however might ask for fairness in return. ETA incubator applications are comparatively latest creations and started cropping up in 2015.
Kelly Conway, a mom of 4, left her job as a chief human sources officer in 2024 as a result of, she says, “I used to be sitting in a boardroom and realized these are individuals I don’t wish to construct a enterprise with. Whereas I really like capitalism, I don’t love capitalism on the backs of workers. My values simply didn’t align with the place I used to be sitting.”
She joined the CEO-in-residence program run by Sleeping Giant Capital. The agency, which trains individuals in ETA, supplied Conway a stipend in alternate for fairness as she looked for HR companies. As an alternative she selected to make use of her personal financial savings.
In April 2025, Conway purchased her first enterprise, Rep-Lite. A couple of months later she acquired a second enterprise, Pondera Advisors, and is within the means of closing on a 3rd. She plans to mix the three into a bigger platform.
The fourth choice for somebody focused on going the ETA route is to embark on a sponsored search, which suggests partnering with one investor.
As a result of it’s troublesome to trace self-funded searchers, precise knowledge is tough to come back by. Will Smith, host of the Acquiring Minds podcast, has interviewed greater than 450 ETA house owners since 2021. He says searchers are more and more turning to self-funding.
“There’s been a democratization of how to do that over the previous 5 years in order that it’s not simply MBAs from the very best faculties,” Smith says. “That’s been facilitated by the expansion of self-funded search with SBA loans.”
The Search: This Might Take a Whereas
Looking for the proper enterprise to purchase is a full-time job in and of itself, and might be one of the troublesome components of the method. In line with Stanford’s 2024 Search Fund research, which examines knowledge from all of the search funds began since 1984, solely 63% of searchers ended up closing on a deal.
Harvard Enterprise Faculty professors Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff, authors of the HBR Information to Shopping for a Small Enterprise, educate a course on ETA. They suggest treating a search like a full-time job, setting apart not less than six months to two years to discover a viable enterprise to purchase and including not less than three extra months for due diligence. They sometimes suggest on the lookout for “boring” companies with a observe document of profitability, they usually advise considering forward to the day to once you would possibly wish to promote so that you simply’re assured you’ll have a market of potential consumers.
In 2010, Robin Kovitz give up her job in non-public fairness to seek for a enterprise to purchase as a result of she needed to have youngsters. “I used to be working lengthy hours in [an] workplace, and I knew I needed to breastfeed longer than the few weeks I had off work,” she says. “A light-weight bulb went off. I spotted I knew learn how to increase capital and get the deal performed, and that I actually get pleasure from operations. So I made a decision to attempt to purchase a small enterprise by myself . . . in order that I might set my very own hours with a brand new child and earn a living from home.”
Her search took 4 years, and through that point she had two youngsters. “I met with a whole bunch of companies and took my child with me in all places,” she says. “I used to be actually attempting to determine what to do with the remainder of my life. Did I wish to be in a warehouse or an workplace? Did I wish to be a individuals supervisor or a sole contributor?”
Searchers right this moment have extra sources similar to incubators and databases like rejigg.com, the platform that connects small-business house owners with consumers or traders, which is how Anica John discovered her self-publishing enterprise. Nonetheless, they must reply the identical questions Kovitz did, as a result of shopping for and operating an organization is greater than a brand new job: It’s a life-style.
Erin Erickson, a former Googler with two youngsters, checked out 80 companies earlier than buying Southern Sign Co., a customized signal manufacturing enterprise. Morli Desai says she joined an accelerator after a fruitless yr of looking out on her personal so as to add extra “self-discipline” to the method. She discovered her skincare enterprise a number of months later.
Ania Aliev could also be a extra uncommon instance. She started her search on the finish of her second yr of enterprise college at Dartmouth, when she was pregnant together with her first baby. She launched her search in July, met her vendor in August, signed a letter of intent in October, and ended up closing in February.
Even so, she says, “It felt like a hamster wheel. Every thing was pressing and necessary, and it felt like there was no finish in sight as extra gadgets stored arising. I didn’t actually consider it was over till I’d signed [on] the dotted line.”
Whereas totally different funding mechanisms have opened up ETA to extra individuals, there’s nonetheless a large gender hole. In line with Stanford’s 2024 Search Fund research, solely 18% of searchers in 2023 had been girls, and in line with a 2023 study by the Women’s Search Network, solely 116 girls have launched a seek for a enterprise since 2012.
Forrest, the SBA mortgage specialist, estimates that for each 100 individuals who present as much as an ETA convention, about 10 to fifteen are girls. Whereas she says roughly about 30 of the boys will go on to purchase a enterprise, solely a few the ladies will.
She hypothesizes that making the time for a search is a giant barrier for ladies. “Observationally, girls are nonetheless in command of a lot on the family. . . . Then they’ve obtained their company job, and now they’re considering making a change to entrepreneurship,” she says. “Maybe the method to discover a firm is simply so daunting that even when they love the thought of a search, they don’t know the way they’re going to have the ability to juggle it.”
She provides: “We want extra girls within the room. Their method and perspective are priceless.”
Now, the enjoyable half: Working the enterprise
As soon as a enterprise is acquired, the true work begins. Some consumers get fortunate and discover that their new acquisition is strictly what was described to them. Aliev bought Life Support Systems, a 50-year-old enterprise that companies and maintains automated exterior defibrillators.
“Lots of the individuals had been there for over a decade and had been phenomenal,” she says. Not solely that, the enterprise has a playroom so individuals can deliver their youngsters to work in the event that they’re sick or have a time without work from college and regulate them as they work, a convention Aliev is carrying ahead.
Others discover surprises. Kovitz ended up shopping for Baskits, a gift-basket enterprise. “I liked the thought of sharing in individuals’s most particular moments,” she says. However when she walked into her enterprise on day one, she found that there was no infrastructure.
“Daily, I’d ask the warehouse what number of baskets had been produced and no one might reply,” she recollects. “By week three, I spotted that the enterprise wanted a ton of help when it comes to processes, planning, evaluation, and rigor. So, I purchased steel-toed boots and determined to run the warehouse myself, which isn’t what I anticipated and is the alternative of the ETA mannequin. The ETA mannequin is to purchase a longtime, well-run enterprise and watch and study for the primary yr earlier than making adjustments.”
In excessive cases, exterior components might not make the corporate viable. Desai found her skincare enterprise was propped up by “pay-per-click” promoting. When she acquired Amaira Pure Skincare in 2022, clicks had been 60 cents every, however the value started to rise shortly after her acquisition, till it reached $3 a yr later, decimating her income. “I had one month after taking up the enterprise earlier than the storm, after which issues began unraveling,” she says.
Even when the enterprise is on strong floor, managing an possession transition is a big problem.
“For the primary six months, I used to be consuming out of a hearth hose, ensuring that I used to be conserving the lights on, persevering with to ship high-quality companies and merchandise, conserving the group actually joyful, conserving {our relationships} sturdy, getting out and assembly prospects,” says Erickson of Southern Signal Co.
Thriving as an ETA proprietor takes a sure kind of persona, factors out Matt Littell, who teaches courses on ETA at Northwestern’s Kellogg Faculty of Administration. The daddy of two, Littell runs an ETA and Legacy 41—a holding firm to spend money on different ETAs—together with his spouse, Cat. He warns aspiring house owners to attempt to pattern the ETA way of life, both by volunteering or consulting at the same firm as a result of usually house owners find yourself operating their companies for 4 to 10 years. “It’s properly value getting some publicity to what the day-to-day life appears like earlier than you join such a giant financial and time dedication,” he says.
Littell warns that operating an ETA requires a tolerance for ambiguity. “You’re virtually all the time making choices within the grey with imperfect info,” he says. “Chances are you’ll not determine ’til three or six months later whether or not the decision you made right this moment was the proper name or the flawed name. Lots of the issues you’re coping with are communication points.”
Provides Cat Littell, who teaches on the College of Chicago Sales space Faculty of Enterprise: “It’s rather a lot like parenting.”
The Dangers and Rewards of ETA
A yr later, Anica John continues to be going sturdy. In Might, she purchased Long Overdue Books, a writer, and mixed it together with her printing enterprise to supply authors companies similar to ghostwriting and marketing. She’s an ETA fanatic who has made it her mission to unfold the phrase about it. “Extra girls ought to know that the ETA path is a robust choice for extremely educated and succesful girls, particularly these with household obligations.”
For Robin Kovitz, the lengthy hours have paid off. At present her firm, Baskits, is incomes $30 million in income and is among the largest present basket corporations in North America.
Nevertheless, the success got here with a value. “I believed I’d be working much less, and what impulsively occurred was the alternative. I used to be now required to be on the enterprise 100 hours per week with two little youngsters, and my husband was a associate at a giant regulation agency,” she says. “We actually had like two shifts of assist at residence, however we checked out one another someday and stated, This isn’t the sort of dad and mom we wish to be, and my husband in the end made the choice to step again and help me. So he left his job, and he now works for us.”
On the opposite finish of the spectrum, Morli Desai determined to close down her firm two years after buying it. “It grew to become a nightmare. I had purchased my firm utilizing an SBA mortgage, so I finally needed to file for chapter to guard myself. I liquidated the corporate final yr as a result of it was value extra,” she says. “I’m nonetheless paying the SBA mortgage again. The financial institution needed to foreclose on my home and take the fairness. Luckily, my choose dominated in opposition to the financial institution and allowed me to repay the mortgage over 10 years.”
Neither regrets her selection. “The fund that I labored for previous to buying Baskits ended up being enormously profitable. . . . I want I might have remained concerned in a roundabout way, however no, in the end I don’t remorse leaving,” Kovitz says. “I feel you’re both an entrepreneur otherwise you’re not. And for those who’re an entrepreneur with imaginative and prescient, you want the liberty to construct by yourself phrases, and ETA is a superb car for this.”
As for Desai, she admits that shutting down her enterprise “was probably the most painful factor ever, even worse than going via my divorce. However I obtained to [live] my dream of being an entrepreneur. I don’t have anybody saying, ‘No, you’ve obtained to be at this assembly presently.’ I can put the youngsters first, after which I do know I’ll get the work performed. I really like that flexibility.”
At present, Desai is working in her household’s enterprise and negotiating to accumulate it sooner or later.
Jeanne Wang spent 15 years in non-public fairness earlier than she realized about ETA. She thought it was such a strong mechanism for ladies to construct long-term wealth that 4 years in the past she pivoted to investing in girls searchers. “I believed there was an actual alternative right here, however I used to be nervous there weren’t sufficient girls taking part,” she says. “Once I attended my first convention, there weren’t many.”
In 2023, Wang began a WhatsApp group known as the Girls Searchers Group, which is now 600 sturdy, to create a neighborhood for ladies to help every on their ETA journey.
“It is a fairly compelling profession various,” she says. “For a lot of girls, conventional company careers can place limits on each autonomy and long-term wealth creation. After they purchase an organization, they achieve the chance to construct fairness, make choices, and create the sort of enterprise and life they need. It’s nonetheless extremely arduous work, however they’re in management. A lot of the wealth that’s been created within the U.S. has come via small-business possession.”
