1,000+ readers across 40 countries.
The Gap
Millions of small business owners across Europe are approaching retirement with no clear successor. Profitable businesses closing not because they failed but because nobody stepped in. That gap was not being documented honestly from the inside. So I started writing it myself.
What's in each Monday issue
Each issue contains real conversations with acquisition entrepreneurs, investors, and operators, plus the diary of an active search across the Netherlands, Flanders, and northwest Germany.
Five recurring sections cover a personal lesson from the search, a deeper analysis piece (a deal, a framework, a piece of research), community news from ETA Europe meetups, curated commentary on the week, and short reads worth your time.
The structure stays. The content changes every Monday.
Recent issues worth reading:
→ Where the Stanford Search Fund Primer stops working for Europe
→ Nine months in. Two deals broke. What I learned.
Who reads Buyout Diary
Senior, decision-making, mostly European. Readers and attendees include searchers (self-funded and search fund), search fund investors such as Newton Equity Partners, Search Right Capital, and Novadvice, plus people working at or coming from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, EY-Parthenon, and Deloitte. Alumni and current students from INSEAD, RSM, and other business schools are also part of the community, alongside PE firms, family offices, and M&A advisory firms.
Beyond the newsletter, 325+ in-person community members across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels, with Paris launching next.
Why I write this
The European story was missing from the conversation. American playbooks travel poorly. Deal sizes are different. Financing structures don't transfer. Cultural context shapes who'll sell to you and who won't. Tax law makes some deals impossible. Searchers were importing US frameworks anyway, because nothing else existed.
That's the gap Buyout Diary tries to fill. One issue at a time.
A bit about me: MBA on HoldCo-led small business acquisitions (University of Greenwich and Saxion University of Applied Sciences, August 2025). Before that, PwC, Rabobank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Postbank. Co-founded a web agency. Exited a marketplace. Currently in active search across the Netherlands, Flanders, and northwest Germany. Guest lecturer at Saxion UAS on ETA and SME succession.
Founded ETA Europe in 2025 to bring the conversation in-person.
Writing this from Amsterdam.
— Alexander