Traditional search fund, self-funded search or buy-and-build? Three experts compare the paths into ETA in a fireside chat, followed by an open Q&A with the audience.
Finding the ETA Model That Fits You
Traditional search funds, self-funded search and buy-and-build share one goal: acquiring and leading an established company. Yet they differ in funding, ownership, investor involvement and pace. In this fireside chat, three experts put the models side by side. The ETA Club opens with guiding questions to highlight the key differences before the floor opens for an extensive Q&A with the audience.
About Antonius von Salis
Antonius is co-founder and General Partner of Pina Capital, an investment firm founded in 2025 that focuses on SME succession across Europe. With Pina's fund, he and his co-founder Dr. Thomas Wetzer make the search fund model accessible to a broader investor base. Within its first year, Pina partnered with more than ten searchers across Europe. Antonius brings almost 20 years of experience as a growth and private equity investor and as an SME and startup operator, including leading buy-and-build and digitalization programs. His previous stations include Redalpine, Rocket Internet and Morgan Stanley. He is an HSG alumnus.
About Frederik von Brandis
Frederik is founder of Aven Capital Partners, a buy-and-build fund focused on the DACH region. Aven backs entrepreneurs from day zero to acquire, integrate and scale established companies into the market leaders of the next generation. Before Aven, Frederik was the first investor and a board member of the Arsipa Group, a buy-and-build platform for occupational health and workplace safety that grew through dozens of acquisitions and was sold to Warburg Pincus just three years after its founding. He started his career at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), later worked at Antler and holds an MSc in Management from the LSE.
About Dr. Torben Antretter
Torben is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at IE Business School. In 2016 he founded the LegalTech company RightNow, which the Financial Times ranked among Europe's fastest-growing companies in 2021 and 2022 and which is the subject of three Harvard Business School case studies. He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, contributed to a leading Entrepreneurial Finance textbook published by Cambridge University Press and sits on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Torben also serves on the Advisory Board of the ETA Club St. Gallen.
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