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1/ You have an entrepreneurial background combined with VC experience. Could you share your personal journey and what drives you to enter the SF world?
My path into search funds is the natural culmination of my professional journey rather than a single step or pivot.
I began with a technical and financial education in investment banking. I then moved into running and managing my family business with around 100 employees. That experience was formative and closely mirrors what searchers do today: stepping into an existing organization, taking responsibility for people, customers, and legacy, and learning first-hand that ownership is very different from theory.
I later spent nearly eight years building Cherry Ventures, one of Europe’s most successful early-stage investment platforms, investing in more than 20 companies, sitting on a dozen boards, and working closely with many exceptional entrepreneurs and operators. Through this, I gained deep exposure to how capital, networks, boards, and structured support can help businesses grow.
During my MBA in the US, I deliberately put myself back into the operator’s seat by founding a beverage company from scratch. Going through the full entrepreneurial journey first-hand reinforced many of the lessons I had seen as an investor. Today, the company is profitable and the category leader in Germany. It was also during this time that I discovered the search fund model and became increasingly aware that a large part of the economy—profitable, well-run legacy businesses—was facing a growing succession challenge that remained largely unaddressed.
Lineage is the culmination of these experiences. The search fund model sits exactly at the intersection of entrepreneurship, ownership, and long-term value creation. Technology, which has been a major part of my background throughout, will be instrumental in helping many small and medium-sized businesses move forward successfully, while respecting employees, customers, and what has already been built.
Searchers do not chase ideas or momentum. They step into responsibility. They acquire businesses with real customers, real employees, and real history, and commit to stewarding them forward. That combination of entrepreneurial ambition paired with humility, discipline, and long-term ownership is what ultimately drew me to the search fund world.
2/ You have just completed the fundraising for Lineage Partners. How is the fund structured, and what sets it apart from other funds in the SF ecosystem? What kind of support do you provide to searchers beyond capital?
Lineage Partners Fund I is structured as a dedicated fund of searchers, designed to support entrepreneurs across the full lifecycle, from search and acquisition through the critical years of ownership.
We raised €25m at our hard cap and closed the fund last year, oversubscribed with a highly experienced group of LPs. Our investors include former search fund entrepreneurs, private equity professionals, unicorn founders, and long-standing family business owners. Beyond initial fund commitments, many of our LPs also provide substantial additional capital for add-on acquisitions and equity gaps, which is a meaningful advantage for searchers as they grow their businesses over time.
Operationally, my colleague John, who has been building Lineage with me since day one, and I lead the day-to-day work. This includes supporting searchers throughout the search phase, evaluating opportunities, preparing for acquisition, and supporting the operational work on and off the company board. We complement this with a highly experienced and trusted network of search operators and search fund advisors who are actively supporting the entrepreneurs we back.
What sets Lineage apart is not complexity, but intentionality and depth. We operate with a modern, searcher-first mindset, viewing searchers as our primary partners and customers. We run a relatively concentrated portfolio, so we can work closely with each searcher and be meaningfully involved when it matters. Beyond capital, we provide hands-on support across sourcing, diligence, governance, key decision-making, and post-acquisition execution.
A core pillar of our value proposition is board and governance excellence. During my time in venture, I sat on more than 15 boards and saw first-hand how transformative the right board members can be. At Lineage, we place strong emphasis on selecting the best possible board members for each company, drawing from a carefully curated group of operators, executives, and domain experts. It does not need to be me on every board. The objective is always the best fit for the business and the entrepreneur.
Our approach to value creation sits at the intersection of technology, governance, and hands-on operational support. We believe in the thoughtful and intentional use of technology and leverage our decade-long experience in building and scaling technology platforms to support entrepreneurs in practical ways.
This includes selectively deploying AI-driven tools across functions such as sales, marketing, and HR, where smart implementation can meaningfully improve the efficiency of existing employees, increase transparency, and enhance decision-making. The goal is not to over-engineer businesses, but to help professionalize core processes and prepare them for the next decade of ownership and sustainable growth.
3/ Lineage Partners is known for having one of the most rigorous selection processes. Could you explain how it works, and what core principles guide your investment decisions when backing searchers?
We are intentionally selective because the relationship between a searcher and their investors is long-term and deeply personal. Our process is designed not only to understand how someone thinks, decides, and behaves under uncertainty, but also to give searchers the opportunity to truly get to know us.
We see this as a two-way relationship. Searchers should have the same right as investors to carefully choose who they bring onto their journey. Our selection process is therefore intentionally transparent and interactive, allowing both sides to assess alignment early on.
It is important to note, however, that a diligent and rigorous process does not mean slow. Quite the opposite. Also, we make fully independent decisions on each searcher and have substantial experience in spotting and identifying entrepreneurial talent. Thus, we are very confident in deciding who we want to work with.
We look for a combination of intellectual honesty, resilience, coachability, operational curiosity, and values alignment. Technical skills do matter, but they are secondary to judgment, self-awareness, and the ability to lead people through change.
At the core of our investment decisions is a simple question: would we trust this person to take over a business we deeply care about? If the answer is yes, most other challenges become solvable over time.
4/ After 18 months of activity, how would you describe your portfolio of searchers and your first investments?
After 18 months of investing, we support 20 search funds and have completed two acquisitions, with further activity in the pipeline as the portfolio continues to mature. The searchers come from diverse professional, educational, and personal backgrounds, which reflects our core belief that great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere.
They share a strong sense of responsibility, discipline, and a long-term mindset, and are genuinely fun to work with. We maintain an honest and open exchange with each of them, which allows us to be more than just a capital provider.
We intentionally invest in only 10–12 new search funds each year to ensure we can truly live up to our value proposition. This inevitably leads to some tough decisions, but it also allows us to provide thoughtful, focused, and tailored support.
The companies acquired so far fit well within traditional search fund criteria, which is very intentional. They are profitable, resilient businesses in traditional sectors that are often overlooked but essential to the real economy.
While it is still early, the common theme is disciplined execution rather than rapid change. Progress is measured, thoughtful, and focused on sustainability rather than speed.
5/ Germany has a reputation as a complicated market. What is your vision of this market? Is there too much capital chasing too few deals?
Germany is complex, but complexity often signals opportunity. The Mittelstand represents one of the largest succession challenges globally, and that gap is only widening.
While more capital is clearly entering the ecosystem, I do not believe the market is saturated in a meaningful way. The constraint is not deals, but well-prepared and trustworthy entrepreneurs who can navigate succession with credibility, patience, and cultural sensitivity.
Capital alone does not win deals in Germany. Trust does – not just in Germany, but across Europe, where we actively invest. That is where disciplined searchers and long-term partners still have a significant advantage.
6/ What trends are you currently seeing in the SF ecosystem?
We see increasing professionalism across the ecosystem, both in how searchers prepare and how deals are evaluated. Technology is playing a growing role in sourcing, data aggregation, and initial screening, although human judgment and interaction remain the decisive and most critical part.
At the same time, challenges are becoming more visible, including longer search periods, higher seller expectations, and increased overlap with other buyers.
One important observation when raising search capital is that money is not the bottleneck. I would caution searchers not to optimize for the quickest yes, but to deeply understand the person behind the capital. In more than ten years of investing and working with entrepreneurs, I have seen too many cases where a fast yes later turned into a difficult situation for the entrepreneur. Alignment and trust matter far more than speed when selecting the investors who will accompany you on an eight- to ten-year journey.
7/ Where do you see Lineage Partners in five to ten years, and how do you expect the SF ecosystem to evolve?
In five to ten years, I see Lineage as a major and critical catalyst to the European small business ecosystem and as a platform that has supported multiple generations of searchers and succession entrepreneurs. Not necessarily bigger, but deeper, and known for trust, consistency, and outcomes.
I expect the search fund ecosystem to continue professionalizing, with clearer specialization and stronger support structures. Sector expertise, including technology fluency, will increasingly matter—not to disrupt businesses, but to operate them better, more transparently, and more sustainably.
Our ambition is to become a trusted partner for many more searchers while preserving the core fundamentals of a model that has worked for more than three decades.
8/ What advice would you give to first-time entrepreneurs considering launching a SF today?
First, be honest with yourself about why you want to do this. Search is not a shortcut to entrepreneurship. It is a commitment to responsibility, people, and long-term ownership.
Second, invest heavily in preparation, financially, operationally, and personally. The quality of your process often determines the quality of your outcome.
There are many forms of entrepreneurship through acquisition, and everyone should be clear about what kind of entrepreneur they want to be.
Finally, use technology thoughtfully. It can help with sourcing, pattern recognition, and diligence, but it should support judgment rather than replace it. The best searchers combine modern tools with strong governance, old-fashioned relationship-building, and patience. Across centuries – and especially in the age of AI – people, trust, and human connection matter most.
