Roughly 40% of searchers never acquire a company, and almost nobody programs a session for them. This panel puts recently successful searchers alongside searchers whose funds closed without a deal, and works through what actually separated the outcomes: thesis discipline, sourcing volume, deal selection, investor and lender relationships, timing, and luck. Panelists will be candid about the decisions they would make differently and the warning signs they missed or heeded. Attendees will leave with a clearer, less mythologized picture of what the search year demands, and a framework for reading their own progress honestly at the six- and twelve-month marks.