My guest on this episode is Adriana Garcia Ceja who recently launched a traditional search fund backed by Footbridge Partners, Pacific Lake, and others with a primary focus on the healthcare industry. Adriana brings a ton of experience to her search, including corporate development at Home Depot and a head of special products role at Applied Concepts, a search fund backed company, during her gap year in her MBA at Harvard.

We talk extensively about lessons learned at Home Depot, including the many mentors she's had along the way, how to be an entrepreneur in a big company, picking the right search fund model for you, getting hands on experience prior to searching, and how we can encourage more women to become searchers.

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Links:

Adriana on LinkedIn

Bolivar Health

Applied Concepts

Flying Magazine

Topics:

(2:37) - What are your considerations when looking at different options in your Search?

(5:13) - What factors did you weigh when looking at investors?

(7:33) - What advice did you get from people to help you prepare mentally for Search?

(9:23) - What motivates you to be so interested in the healthcare industry?

(11:05) - What was your experience like working at the corporate level at Home Depot?

(18:14) - Being Entrepreneurial in a Big Company

(20:19) - Where are the similarities you see in service, retail, and healthcare?

(22:13) - What observations did you make in hiring, training, and management from Home Depot that could be applied in an acquired healthcare business?

(26:07) - Where do you draw the line in a Search when it comes to a culture that might be too far gone?

(30:40) - What was your experience like at Applied Concepts?

(35:15) - What challenges did you encounter as a woman in a male-dominated industry?

(37:44) - What will it take to balance the cohort of Searchers?

(42:37) - Who are some female role models that you admire?

(44:16) - What are you most excited about in your first year as a Searcher?

(45:37) - What College class would you teach if it could be on anything?

(46:27) - What’s a strongly held belief you’ve changed your mind on?

(48:42) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?