Salt Lake City, Utah – August 27, 2025
The University of Utah’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute will host its first Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Summit on September 25 at the David Eccles School of Business—marking the launch of the school’s new ETA program, the first of its kind in the Mountain West.
ETA, a career path that allows entrepreneurs to acquire and grow existing businesses rather than starting from scratch, has surged in popularity since its origins at Stanford in the 1980s. Today, programs at Stanford and Harvard have helped make ETA a mainstream route into private equity.
“Utah has a clear, unmet need for a dedicated ETA program to prepare MBA and master’s students to enter private equity,” said Scott Holley, Executive Director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. “Our goal is to build a pipeline that places graduates directly into ETA opportunities.”
ETA, he explained, is not a new idea—it traces back to the 1980s when H. Irving Grousbeck at Stanford pioneered the first search funds. By the early 2000s, Stanford and Harvard had formal ETA programs that have since become highly successful. The model follows a five-step path: fundraising, search, transaction, operation, and exit.
The summit will feature keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions covering every stage of the ETA process—searching, buying, operating, and exiting a business. Attendees will include investors, entrepreneurs, business owners, and graduate students.
Speakers include:
- Scott Holley, executive director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, former ETA entrepreneur and CEO of Eddyline Kayaks
- Karen Spencer, co-founder of searchfunder.com, the world’s largest online ETA community, and founder of Fetch Strategies
- Mark Jansen, professor of finance and experienced search fund investor
- Chase Murdock, CEO of Decada Group, which buys, grows, and stewards companies in Utah
- Heather Barber, serial ETA entrepreneur and author of “Buy Scale Sell”
- Dan Hanks, partner at Peterson Partners, a leading institutional search-fund investor based in Utah
- Damon Deru, ETA entrepreneur
Holley said the program aims to graduate two to three students annually, each with detailed investor networks and placement strategies. “We want Utah to emerge as a national leader in ETA,” stated Holley.
Registration is open at lassonde.utah.edu/summit.
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