The Red Lion ETA Program
A modern, operator-shaped framework for teaching ownership through real businesses — not theory alone.
The Red Lion ETA Program blends academic rigor with operator-grade practicality. It's designed for universities, entrepreneurial centers, and emerging business owners who want a structured way to study real companies and the people who run them.
Rooted in leading ETA research and real-world analysis, the program teaches students how to find, evaluate, and lead small and mid-sized businesses with judgment, discipline, and respect for the operators who built them.
A New Standard for ETA Education
The Red Lion ETA Program was built for institutions and operators who take ownership seriously. It gives students a structured way to study real businesses, understand owner psychology, and see how small decisions accumulate into durable outcomes over years — not months.
The program works for business schools, entrepreneurship centers, fellowships, and independent operators who want more than case snippets and pitch decks. It's a body of work that turns ETA from a buzzword into a rigorous, teachable path.
The program includes:
— Structured ETA curriculum aligned with leading academic research
— Case-based learning drawn from real small and mid-sized businesses
— Owner psychology, succession, and negotiation frameworks
— Search strategy, thesis design, and opportunity triage
— Operator-fit, self-awareness, and readiness exercises
— Operating fundamentals for first-time CEOs
— Capstone-ready modules for cohort or semester use
Core Pillars of the Program
Pillar 1 – Foundations of ETA & Ownership
What makes ETA different from startups and traditional private equity. Students study search fund history, self-funded paths, and permanent capital thinking — drawing on frameworks from Stanford, Harvard, IESE, and leading operators.
— Search models and funding paths
— Successor economics and incentives
— What makes a business "acquisition-grade" vs. merely profitable
Pillar 2 – Owner Psychology & Succession Dynamics
Students learn to see the deal from the owner's side: legacy, fear, and the emotional weight of transition. This is where Jim Sharpe–style post-acquisition leadership and Permanent Equity–style stewardship show up in practical terms.
— Reading succession signals
— Running respectful, founder-first conversations
— Designing transitions that protect people, not just numbers
Pillar 3 – Search Strategy & Opportunity Design
The program teaches students how to design a search that fits their skills and their life. Inspired by Grousbeck, Ruback & Yudkoff, Walker Deibel, and IESE studies, it emphasizes focus over volume and clarity over noise.
— Industry mapping and fragmentation analysis
— Building and testing a search thesis
— Triage frameworks for inbound and outbound opportunities
Pillar 4 – Operating & Value Creation
Owning a business is not the finish line — it's the starting point. Students learn the operating basics that matter most in the first 24 months after close.
— Cash flow discipline and reporting
— People, process, and culture as early priorities
— Practical playbooks for the first 90–180 days
Curriculum Structure
Designed for universities, fellowships, and serious individual operators
ETA Fundamentals
Search models, path selection, readiness, ethics of buying from legacy owners.
Acquisition-Grade Business Identification
Quiet SMBs, fragmentation, real moats, and succession-ready owners.
Strategic Evaluation
Cash flow quality, competitive posture, operator-fit, and risk patterns.
Owner Psychology & Negotiation
Trust-building, fair structure, and transitions that protect teams and communities.
Operating the Business
First-time CEO frameworks, process maturity, leadership under uncertainty.
Capstone / Applied Project
Students apply Red Lion tools to a real or simulated business, building an operator-grade evaluation and operating plan.
Why Universities Choose Red Lion
Academically aligned, operator-first.
Built on work from Grousbeck, Ruback & Yudkoff, Sharpe, Deibel, IESE and others — translated into a practical curriculum that respects both scholarship and reality.
Case-driven, not case-light.
Students analyze complete business profiles, not just deal teasers. They practice reading financials, markets, and people together.
Flexible delivery.
Works as a capstone, a full-semester course, a short intensive, or a fellowship track.
Tool-integrated.
Institutions can optionally plug into Red Lion's Discovery and Deep Dive tools to give students access to structured business evaluations.
Built by a practitioner-analyst.
The program reflects Sean Holt's background in analytics and acquisition work — designed by someone who has lived both BI and the operator's gauntlet.
For Emerging Operators
For students and operators, the program is an antidote to abstract entrepreneurship content. It gives you a grounded view of what it actually means to own and run a real business, with real people and real constraints.
Students learn to:
— See quiet SMBs as potential paths to ownership, not background noise
— Evaluate businesses with analytical discipline, not vibes
— Understand owner psychology, succession pressure, and what makes a fair deal
— Assess operator-fit — where they are well-matched and where they are not
— Design a search or opportunity path that fits their risk, skills, and life
— Avoid the classic mistakes first-time buyers and CEOs make
Grounded in Leading ETA Research
The Red Lion ETA Program stands on the shoulders of the field's most important thinkers. It draws from the original search fund work at Stanford, HBR's "Guide to Buying a Small Business," Walker Deibel's self-funded frameworks, IESE's global search fund studies, and long-term holding philosophies from firms like Permanent Equity. Red Lion weaves these ideas into a single, operator-shaped curriculum focused on judgment, stewardship, and durable ownership.
How Institutions Use the Program
— As a full-semester course in ETA or small business ownership
— As a capstone or practicum where students build a full business evaluation
— As a module within a broader entrepreneurship or PE curriculum
— As a framework for fellowships, incubators, or operator-in-residence programs
Red Lion collaborates with faculty and program leads to adapt the curriculum to their context — from MBA classrooms to entrepreneurial centers, from undergraduate programs to executive education.