Search fund first 100 days: a post-close plan that maps systems first

A search fund first 100 days plan should secure cash controls and admin access in week one, meet every employee and top customer in month one, set KPI baselines and a board rhythm by day 60, and inventory every system and archive before any tool is cancelled. Change little until you understand how the business really runs.

What the first 100 days are for

The first 100 days after a search fund acquisition are for securing the business, learning how it actually runs and earning the team's trust, not for big changes. A workable plan secures cash and admin access in week one, meets every employee and top customer in month one, sets KPI baselines and a board rhythm by day 60, and decides what to change only after day 75.

One step most plans skip is a systems and archive inventory done before any tool is switched off. Software subscriptions are an easy early saving, and a cancelled tool can take years of operating history with it. The inventory records metadata only (what each system holds, from when, and who controls it) and can be built from invoices, card statements and conversations with long-tenured staff, without opening any files.

If the seller is a retiring founder, the handover is part of a much larger pattern. McKinsey's 2026 ownership transfer report estimates that about six million US small and medium-size businesses will face ownership transitions by 2035 as baby boomers retire. In a founder handover, the founder may be the only person who holds the passwords, the vendor relationships and the memory of where old records live, so the first weeks of the seller transition are the time to capture them.

Prerequisites before day one

Closing documents in hand, with a list of what transferred; an asset purchase moves only the listed assets, so read the explainer on who owns business records after an asset sale.
A seller transition agreement that names specific handovers: passwords, key accounts, supplier contacts and where historical files are kept.
Bank signatory and payment-approval paperwork ready to file on day one.
A day-one script for employees, then customers and suppliers, agreed with the seller.
The lender's reporting calendar and your investors' update expectations.
An empty systems register; the data inventory builder helps list systems and records.

The 100-day plan in four phases

Phase	Days	Focus	Done when
Secure	1-14	Cash, access, first communication	You control every bank account and every admin login
Listen	15-45	Employees, customers, suppliers, processes	Every employee has had a conversation with you and top customers have heard from you
Baseline	46-75	KPIs, cash forecast, board pack, systems register	The board has seen a baseline it agrees with
Decide	76-100	Year-one plan and first changes	Changes are sequenced, owned and communicated

Step by step

Day one: announce, don't change. Stand next to the seller, explain why you bought the business and say what will not change. Avoid announcing new tools, titles or policies.
Week one: take over the money. Move bank signatories, set dual approval above a threshold you choose, and review who can change payroll and vendor bank details.
Weeks one and two: take over admin access. Record who holds the admin login for the domain registrar, DNS, email tenant, accounting, payroll, CRM, phone system and any password manager, then move each to a company-controlled account.
Weeks one to four: meet everyone. Where the company has several management layers, meet each manager first and then hold skip-level sessions. Ask three questions: what should I not touch, what slows you down, and what worries you about the sale.
Weeks two to six: call customers and suppliers. Start with the top accounts by revenue, ideally with the seller on the first calls.
Weeks two to six: build the systems and archive register. The next section shows what to record.
Weeks four to eight: baseline the numbers. Pick a short list of KPIs, write down how each is calculated and which system it comes from, and build a 13-week cash forecast.
By day 60: set the board rhythm. Agree with investors how often the board meets, what the pack contains and when lender reporting is due.
Weeks eight to twelve: write down the core processes. Quote-to-cash, service delivery, hiring and month-end close are a sensible first four.
Days 76-100: decide and sequence. Write the year-one plan. Schedule tool consolidation only after the register shows every system has an export route and an owner.

The systems and archive register, metadata only

Companies that make strong licensing candidates typically keep records across 10-15 or more systems, and the oldest can slip past diligence: a file server in a closet, a ticketing tool replaced years ago but never cancelled, a founder's mailbox holding two decades of customer correspondence. Record each one before anything is consolidated, migrated or cancelled.

What to record	Example entry	Why it matters before switching anything off
System and purpose	Legacy ticketing tool, customer support	Shows which history lives outside the main systems
Earliest record date	First ticket in 2011	Long histories are the hardest to recreate
Admin owner today	Founder's personal login	Access can disappear when the seller steps back
Renewal or end date	Annual renewal next quarter	A missed renewal can end access to the data
Export route	Built-in export, vendor request, or none known	A tool with no export route should not be cancelled yet
Retention setting	Auto-delete after a set period, or keep indefinitely	Settings can quietly remove history after a user leaves
Personal or client data	Customer contacts, employee files	Flags what needs care under contracts and privacy promises
Dependencies	Feeds invoicing or reporting	Prevents breaking a process when a tool is retired

Record no content: no sample files and no exports shared outside the company. The register is a map, not a copy. When you later cut software spend, the guide to SaaS rationalization explains how to assess an archive before cancelling a tool.

Common mistakes in the first 100 days

Mistake	Why it hurts	Fix
Announcing changes in week one	Staff read it as a verdict on the old way before you understand it	Hold changes until the decide phase
Cancelling the seller's tools to cut costs	Years of history can go with an unexported subscription	Export to a read-only archive first, then cancel
Leaving admin access with the seller or an outside IT contractor	You cannot fix an outage or recover data without it	Move every admin login to a company account by week two
Deleting departed users' accounts	Mailboxes and files can be removed along with the license	Check the vendor's documentation and archive first
Building KPIs from spreadsheets nobody owns	The baseline breaks the first time that person is out	Tie each KPI to a named system and owner
Migrating the CRM without activity history	Notes, emails and lost-deal reasons disappear	Migrate or archive the full activity log, not just open deals
Treating the founder's personal email as private	Customer history may sit in a personal account	Agree in the transition agreement how business correspondence is handed over

Illustrative example

Illustrative: a searcher buys a fictional 70-person managed IT services firm founded in 2009. On day 20 the register turns up a self-hosted ticketing system on an office server, with tickets back to 2010, still administered by the founder and due to be replaced by a newer service platform. The searcher pauses the cutover, takes a full export, keeps the old server read-only and moves the admin login to a company account. Nothing is decided about the archive in the first 100 days, but the history is safe and documented.

Many of those tickets describe client environments, so whether the archive could ever be licensed would depend on client contracts. Preserving it keeps the option open; the guide to search fund value creation covers how to test it later.

Where data licensing fits after day 100

Licensing records is a year-one or year-two question, not a first-100-days task. A company is worth screening when it had 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), has several years of documented operations, owns the rights to its records and has an owner or executive willing to consider an exclusive license for an agreed term. Because the test is headcount at peak, a company that has shrunk can still qualify. Many search fund targets are smaller than that baseline; if yours is, the register still protects its operating history, but it is not a licensing candidate under the current baseline. The who qualifies page lists every criterion, and the guide to PE digital transformation explains why an archive should be assessed before modernizing.

If your own company fits, it can apply directly at sourcex.si/apply. If you know other searcher-CEOs whose companies fit, you can introduce them as a partner. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward is payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, it is never deducted from what the company receives, and no reward is guaranteed. Check any investor agreement or professional rules on outside income before registering.

Next step

Start the systems register this week, before the first renewal date passes. To introduce a peer's company, register as a partner.

Step 1Share your linkSend your personal link to a company you know.
Step 2Company appliesThe company applies itself at /apply.
Step 3Buyer selects and paysThe buyer selects and pays for the data and SourceX receives its fee.
Step 4You get your rewardYour share of SourceX fees becomes payable.

Common questions

Should a searcher change anything in the first 30 days?

Change only what protects the business: bank signatories, payment approvals, admin access and any obvious security gap. Leave products, pricing, titles, tools and policies alone until you have met the team and seen a full month-end close. Early changes made without context tend to cost trust that a new CEO needs later, and many turn out to solve problems the business did not have.

How long should the seller stay involved after closing?

It depends on the transition agreement, the seller's role and how much of the customer and supplier relationships sit with them. Whatever the period, write down the specific handovers you need, such as passwords, key introductions and where historical files live, and track them weekly. A defined list gets more out of a short transition than an open-ended consulting arrangement does.

Do I need IT help to build the systems register?

Usually not for the first pass. The register is a list of systems, dates, owners, export routes and retention settings, which you can build from invoices, the company card statement, the password manager and conversations with long-tenured staff. Bring in an IT provider when you need to confirm export routes or move admin access, and make sure their findings go into the company's own register.

Which KPIs should a new owner baseline first?

Start with cash, revenue by customer, gross margin by service or product line, customer retention, backlog or pipeline, and headcount with turnover. Write down each definition and the system it comes from, because the same metric is often calculated differently by the seller, the outside accountant and the lender. A short, consistent list is more useful than a long dashboard in the first year.

Does a company need 50 full-time employees today to qualify for data licensing?

No. The baseline is 50+ full-time employees at peak, with contractors excluded, so a company that has shrunk since its peak can still qualify. It also needs several years of documented operations, rights to license its records and an authorized sponsor. An archive that was purged, or stranded in a tool nobody pays for anymore, is lost for licensing purposes, which is why the register matters during the first 100 days.

Free resources

Earnout scenario calculator — Probability-weighted earnout value and its present value.
Profit margin calculator — Profit and margin across three scenarios.
Client opportunity brief generator — An editable intro email, summary and checklist.
All free tools · MCP resource center

By SourceX Partnerships Team · Published 2026-10-09 · Updated 2026-10-09

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