About the Rice Entrepreneurship Acquisitions Lab

The Rice Entrepreneurship Acquisitions Lab is run by faculty and mentors with proven experience in business acquisitions. They offer students the tools, support, know-how, knowledge and connections to help them successfully acquire a business. Their resources, mentoring and network opportunities will continue be available to all students after graduation.

The advisory board is comprised of entrepreneurs with decades of proven experience in finding, financing, purchasing, managing and exiting businesses. Advisors, at differing entrepreneurial stages, are selected to provide students with a broad perspective of the process. The advisory board also provides students its initial network for conducting their own search.

Advisory board members serve as group leaders in the course and work directly with students in an apprenticeship model. Once a business in identified and placed under contract, members have connections to both debt and equity financing resources to supplement their own capabilities.

Rice Entrepreneurship Acquisitions Lab’s goal is to achieve the best possible outcome for the seller, buyer and future of the business. This requires careful analysis of the value the buyer brings and his or her ability to grow and nurture the business. The fund aims to level the playing field so that buyer and seller both part feeling satisfied and eager for the future.