ETA Insider Podcast Redefining ETA in the Public Markets
Oct 31, 2025
JT Fitzgerald, CEO of Kingsway Financial Services and founder of the Kingsway Search Accelerator, blends trading roots with acquisition-led entrepreneurship. He recounts building a permanent-capital platform, proving a searcher-led leadership model, and tightening criteria for winning deals. He also covers KSX’s growth playbook, tax advantages, and how to attract patient public-market investors.
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First Search Fund Purchase And Investor Trail
- JT launched a traditional search fund in late 2002 and bought a manufacturing company in Lexington, Kentucky.
- He and partner Dan Campbell raised via concentric circles of friends and family and used a dividend recap to reward early investors, who then wanted to back other searchers.
Using Kingsway's NOLs To Run Search Experiments
- JT joined Kingsway to build an extended warranty platform and to leverage Kingsway's permanent capital and large NOL tax asset.
- He bought a warranty business, installed searcher-CEO Tyler Gordy, and exited with a north of 10X return protected from federal tax by NOLs.
ETA Ecosystem Has Matured And Requires Narrower Focus
- The ETA ecosystem has matured with more searchers, capital, information, and diverse models like incubators and long-term hold vehicles.
- Kingsway tightened its selection criteria to focus on attributes and business models that empirically work for search investing.