In high school, Nick Wheeler dreamed of becoming a Green Beret. He achieved this during a decade-long stint in the military, eventually leading a 12-man special forces team deployed to Eastern Europe.
After serving, Wheeler applied to a few MBA programs. The day after his interview at Harvard Business School, he met a fellow Green Beret enrolled there and asked him about his plans. When the veteran said he would like to start a “search fund,” raising money to find, acquire and then run a small business, Wheeler was taken aback. “What is that?” he remembers asking. “It seemed like a ridiculous concept.”
