When solicitor-turned-consultant Carlos Arrebola (Cambridge Executive MBA 2025) and his wife Kathryn decided to buy and run a business together, they were looking for more than a transaction. They wanted to combine meaningful impact, long-term stewardship and a family-centred way of working. Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) offered exactly that.
Today, while Carlos studies for his Executive MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School, he and Kathryn are co-CEOs of Kid Ease, a family-founded early-years education group with nurseries in Kent and Norfolk.
From law and consulting to entrepreneurship through acquisition
Carlos describes his path into ETA as gradual rather than dramatic. He began his career as a solicitor, moved into strategy consulting at LEK Consulting (where he worked with his wife Kathryn), and later led a non-profit organisation. Working closely with smaller, less formalised organisations showed him how much value structured strategic thinking could unlock. He saw that focused, professional management could transform outcomes for organisations that did not have access to top-tier advisory firms. He became increasingly interested in applying this to small and medium-sized enterprises.
At the same time, while at LEK, he and Kathryn discovered how well they worked together professionally. In a traditional corporate career, he notes, it is rare for partners in life to end up as partners in leadership. ETA offered a route to combine both ambitions: building a business and doing so jointly.
The decision to pursue ETA was not taken lightly. It took several years from first exploring the idea to actually fundraising and launching a search fund, and they spoke to a lot of people along the way.
What makes ETA in the UK distinctive
As Carlos and Kathryn moved from idea to execution, they discovered that ETA in the UK has its own particular dynamics. Compared with markets such as the US or parts of Europe, the UK ecosystem is still maturing in several ways.
Carlos highlights 4 features that make the UK a uniquely challenging environment for searchers:
- the local investor base is relatively small compared with markets such as the US or Spain
- the number of aspiring searchers is expanding rapidly, helped by business schools like Cambridge Judge raising awareness of ETA as a career path
- lower mid‑market private equity is very active in a similar deal size range
- there is a high penetration of brokers and other intermediaries in the market
A couple-led search fund as a differentiator
Against this backdrop, Carlos believes that searchers need to move away from generic, high‑volume outreach and towards a highly personalised approach grounded in what genuinely sets them apart.
For him and Kathryn, that distinction was clear: they were searching, and would ultimately lead the business, as a couple. They chose to lean into that identity and their values by positioning themselves as a family buying a family business, with a commitment to looking after the families it serves. At the time, this was still an unusual proposition in the UK market.
“You have to be very deliberate about what makes you, as a searcher, uniquely you, and how that helps you find certain types of opportunities and connect with particular sellers better than others,” Carlos says.
You have to be very deliberate about what makes you, as a searcher, uniquely you, and how that helps you find certain types of opportunities and connect with particular sellers better than others.
Choosing early years education
Before formally launching their search, Carlos and Kathryn carried out a structured scan of UK industries, shortlisting sectors that fit the ETA model: growing and fragmented markets, and those with resilient revenues. They then applied a more personal filter: where could they bring not only professional skills, but also genuine alignment with the mission and stakeholders?
Becoming parents provided a powerful lens. After a difficult experience with a nursery for their son, early years education moved to the top of their list. The sector was already on their shortlist on commercial grounds, their family experience made it feel like the right long-term fit.
They were particularly attracted by the compounding impact of high-quality early-years provision, where the skills a child develops in their first years become the foundation for shaping learning and opportunities for decades to come.
Once committed to the sector, they refined their criteria further, looking for:
- quality: a strong hallmark of excellence, such as Ofsted “Outstanding” ratings
- history: a long-standing, family-owned company
- financials: the right scale and financial profile
When they visited Kid Ease, the group they ultimately acquired, the decision was supported by both data and culture. Beyond the numbers, they sensed a strong family ethos that ran through the staff and the way the nurseries were run, not just through the ownership structure.
Stewarding a 25-year legacy
The founders of Kid Ease started the business around 25 years ago and grew it from scratch. For Carlos, the responsibility to their legacy is central, but not in conflict with growth.
Rather than seeing continuity and change as opposing forces, he views their role as continuing an existing upward trajectory. One early focus has been ensuring that more children can access more funded hours, a principle that has long been part of the organisation’s ethos. The aim is to preserve and extend that commitment as the business grows, rather than replace it.
Learning in Cambridge, leading on Monday
Carlos is completing his Executive MBA at Cambridge Judge while serving as co-CEO, and the timing has allowed him to bring classroom insights straight into the business.
He describes the impact as hugely helpful, since he can apply everything they discuss in class immediately, with several courses and experiences aligning almost perfectly with the early months of running the group.
There were two assignments he found particularly useful. One of them is a marketing course assignment required students to develop a marketing plan. Carlos used this opportunity to also develop Kid Ease’s, creating a plan the business needed anyway. The other is an assignment that focused on examining personal leadership style, arriving when first impressions of him as a new co‑CEO were being formed. This structured reflection has helped him be intentional about how he shows up, listens and communicates during a sensitive transition.
Alongside these specific examples, 2 broader themes stand out in how the Executive MBA has shaped his approach:
1
Meeting people where they are
Rather than assuming everyone is equally advanced in working towards a shared goal, Carlos now thinks carefully about where each colleague is on the change journey and focuses on empowering them. A case study on identifying change advocates within an organisation has translated directly into practice, with early advocates at Kid Ease helping to share messages and build confidence in the new direction.
2
Using data to question assumptions
The programme has also sharpened his use of data. Long‑standing beliefs about performance can be misleading if the underlying metrics are flawed. A fresh look at occupancy data across the nursery group, for example, showed that existing calculations were skewing perceptions of which sites were doing well. Reframing the analysis has helped create a more accurate picture and a stronger basis for action.
The power of the Cambridge ETA community
For Carlos, ETA is “a community-based model” as much as a financial one, and the Cambridge Executive MBA community has been central to his development as an entrepreneur.
He is closely involved in the ETA Special Interest Group at Cambridge Judge, which connects students and alumni interested in search funds and entrepreneurial acquisitions. It is a forum for sharing experiences, contacts and lessons learned, and he is keen to see Cambridge’s ETA community grow to support future cohorts.
His classmates, from fields including finance, consulting, design, research and procurement, also act as a peer advisory network. Many have led major transformations or businesses themselves, and their perspectives feed directly into decisions at Kid Ease, from organisational design to funding options.
Exploring ETA: practical steps for professionals
Carlos’s own journey gives him a clear view of how professionals can explore whether ETA is right for them. He advises taking a staged, deliberate approach rather than jumping straight into fundraising.
Build a foundational understanding of the model
Before committing, Carlos suggests investing time in understanding how ETA actually works: the economics, the timelines and the personal risk involved. He points to accessible introductions such as HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Jan Simon’s Search Funds and Entrepreneurial Acquisitions and the Stanford Search Fund Primer. These resources set out the basic structures, from self‑funded searches to traditional search funds. They help would‑be searchers decide whether the model fits their tolerance for risk, autonomy and long-term ownership.
Take an ETA course where possible
An ETA elective at a business school can provide structure and a safe environment to test interest. At Cambridge Judge, ETA is taught within the wider entrepreneurship offering, combining academic frameworks with case studies and practitioner input. Carlos notes that this kind of teaching helps to demystify the process, highlighting both the opportunities and the trade-offs compared with a more conventional corporate or private-equity career.
Attend ETA conferences and events
Conferences and specialist events are, in Carlos’s view, one of the fastest ways to immerse yourself in the ETA ecosystem. Forums such as the ETA conference co-hosted by Cambridge and London Business School bring together investors, searchers and operators in one place. Attendees can see how different people interpret the model, hear real transaction stories and get a sense of how competitive the market is in different geographies and sectors.
Speak to a wide range of searchers and search CEOs
Carlos emphasises that it is important to go beyond success stories. He says you need to hear both the ups and the downs to get an accurate picture. Talking to people who are fundraising, actively searching and already running acquired businesses gives a more honest picture of the journey: the length of time it can take to find the right company, the emotional strain of deals that fall through and the reality of stepping into a CEO role on day one. These conversations help prospective searchers assess whether they are comfortable with the uncertainty and intensity that come with ETA.
Talk to small business owners in areas that interest you
Alongside speaking to other searchers, Carlos encourages would‑be searchers to spend time with owners of small and medium-sized businesses in sectors, geographies or themes they genuinely care about. The aim is to understand how owners think about succession: what might motivate them to sell in future and what reservations they might have about selling to someone with your particular background. Those reservations effectively become a capability gap plan: a list of skills, experiences or relationships to build while you refine your ETA proposition.
Engage with investors once you have an emerging thesis
Only after this groundwork does Carlos suggest approaching investors. He recommends doing so when you have at least the beginnings of a thesis – the types of businesses you are interested in, why you are well placed to lead them, and how you plan to search. Many ETA investors, he notes, are approachable and willing to act as sounding boards, helping you sharpen your “why you” story and challenge and refine your plans before you are fully ready to start fundraising.
Together, these steps reflect Carlos’s belief that ETA should be a considered, research‑driven decision rather than a leap into the unknown, especially for professionals moving from structured careers in law, consulting or corporate management.
A family project with Cambridge roots
For Carlos and Kathryn, ETA is not just a professional choice. It is a long-term commitment. The boundaries between work and home are deliberately soft, with their shared leadership, their son and their forward-looking perspective all embedded in the company’s identity and direction.
As they develop Kid Ease and deepen its impact in early years education, their journey illustrates how ETA can be used not only to acquire a business, but to steward a legacy, navigate a distinctive UK ecosystem and build a platform for meaningful, family-centred growth.
Executive MBA programmes
The Cambridge Executive MBA and Global Executive MBA are 20-month programmes for senior executives who want to apply their knowledge and skills as they learn.
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