Quote from @Nathan Fisher:
Thanks for the shout out Nate. @Nicholas Burch we just started Hartman - Virzi capital late in 2022 (hvcfund.com). Preparation started about 8 months before we incorporated. We used this time to build up a knowledge base on what we were getting into (in our case, multi family private equity/ syndication). I recommend books such as "The best ever apartment syndication book" by Joe Fairless, books on underwriting, fund raising, and market analysis.
After we knew what we were getting into, we then chose a target market and interviewed/ connected with 3rd parties to bring on our team, think Accounting firms, Securities atty's, property managers, local brokers, website design, back end software, etc.
We thought about LLC structures, property requirements, submarket analysis, and started to gather soft commitments from potential investors, about 1.2 million in our case.
After 6 months of "due diligence", learning and getting ready to make offers, we incorporated in June of 2022. Submitted a handful of offers over the next 6 months but did not close.
For the "finding a deal" part of your question, we are still searching. We have just deployed an off market acquisition strategy we are testing out over the next few months; mailers, cold calling, etc.
Hopefully I helped a little bit, but we are still trying to grow and close our first fund.
Would love to connect and go into more detail if you'd like.