12 weeks. Source 30+ acquisition targets a week, run financial diligence on real deals, structure creative capital stacks (no-SBA), and draft real LOIs on the MergeWorks portal. Top fellows join MW's live acquisition pipeline as Co-Sourcers with a documented path to operating roles and equity on deals they help close.
For MBA students and working professionals with 3+ years in finance, consulting, law, healthcare admin, or ops. Assigned a live MergeWorks deal in Week 1. Sourcing intro compressed to Week 2, then straight into full financial + operational diligence, LOI drafting on the live deal, advanced deal structuring, IC memo, and capstone. Same 12 weeks — roughly 3x the density. Named participation on the deal team for deals you materially advance.
Every fellow is assigned a target industry from MergeWorks's active acquisition strategy. You don't do a case-study project. You source and structure deals from MW's real pipeline — the same targets we are actively evaluating.
Advanced fellows compress the sourcing intro (done by Week 2), take on a live MW deal in Week 1, and spend the deep middle of the program on full financial + operational diligence, LOI drafting, advanced deal structuring, IC memo, and capstone. Every deliverable is IC-grade and shippable to MW leadership. Named participation on the deal team for deals you materially advance.
30 sourced targets per week per fellow — 15 community deals + 15 operating businesses across your assigned vertical. Direct broker outreach, cold sourcing, Flippa/Empire Flippers, and MW's active-deal network.
Cumulative: 3,600+ deals sourced by cohortEvery fellow drafts a real LOI on a real deal using the MW portal LOI Builder — auto-generated creative capital stack (no SBA), walk-away numbers, MW-branded PDF export, admin review before it reaches an owner.
Ready to send · MW-branded · signature-block readyEvery LOI ships alongside a full 4-section MW-branded Monetization Roadmap deck built on the MW Canva template — gap analysis, 90-day fix, Years 1-5 plan, ROI projection. The deliverable owners see.
Real deals · real math · real numbersAssigned an active MergeWorks deal or vertical in Week 1. Read the CIM, model the P&L, review the diligence work done to date. Form your own thesis. Weekly 1:1 with Chien or Trisha to lock your role in the deal from Day 1.
Live deal ownership · not case studiesFull financial DD, operational + customer DD, LOI drafting on the live deal, and advanced no-SBA capital structuring — compressed into Weeks 4-7. IC-grade output on MW's real templates. Weekly 1:1 with Chien or Trisha to pressure-test your work. This is the meat of the program: real deals, real numbers, real decisions.
Deal-work-first · not lecture-firstFull Investment Committee memo formatted to MW's real IC standard on your live MW target. Advanced fellows who materially source or diligence a deal MW pursues are named on the deal team and eligible for sourcing-fee participation per the MW Fellow Post-Close Roles playbook, with first look at operating roles where applicable.
Real work · real attribution · real deal teamEvery fellow ships a content portfolio during the program. The point: you leave positioned as an investor with a real portfolio of work — not just a résumé line. Four required deliverables:
Every fellow is matched to a target vertical from MergeWorks's active acquisition strategy. You rank your top preferences on the application; we assign based on cohort fit, background, and where MW has live pipeline. Four verticals are newly added to the strategy (tagged NEW).
The curriculum + real deals are the core. These are the compounding perks that keep paying dividends after Dec 11.
Ambitious sourcers, operators, and builders from MBA programs, top undergrads, and working professionals. All doing the reps alongside you every Friday. The people you meet in this cohort are the people you will do deals with for the next decade.
Top-tier capstones, IC memos, and industry research reports are published to MergeWorks's partner network of PE firms, investment banks, family offices, and independent sponsors. Your name on the byline. Real distribution to the people who hire and invest.
Top 10% of each cohort receive the MergeWorks Fellowship Distinction. Referenceable on resume, LinkedIn, and future applications. Comes with a signed letter from the MW managing partners describing the specific deal work that earned it.
Post-cohort alumni Slack, quarterly deal-flow calls, invites to MergeWorks closing dinners in NYC, Orange County, and Dallas, plus standing intro-rights to the fellow directory. Access continues indefinitely.
The goal of this cohort is not to study M&A. The goal is to close one. The first fellow (or team) to close a deal under this cohort receives a public MergeWorks Deal Closer Award: a dedicated spotlight on the MW platform, named participation on the deal team, a published case study on the Grow By Buying podcast network, and a signed letter from the MW managing partners.
Closing reflections from fellows across three cohorts and six verticals. Pulled from their own capstones in their own words. More capstones available on request during the application process.
"The value is often in the handoffs. Every handoff should make the next handoff easier. Managing both sides means managing information, timing, and expectations."
Micah managed both sides of a live acquisition in the events space during the M&A 2606 cohort and became the first fellow to see a deal through to close. His capstone is now the MW reference guide for sourcing, outreach, NDA handoff, and clarification cadence on every event-industry deal.
"The biggest thing I'm taking from this fellowship is that good deal work isn't just finding businesses. It's learning how to think like an owner before you become one."
"Vertical focus accelerates pattern recognition. Eleven HVAC deals built more expertise than forty generic deals would. The fellowship gave me a way to think about M&A that I will use for years."
"I came into MergeWorks expecting to learn more about M&A. The more useful outcome was learning how to think through an acquisition before a deal ever reaches the finish line."
"I came into this fellowship just trying to find soccer businesses. I'm leaving with a much better sense of how to pick the right targets, actually talk to owners, handle follow up, and turn outreach into real acquisition opportunities."
"My hypothesis coming in was that high revenue and patient volume made a dental practice a good acquisition. After reviewing 20 practices in depth, I learned that acquisition quality is really about operational independence, not revenue size. That reframe changed how I evaluate every deal now."
"What I came out knowing is why a meaningful share of a dental deal price gets tied to post-close retention rather than paid at close. The multiple only holds if production survives the owner transition. That is the kind of underwriting judgment I did not have before this fellowship."
Not a case competition. Not a lecture series. A co-sourcing program that walks you through EVERY stage of a real acquisition — sourcing, owner conversations, financial diligence, LOI structuring, capital-stack design, IC memo, and post-cohort co-sourcing on MW's live pipeline. Top fellows continue as Co-Sourcers and operating partners on real MW closings.
15-min application + 15-min conversation (30-min for Advanced). We match you to a target vertical and confirm your track.
30 deals/week (Standard) or 60/week (Advanced) across brokers, direct owner outreach, community channels, and Flippa/Empire Flippers.
Real recorded seller/broker calls. Screen every deal against the joint acquisition criteria — vertical fit, revenue band, EBITDA, owner transition plan.
P&L normalization. Add-back verification. Working-capital analysis. Revenue-mix + payer concentration review. Advanced fellows run full Quality-of-Earnings prep with MW's external QoE partners.
Draft real LOIs via the portal LOI Builder using MW's 216 creative funding strategies — LP preferred equity, seller notes, earnouts, RBF, ABL, rollover equity, consulting offsets. Zero-SBA capital stacks that trend MW cash toward $0.
Build the 4-section MW-branded Monetization Roadmap on Canva. Write the Investment Committee memo formatted to MW's real IC standard. Present at Capstone Day.
Top performers continue as MW Co-Sourcers post-cohort. Named on the deal team for materially sourced/diligenced deals. Documented path to operating role + equity on closings per the Fellow Post-Close Roles playbook.
Every week compounds. By week 3 you are on the phone with real owners. By week 6 you are drafting real LOIs on real deals. By week 12 your capstone is a fully-structured acquisition case MW can act on.
Advanced fellows are assigned a live MW deal in Week 1 and follow a compressed, deal-work-first arc. Sourcing intro is done by Week 2. Financial DD, operational DD, LOI drafting, and advanced structuring compress into Weeks 4-7. Content portfolio + IC memo + capstone through Weeks 8-12. Same 12 calendar weeks — roughly 3x the density. Capital raising is MW's job; your job is the deal.
You don't just leave with a resume line. Top performers continue as MW Co-Sourcers with real deal-flow economics. The highest-performing alumni return to teach, mentor, and lead future cohorts — because sourcing and operating are genuinely different skills, and the fellows who master this process are the ones best positioned to train the next generation.
The Standard Track is deal-work heavy from Week 2 onward. You will make cold outreach calls, read P&Ls, sit on real owner interviews, and draft a real LOI. We teach the M&A stack end-to-end (sourcing, diligence, LOI, capital structuring, exit) — you need to bring the willingness to do the reps.
There is a $500 refundable enrollment deposit paid upfront when you accept your seat. The deposit is returned in full when you complete the program — this is written into the fellowship contract very clearly. The deposit exists to ensure cohort commitment (you have real skin in the game, so does everyone sitting next to you), not to gate access. Everything else is included: full curriculum, portal LOI Builder, Monetization Roadmap Canva template, live deal reviews with MW leadership, and access to MW's real acquisition pipeline. Sourcing-fee participation and equity opportunities on closed deals are earned through performance in the cohort, not paid upfront.
Every fellow ships a content portfolio during the program — the point is to leave positioned as an investor with a real portfolio of work, not just a résumé line. Four required deliverables: (1) minimum 2 recorded owner or broker interviews on the MW 12-question set (video required); (2) a full industry research report on your assigned vertical (TAM, competitive landscape, deal-flow map, MW-fit thesis); (3) a capstone deliverable (IC Memo + Monetization Roadmap + live presentation to MW leadership); and (4) EITHER a documented-journey series (weekly LinkedIn / Substack / Twitter posts on what you're learning as you source real deals) OR a taught-topic deliverable (teach one M&A topic you already know cold — written guide, recorded workshop, or live cohort session). Fellows who publish get seen.
Yes. Every fellow is assigned a target vertical from MW's active acquisition strategy and sources into that pipeline for 12 weeks. Deals you source that MW pursues are attributed to you. Top-performing Fellows continue as MW Co-Sourcers post-cohort with named participation on deals they help close.
Standard Track: 8-12 hrs/week including the Friday session (5:30-7 PM EST, 90 min) plus your own sourcing, diligence, and journal time. Advanced Track: 10-15 hrs/week including the Friday session (7:00-8:30 PM EST, 90 min) plus a weekly 1:1 with Chien or Trisha plus live-pipeline work. Weeks 6, 10, and 12 are heavier for both tracks due to LOI + Roadmap submissions and Capstone Day. Advanced Weeks 4-5 are heavy (compressed financial + operational DD) and Week 7 (content sprint).
The full M&A stack for small-to-mid-market acquisitions: deal sourcing (broker + direct outreach + community channels), financial diligence (P&L normalization, add-backs, working capital, QoE), the 216 MW creative funding strategies (no-SBA capital structuring), LOI drafting via the portal LOI Builder, Monetization Roadmap design on Canva, valuation and comps, IC memo writing, and exit modeling.
You can withdraw at any time. All deal work stays with MergeWorks per the confidentiality + IP assignment terms, and no post-cohort economic participation survives early exit. The $500 enrollment deposit is not refunded on early withdrawal. Deposit refunds are tied to completion (see the Completion Contract section). We prefer you finish. If you cannot complete this cohort, you are welcome to re-apply for a future one.
Seven criteria (all required): attend Friday sessions live with a maximum of 2 missed weeks across the 12, hit weekly deliverables, hit the sourcing cadence, ship all 4 content-portfolio items, attend all mandatory 1:1 walkthroughs, submit LOI + DD deliverables, and present the capstone live in Week 12. Full breakdown in the Completion Contract section. All 7 items are written into the fellowship contract you sign at acceptance.
We look at genuine interest in M&A + operating businesses, communication clarity, comfort with numbers, willingness to do cold outreach, and mindset. We are not looking for perfect finance-major resumes. We are looking for people who will actually do the work.
Yes. Daria Popescu's "Trust Before Terms" capstone (cross-vertical wellness → e-commerce framework) and Dhruv Patel's HVAC maintenance-penetration capstone (both now used inside every MW Deal Review) are reference-quality examples. Ask during the interview.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We can provide documentation for internship credit if your school allows it. Ask your career center. Handshake lists this as an experience-based program.
The $500 enrollment deposit is refunded when you complete the program. These are the exact criteria. All of them are written into the fellowship contract you sign at acceptance.
$500 deposit refunded within 14 business days of Capstone Day via original payment method. Confirmation email sent from mafellowship@mergeworks.org with refund transaction ID.
Webinar Friday, October 16 · 1:00 PM EST. Applications due Monday, October 19 · 11:59 PM EST. Cohort 2610 starts Friday, October 23, 2026.
Apply for Fall Cohort$500 refundable enrollment deposit on acceptance · fully refunded on program completion.
MBA student or working professional? Toggle to the Advanced Track for a faster, deeper, deal-closing path.