David Berkal

David Berkal

CEO
,
Search Type
Solo
Search launch
2017
Investment year
2017
David’s search started in 2017 with an idea: buy software businesses. Today, his company Banyan acquires, builds, and grows high quality enterprise software businesses. But he's learned that the journey to becoming a great CEO comes with time — and experience.

Why David chose to search

In the beginning, David met with investors outside of the search community. He found that they had a harder time betting on him as a younger entrepreneur out of the gate. The strength of searching with Pacific Lake is that we’re positioned to back a less experienced individual when there's drive and ambition partnered with a strong willingness to learn lessons about leadership (and life) along the search fund journey.

Why we backed David

We first met David in 2013 when he was in his first year at Stanford GSB and immediately saw in him ambition, intellectual horsepower, and a deep belief in a thesis around which he could build a big businesses. David conceived of the Banyan model in our Boston office in partnership with key search fund investors and we knew from the jump he was going to do something special. We were fortunate to build a partnership with David very early in his journey, and have sought opportunities to deepen that relationship overtime. In 2020, after proving his thesis and reaching key milestones, David sought a partner to help fund the next chapter of Banyan's growth. Pacific Lake's Long-Term Hold strategy led the transaction and continued to lean in to supporting the business.