Ryan Turk
CEO
,
Radiation Detection Company
Search Type
Solo
Search launch
2020
Investment year
2020
“I feel an immense gratitude, pride, and responsibility. I inherited this legacy and all of these employees, and I need to do a really good job to help make this company successful.”
“I feel an immense gratitude, pride, and responsibility. I inherited this legacy and all of these employees, and I need to do a really good job to help make this company successful.”
Ryan began his career as a submarine officer in the US Navy but ultimately wanted to be an entrepreneur. He learned about the search fund model through a friend and never looked back.
Why Ryan chose to search
A cold-call to Irv Grousbeck at Stanford ultimately ignited Ryan's passion for search. After leaving active duty, Ryan sought out entrepreneurial experiences wherever he could: from spending a summer supporting other searchers with sourcing and due diligence, to leading a global sales team at a Boston-based series B company. For Ryan, the path of a search fund entrepreneur felt like a very practical way to surround himself with a good team and a good set of advisors, enabling him to fulfil his dream of leading a business without having to start one from scratch.
Why we backed Ryan
What Ryan brought to the table was genuine authenticity, the desire to be his own boss and comfort with ambiguity that being an entrepreneur brings. In Ryan's own words, "no one was going to tell me the 'right' answer. There weren't going to be many explicit 'yes'es or 'no's. I realized that I have a lot of autonomy. Yes, I'm an entrepreneur on my own path, and these are my partners... but I really have to cut my own path. I got really energized by that. It was really exciting for me."
