Alessandro Mina

Alessandro "Sandro" Mina is Managing Partner of Relay Investments, a Boston-based firm he co-founded in 2013 to back search-fund entrepreneurs. Relay says Mina leads the team and focuses on strategic advisory and investor relations; his current board roles listed by the firm include Cicero Therapies, EyeQ Monitoring, Omatic Software, JD2M, Performer CNC, and Travelmax.

Before Relay, Mina was a co-founding partner of Sverica International, which he helped launch in 1993 with Gunnar Bjorklund, Martin Steber, and Nick Babchuck after Stanford GSB. Through Sverica, he sourced the acquisition of CameraWorld.com in Portland, Oregon, led the company, and later sold it to a group of private equity funds. Relay’s history also credits the early Sverica/search-fund group with acquiring, operating, and exiting ADSI, Camera World, and AccuDocs.

Mina’s earlier career included work at the United Nations Computing Centre as a Duty Officer and at Storage Technology as a Systems Engineer. He completed an investment-banking internship at Goldman Sachs in New York in 1990, earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1991, and holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Imperial College at the University of London.

He began investing personally in search funds in 2001. Relay says that before the firm was formed, Mina personally invested in 37 search funds and 44 companies; as of Relay’s more recent materials, the firm reports 250+ search funds backed, 160+ micro-cap companies acquired, and $200M+ in AUM.

• Relay’s stated philosophy is “searcher first”: Mina told Search Funds News that the firm seeks partnerships with “talented individuals who possess entrepreneurial traits, a willingness to learn and be mentored, and the ability to reinvent themselves.”
• He frames search-fund investing as primarily a people decision: “investing in a SF is about investing in people, not assets.”
• Relay typically acts as a lead investor, taking 15-25% of a search cap table and aiming to invest $1M-$3.5M into the equity check for the acquisition.
• Relay is industry agnostic, but looks for searchers who can identify the right opportunity, get comfortable with downside risk, and preserve growth optionality.
• Mina emphasizes diligence and risk management: Relay uses a structured underwriting process, lead-investor review, investment committee discussion, and a database of prior deals and contacts.
• For Europe, Relay Investments Europe targets a €40-60M fund size, all European countries, and a sector-agnostic strategy, with a goal of acquiring 35-50 operating companies.
• Searcher traits Mina cited include purpose, relevant skills, follow-through, credibility/likability, coachability, entrepreneurial mindset, and complementarity for duos.