(FORTUNE Small Business) – Marshall Johnson wants to run a company. He just doesn't want to start one. So he left his job as sales VP at Weathernews, a climate-information company, and became one of a small but growing number of entrepreneurs raising search funds. These war chests--solicited from VCs and angel investors--finance a young entrepreneur's two- to three-year hunt for a solid company to buy, at which point investors get first dibs at purchasing an equity stake on the next round of funding. "My goal was running a company, but I realized I didn't have dealmaking experience," says Johnson. "That's why I picked the model."

Johnson met with Irv Grousbeck, a Stanford professor and a father of search funds (and part owner of the Boston Celtics), who describes them as vehicles to join promising recent MBAs with strong advisors: "Investors are buying an option: Go find a company and bring it to us." The number of search funds started each year has risen from five in 2002 to about ten today, says Grousbeck. --I.M.