IMO the author has the entire idea of why people do this wrong. If you can raise tens of millions of dollars on the idea that you will be able to buy a business

IMO the author has the entire idea of why people do this wrong. If you can raise tens of millions of dollars on the idea that you will be able to buy a business and get a 3-6x ROI for your investors in a 3 year timeframe, before even identifying the acquisition target, I sincerely doubt you're in it for a temporary ego boost. It's extremely difficult to move up the ladder of a PE firm to the partner level, so often times associates/analysts will strike out on their own as a fundless sponsor or start a search fund.