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Deal sourcing, from inside the work
Written by the people running the origination, for the people buying the companies.
Latest
How to Measure Deal Sourcing: The Numbers That Show a Pipeline Is Working
Deals closed is a lagging metric with a feedback loop measured in years. The leading indicators a private equity BD lead can read within a quarter (coverage, universe penetration, speed, source health, stage conversion) and the two numbers that reliably mislead.
Oct 6, 2026 · 7 min read
Also new
How to Build a Target Universe for a Mandate Below $10M EBITDA
Oct 5, 2026 · 7 min read
Outsourced Deal Sourcing: What a Sourcing Concierge Model Is Actually Selling
Oct 1, 2026 · 7 min read
Grata Alternatives for a Lower Middle Market Mandate: When Grata Is the Right Tool, and When It Isn't
Sep 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Deal Screening: Cutting a 400-Company List Down to the Twenty Worth a Call
How a PE associate screens a lower middle market target list in order of what each check costs: free desk checks first, the disqualifiers worth more than any positive signal, why scores built on public data mis-rank founder-owned companies, and what to hand the partner.
Sep 28, 2026 · 7 min read
ComparisonsDeal Sourcing Software for Private Equity: What to Evaluate Before You Buy a Seat
Eight questions to ask on a deal sourcing software demo, and the answer to each that should worry a PE BD lead: coverage of never-transacted companies, where the financials come from, contact accuracy on owner-operated businesses, what happens after export, seats versus team access, and who makes the call.
Sep 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Sourcing StrategyWhat a Deal Origination Platform Actually Does (and What It Leaves You To Do)
Three different products are sold under the label deal origination platform: a company database, a pipeline workflow, and an outreach function. What each one does, where the software stops, and how a BD lead works out which of the three the firm is actually missing.
Sep 22, 2026 · 8 min read
ProcessHow to Tell Whether a Lower Middle Market Deal Is Real Before You Spend Partner Time
A listing being visible says nothing about whether it is available. Seven checks that separate a live deal from a dead one, in the order they cost you the least, and what a straight answer from an intermediary actually sounds like.
Sep 21, 2026 · 4 min read
ProcessWorking With Business Brokers as a PE Buyer Without Overpaying
Brokered processes are where most lower middle market deals actually are, and where institutional buyers most often pay for the wrong reasons. How to be the buyer a broker wants without bidding like one.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
Sourcing StrategyWhat "Proprietary Deal Flow" Actually Means Below $10M EBITDA
Most of what gets sold as proprietary deal flow is a list nobody else has bought yet. The real thing is narrower, slower and worth more — here is the test that separates them, and what it costs to build.
Sep 20, 2026 · 5 min read
ComparisonsWhat Deal Sourcing Actually Costs: Platform, Buy-Side Broker and Retained Search Compared
Published price anchors for every model a lower middle market acquirer can buy, from $299 a month to a retained engagement — and the more useful question underneath the price, which is what each one leaves you still having to do.
Sep 20, 2026 · 4 min read
ProcessTime to NDA, Time to CIM: What a Fast On-Market Process Looks Like
The days between a teaser landing and a CIM arriving decide more lower middle market deals than price does. What each step should take, where it actually stalls, and how to shorten the part you control.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
For Sponsors & SearchersSearch Fund Deal Sourcing Beyond the Listing Sites
Listing sites are where every searcher starts and where most searches stall. The five channels that sit beyond them, what each costs in time rather than money, and how a solo buyer gets taken seriously by intermediaries.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
Sourcing StrategyPrivate Equity Deal Sourcing Strategies That Survive a $2–10M EBITDA Mandate
Most published sourcing strategy is written for the middle market and assumes, without saying so, a banker network, an associate bench and a transacted universe. Seven that hold up when the target has never raised, never sold, and has no advisor.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
Sourcing StrategyHow Private Equity Firms Find Deals in the Lower Middle Market
Four channels produce lower middle market deal flow: intermediated listings, pre-market engagements, proprietary outreach, and the firm's own network. What each one actually yields, what it costs in hours, and why most firms are strong in one and blind in the rest.
Sep 20, 2026 · 5 min read
Sourcing StrategyHow Deal Sourcing Is Changing in the Lower Middle Market
Software has changed how lower middle market targets are found and prioritized. It has not changed who answers the phone. What actually moved, what did not, and where a small team should spend its hours.
Sep 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Sourcing StrategyHow Brokers Decide Which Buyers See a Deal — and How to Get on the List
An intermediary with a live lower middle market deal sends it to a handful of buyers, not to the market. Six things that decide whether you are one of them, and the specific ways buyers take themselves off the list without noticing.
Sep 20, 2026 · 4 min read
For Sponsors & SearchersDeal Sourcing for Independent Sponsors and Funded Searchers: The Stack the Incumbents Price Out
The tools built for institutional sourcing are priced for institutions. What the category actually costs at the small end, what each tier buys, and how to assemble coverage on a budget that is a fraction of a single enterprise seat.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
ComparisonsData Tools vs Sourcing Services: What a Grata or PitchBook Seat Gives You, and What It Doesn't
Both are excellent at what they were built for, and neither was built to call an owner. A sourced, dated account of what each product publishes about itself — and where the line between information and capacity actually falls.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
Sourcing StrategyHow Corporate Development Teams Build an Add-On Pipeline Without a Sourcing Headcount
A two- or three-person corp dev team cannot run a sourcing function on top of its day job. The operating model that works instead: one written thesis, a ten-minute daily decision, bought capacity for the volume work, and operators as the origination channel nobody staffs.
Sep 20, 2026 · 6 min read
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