Insights
Deal sourcing, from inside the work
Written by the people running the origination, for the people buying the companies.
Time 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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