Deal origination
Finding the right businesses and starting the right conversations, for M&A advisors and private equity.
Deal origination · Capital advisory
The businesses worth buying are rarely for sale.
An independent origination firm standing between capital and companies. We work with M&A advisors, private equity and lenders to find the businesses they are looking for, and with owners who want to know what a sale could look like before committing to a process.
400+
Owner conversations in six weeks
100%
Off-market and proprietary
Nil
Success fees, on any transaction
Across two live mandates. Detail under Results.
By the time a business is listed, the conversation has already happened without you.
An owner who has appointed an adviser has made the decision, and a process is built to put ten buyers in the same room. The terms are set by the auction rather than by the relationship. The same holds in reverse: the lender or investor best suited to a business is rarely the one who finds it through a broadcast process.
Our work sits earlier than that. We research a market properly, establish who has a reason to talk now, and make the approach before anyone is formally in process. It is slower than a database export, and it is the only way to be first.
Practices
Three practices. One way of working.
Every engagement starts with the outcome you are working toward, whether that is an acquisition, a mandate, or capital.
Capital advisory
Connecting businesses with the lenders and investors that fit the opportunity.
Owner introductions
For owners weighing a sale: a direct line to buyers already searching, without listing the business.
Our approach
Considered research. Lasting relationships.
We research who to approach, make contact on your behalf, and stay involved after the introduction. The research and the relationship records remain with your firm.
01 · Research
Find the right opportunities
We look for the businesses and investors that fit your priorities, then examine why the timing might be right. An owner approaching retirement, a competitor recently taken by private equity, a loan coming due, a management team built out beneath the founder: each is a reason a conversation may be welcome now.
02 · Introductions
Start the right conversations
We make a considered approach on your behalf. Before anyone reaches your calendar we establish what they are looking for, whether there is a genuine fit, and when they intend to act. Your team receives that context ahead of the meeting rather than discovering it in the room.
03 · Follow-up
Keep relationships moving
We record next steps and stay in contact with those who are not ready yet. Few owners are ready the first time they are asked, and the timing usually turns on something we cannot see. Your firm keeps a clear view of every relationship and where it stands.
How we work
A clear brief. A consistent process.
You know who is responsible, what happens next, and how the work is progressing. Nothing is sent until you have approved it.
01
Weeks 1–2
Agree the priorities.
We agree the sectors, business size, ownership and timing that matter to your firm, with example businesses on both sides of the line so nothing is ambiguous. We then research the businesses and people that meet those requirements.
02
Weeks 2–3
Agree the approach.
We establish why a conversation would be worthwhile for each group we intend to approach, and how your firm and its interests are described. Your team reviews every word before anyone is contacted.
03
Week 3 onward
Make contact.
We contact the businesses and people identified in the research, explain your interest, and handle every response. You receive a weekly account of who has been reached and what we have learned about the market.
04
Ongoing
Assess fit and introduce.
We establish what each interested party is looking for, their financial position and their timing. Where there is a fit we arrange the introduction and prepare a written brief for your team beforehand.
05
Ongoing
Maintain the relationship.
We track next steps and keep in contact where more time is needed. Your team leads the transaction discussions and the decisions. The research, the contact records and the relationship history remain with your firm.
Selected results
Results, on the record.
Three mandates in owner-operated markets, each from a standing start. Figures cover the opening weeks of each engagement.
Private equity · acquisition search
39 introductions in six weeks
ABridge Keystone Partners
A search for a single US essential-services business to acquire and operate. Three existing sources were between them producing two or three owner conversations a week.
179Owners open to a conversation
5–10Qualified conversations per week
M&A advisory · sell-side
38 introductions in six weeks
Westonview Partners
An advisory firm running sell-side processes for founder-owned businesses across Canada, where the previous arrangement was producing roughly one meeting a week.
242Owners open to a conversation
6×Increase on the prior rate
Permanent capital · acquisitions
4–5 seller conversations a week
Inception Equity Partners
A holding company acquiring technical and industrial compliance businesses, working a fragmented market where almost none of the owners were reachable through standard sources.
4–5Qualified conversations per week
2 weeksTo the first conversations
“You’ve proven my skepticism to be wrong. My calendar has been steadily filled up with calls that you and the team have generated … in a month or so that we’ve been working together, I think thirty calls, which is well in excess of what I was generating on my own.”
Questions
Before you get in touch
What does an origination partner do?
An origination partner finds and opens the conversations that lead to transactions. In practice that is three things: researching a market properly to establish who is worth approaching, making a considered approach on your behalf, and staying with the relationship until the timing is right.
We originate. You advise, negotiate and transact.
Whose name do the approaches go out in?
Yours. We act on your behalf and under your firm's name, and your team approves how the firm and its interests are described before anyone is contacted. The relationship belongs to you from the first conversation, and the contact records remain with you afterwards.
Someone from your firm contacted me about my business. Who are you?
We are an origination firm. A buyer or an adviser engages us to find businesses that fit what they are looking for, and we make the first approach on their behalf. If you were contacted, a specific firm was interested in businesses like yours, and we will tell you plainly who they are if you ask.
There is no obligation and nothing to sign. Most of these conversations end with an owner knowing roughly what their business might be worth and who is buying in their sector, which is useful whether or not they ever sell.
Does any of this cost a business owner anything?
No. Our fees are paid by the firms that engage us, as a fixed monthly amount. We are never paid a percentage of a transaction, by either side, so there is nothing charged to an owner at any point and nothing taken out of a sale.
How is this different from a buy-side adviser?
A buy-side adviser is usually paid a retainer plus a percentage of transaction value, which falls due precisely when you succeed. We are engaged for the origination work at a fixed fee and never take a share of a transaction.
That difference also governs exclusivity. A firm paid on success has every reason to show an opportunity to as many of its clients as possible. We have none, so the research and the conversations stay with you.
How quickly do conversations begin?
Contact begins in week three, once the criteria and the approach have been agreed and approved. First conversations typically arrive within the opening month and build from there.
We will be straight with you that this is relationship building rather than a quick result, so we give ranges rather than promises. What moves the range is how broad the brief is, the geography, and how deep the market runs.
Is the research exclusive to our firm?
Yes. We do not run the same brief for a competing acquirer or a competing adviser in the same market, and our fee model gives us no reason to. Where an incoming engagement would conflict with yours, we say so and decline it.
Will this affect how owners see our firm?
It is designed around that question. Owners are approached constantly and carelessly, so a researched, specific and respectful approach stands out because it is rare. On sell-side work we verify ownership on every record and exclude everyone else, which keeps the approach away from staff and avoids signaling that a business may be for sale.
Which markets and transaction sizes do you cover?
We work to your brief. The approach is strongest where owners are directly reachable, which in practice means small, mid-market and lower-middle-market businesses across the UK, North America and Europe. If your criteria are unusual, ask: researching unusual markets is the work.
Are you a broker, an adviser or a placement agent?
No. We provide origination, research and introduction services only. We do not advise on the merits of any transaction or security, we do not negotiate terms, we do not hold client money, and we are never paid a percentage of a completed transaction. The advisory, legal and regulated work sits with you and your professional advisers.
Contact
Discuss your firm with us.
Tell us what you are working toward, the market you operate in, and the decision in front of you. We will tell you plainly whether one of our practices can help, and say so if it cannot.