How Did Private Equity Find Me?

How did private equity find me?”

That’s one of the most common questions I get from agency owners.

Here’s the process I use (and I suspect most other buyers aren’t too different):


Step 1: Define the ideal candidate

Here, we set the criteria for agencies that we want to acquire – industry focus, products offered, size, and overall fit.


Step 2: Build the master list

Using various research tools, we create a list of every agency that checks those boxes.


Step 3: Narrow it down

Deep “desktop research” using Google, LinkedIn, customer reviews, referrals and other public and private datasets. We dig into founders, culture, track record, and reputation. This is the most time-consuming step—but also the most important because it helps us make sure that we are reaching out only to the agencies that we believe could be good fits.


Step 4: Outreach

Once we’re confident there’s alignment, we reach out directly to the founders and executive teams to start a conversation.


👉 From the outside, that call or email might look like a generic blast. But in reality, a huge amount of effort has gone into identifying you as a strong fit before we ever hit send.