Banker processes arrive late
By the time a company is in a formal process, the owner has advisors, valuation expectations, and a controlled buyer list. Direct calling is for the period before that happens.
Private equity reality
Off-market access is a conversation problem, not a database problem.
Deal databases, banker relationships, and referral networks all matter. The gap is direct owner coverage: who calls the owner, qualifies timing, and creates a meeting before the company is for sale.
Platforms do not create owner conversations
Grata, SourceScrub, PitchBook, Axial, and sector databases can define a market. They do not qualify whether the owner is open, tired, succession-bound, capital-constrained, or curious.
In-house origination is fixed overhead
Analysts and BD hires can work, but the cost starts before a qualified owner meeting exists. Coseek's private equity model puts the activity fee on qualified meetings and the upside on closed deals.
Where to go next
Different acquirers need different sourcing paths.
This hub explains the model. The routes below separate off-market sourcing, search fund sourcing, and lower middle market coverage so the next step matches the mandate.
Off-market deal sourcing
For private equity firms, independent sponsors, and family offices that want direct owner conversations before a banker process starts.
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Search fund deal sourcing
For searchers who need thesis discipline, owner coverage, and qualified meetings without turning the search into a data project.
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Lower middle market deal sourcing
For acquirers focused on $1M to $10M EBITDA businesses across fragmented services, industrial, software, and niche operating markets.
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Acquirer map
The same phone mechanism changes by mandate.
A platform thesis, add-on thesis, search fund, and independent sponsor all need direct owner access, but the account criteria and meeting standard are different.
Platform thesis
Targets: Founder-owned and family-owned companies that match sector, size, geography, margin, and durability criteria
Use case: A fund has a defined platform thesis and needs direct owner coverage beyond banker relationships and databases.
Add-on thesis
Targets: Operators adjacent to an existing portfolio company, often by service line, region, customer type, or capability
Use case: A portfolio company needs acquisition coverage into competitors, vendors, customers, or adjacent specialists.
Search fund acquisition
Targets: Owner-led businesses with succession, management, stability, and deal-size characteristics that fit a single acquisition
Use case: A searcher needs enough owner conversations to learn the market without spending every hour on list work and first calls.
Independent sponsor or family office
Targets: Lower middle market owners where fit depends on flexibility, relationship quality, timing, and ability to move without a fund mandate
Use case: An acquirer needs direct conversations that match a narrower, often relationship-heavy mandate.
Operating model
Coseek is the calling layer between your thesis and the owner.
Your deal team owns evaluation, relationship depth, LOI, diligence, and close. Coseek owns direct owner calling, qualification, booking, and the handoff context.
Step 1
Translate the mandate
Coseek starts with your investment criteria, EBITDA band, geography, ownership profile, deal breakers, add-on logic, and what makes a meeting worth a partner's time.
Step 2
Build the owner universe
Targets are mapped and fit-scored, then enriched for mobile numbers so calls reach owners and operators directly rather than switchboards.
Step 3
Call with your mandate context
Calls use your approved mandate and firm positioning. The call qualifies fit, timing, openness, succession context, and whether a direct buyer conversation belongs.
Step 4
Route qualified meetings
The deal team receives the calendar invite and a briefing with owner role, business context, fit signals, timing, objections, and next-step context.
Private equity economics
The activity fee is small. The outcome fee is aligned.
Private equity sourcing is not a monthly marketing subscription. Coseek earns the activity fee only when qualified owner meetings book, then participates if a Coseek-originated deal closes.
$750
Per qualified meeting
Paid when the owner meeting meets the written criteria and lands on the calendar.
1%
Success fee
Paid on the enterprise value of a closed deal that Coseek originated.
$35,000
Minimum success fee
Keeps small add-ons worth tracking without turning the model into a retainer.
No retainer
No monthly access fee
The economics sit on qualified meetings and closed deals, not monthly access.
Proof
Proof stays tied to what Coseek can show.
Coseek has named private equity and search fund client context, lifetime meeting volume across all partnerships, and phone infrastructure used for direct decision-maker calling across the business. Fuller deal stories only belong here when a client approves them.
- Qualified meetings booked across all partnerships
- 8,000+
- Connect rate, paired against a 3-5% industry baseline
- 10-15%
Private equity and search fund context
Coseek keeps this proof deliberately narrow. Named context stays brief unless a client authorizes a fuller story.
Qualification
A qualified private equity meeting is thesis-fit, owner-level, and scheduled.
The billable standard is still objective. The briefing carries the deal nuance: owner timing, company context, fit signals, objections, and what the deal team needs to know before the first conversation.
Qualified-meeting standard
- The owner, CEO, founder, or executive decision-maker matches the agreed contact criteria.
- The company matches the agreed thesis, size band, geography, ownership profile, and exclusion list.
- The call captures owner timing, openness, fit, or succession context that explains why the meeting belongs.
- A specific date and time is confirmed, and a calendar invite is sent.
Sample owner briefing
- Owner
- Founder and CEO of a regional commercial facility-services company.
- Company context
- Family-owned, 70 employees, recurring commercial contracts, owner still active in sales and operations.
- Thesis fit
- Business services platform or add-on fit, regional density, recurring revenue, low customer concentration risk based on the call.
- Timing signal
- Owner is not running a banker process but is thinking about succession and reducing day-to-day involvement over the next 12 to 24 months.
- Why the meeting belongs
- Company matches the agreed thesis, owner controls the decision, timing is early, and the owner agreed to a direct buyer conversation.
Alternatives
Where Coseek fits beside the rest of your origination stack.
Keep the bankers, databases, conference network, executive relationships, and sector advisors. Coseek gives the deal team direct owner-call coverage inside the mandate.
Bankers and brokers
Useful when a process is live, but competition, valuation expectations, and fees are already shaped.
Coseek calls owners before a formal process starts, then routes qualified owner meetings to the acquirer.
Deal databases
Useful for market mapping, but they stop at information. Someone still has to reach the owner and qualify timing.
Coseek uses the market map as an input, then makes the calls and captures owner context.
In-house origination hire
Can work, but compensation, tools, management, and ramp are fixed before qualified meetings exist.
Coseek charges $750 per qualified meeting plus a success fee only if a Coseek-originated deal closes.
Retainer origination vendor
Monthly spend starts whether the vendor reaches owners, books meetings, or routes thesis-fit companies.
No retainer. The first activity invoice arrives after the first qualified meeting.
Call the owners before the market knows they might sell.
$750 per qualified meeting. 1% success fee on closed deals. $35,000 minimum. No retainer.
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