We call lower middle market business owners using the mandate and positioning your deal team approves. The call qualifies thesis fit and owner timing, then routes qualified meetings before a banker process starts.
$750 per qualified meeting. 1% success fee on closed deals. $35,000 minimum. No retainer.
Private equity reality
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.
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.
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.
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
Use the route that matches the mandate: off-market owner coverage, search fund sourcing, or lower middle market coverage.
For private equity firms, independent sponsors, and family offices that want direct owner conversations before a banker process starts.
For searchers who need thesis discipline, owner coverage, and qualified meetings without turning the search into a data project.
For acquirers focused on $1M to $10M EBITDA businesses across fragmented services, industrial, software, and niche operating markets.
Acquirer map
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Your team owns evaluation, relationship depth, LOI, diligence, and close. We own direct owner calling, qualification, booking, and the handoff context.
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.
Targets are mapped and fit-scored, then enriched for mobile numbers so calls reach owners and operators directly rather than switchboards.
Calls use your approved mandate and firm positioning. The call qualifies fit, timing, openness, succession context, and whether a direct buyer conversation belongs.
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
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.
Paid when the owner meeting meets the written criteria and lands on the calendar.
Paid on the enterprise value of a closed deal that Coseek originated.
Keeps small add-ons worth tracking without turning the model into a retainer.
The economics sit on qualified meetings and closed deals, not monthly access.
Proof
PE proof is not a loose logo story. The proof is owner calls inside the mandate: owner-call mechanism, mandate qualification, meeting standard, economics, and approved PE/search-fund context.
Qualification
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.
Founder and CEO of a regional commercial facility-services company.
Family-owned, 70 employees, recurring commercial contracts, owner still active in sales and operations.
Business services platform or add-on fit, regional density, recurring revenue, low customer concentration risk based on the call.
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.
Company matches the agreed thesis, owner controls the decision, timing is early, and the owner agreed to a direct buyer conversation.
Alternatives
Keep the bankers, databases, conference network, executive relationships, and sector advisors. We add direct owner-call coverage inside the mandate.
Traditional origination
Useful when a process is live, but competition, valuation expectations, and fees are already shaped.
Coseek owner-call layer
Coseek calls owners before a formal process starts, then routes qualified owner meetings to the acquirer.
Traditional origination
Useful for market mapping, but they stop at information. Someone still has to reach the owner and qualify timing.
Coseek owner-call layer
Coseek uses the market map as an input, then makes the calls and captures owner context.
Traditional origination
Can work, but compensation, tools, management, and ramp are fixed before qualified meetings exist.
Coseek owner-call layer
Coseek charges $750 per qualified meeting plus a success fee only if a Coseek-originated deal closes.
Traditional origination
Monthly spend starts whether the vendor reaches owners, books meetings, or routes thesis-fit companies.
Coseek owner-call layer
No retainer. Qualified owner meetings and closed deals drive the economics.
$750 per qualified meeting. 1% success fee on closed deals. $35,000 minimum. No retainer.