Call owners yourself
Best for learning the market and hearing the objections directly. Hard to sustain once warm conversations, investor updates, diligence, and LOI work start competing for the same hours.
Searcher choice
A searcher has four real sourcing options.
Sourcing is not only a vendor decision. The searcher has to decide which work belongs with the principal, which work can be delegated, and where first-call coverage creates leverage without turning the search into a black box.
Use interns or associates
Can create list volume, but requires training, QA, call discipline, and constant management. The weakest call can become the owner's first impression of the search.
Rely on sourcing platforms
Helpful for company discovery, CRM, and workflow structure. Still does not solve the hardest part: a respectful owner conversation that qualifies timing and fit.
Use Coseek for first-call coverage
Coseek calls owners using your approved search mandate and positioning, books qualified meetings, and leaves thesis, relationship, diligence, LOI, and close with you.
Search reality
Coseek gives the searcher leverage without hiding the market.
Search is supposed to teach the market. The handoff has to preserve owner language, objections, timing, and fit so the searcher can refine the thesis while qualified meetings keep moving.
Searcher time is the constraint
A good searcher talks to owners, investors, lenders, operators, and advisors. But first-call coverage can consume the entire week if every owner call sits on the searcher's calendar.
Owner calls are formative
The calls teach the market. Coseek preserves that learning in the handoff: what the owner said, why the company fits, and what the next conversation needs to answer.
The search needs discipline
Without a written qualification standard, sourcing becomes a pile of interesting companies. Coseek ties the meeting to sector, size, ownership, geography, timing, and management-transition criteria.
Owner map
Search fund sourcing depends on the owner's situation.
The call has to sound like a specific buyer, not a financial sponsor reading from a list. It has to reflect why this owner, this company, and this searcher might belong in the same conversation.
Founder succession
Owners: Founder-led businesses where the owner still carries relationships, sales, or operations
Signals: Age, family transition, management depth, fatigue, or openness to a buyer who will preserve the team and brand.
Stable services business
Owners: B2B services, facility services, route-based services, healthcare services, distribution, or niche operating companies
Signals: Recurring customers, durable margins, local density, low cyclicality, or a management layer that can survive ownership transition.
Niche software or tech-enabled business
Owners: Vertical software, workflow software, data services, managed services, and specialized platforms
Signals: Founder-led sales, profitable growth, customer concentration questions, implementation depth, or owner fatigue after years of operation.
Self-funded search
Owners: Companies that fit a narrower geography, size band, financing plan, and operator profile
Signals: Seller financing openness, lower debt tolerance, owner transition needs, or a relationship-led path that does not require a formal auction.
Operating model
Coseek owns first-call coverage. You keep the search.
Your search fund keeps thesis refinement, investor communication, lender work, diligence, LOI, and owner relationship depth. Coseek handles the repeatable phone coverage that gets qualified owners onto your calendar.
Step 1
Define what belongs
Coseek starts with sector, size band, EBITDA range, geography, ownership profile, financing constraints, exclusions, and what makes a meeting worth your time.
Step 2
Build the owner universe
Companies are mapped, fit-scored, and enriched for mobile numbers so the campaign can reach owners rather than switchboards.
Step 3
Call with your search mandate
Calls use your approved search mandate and acquisition reason. The call qualifies fit, timing, openness, succession context, and whether a meeting belongs.
Step 4
Hand off the owner context
The briefing captures owner role, company context, fit signals, timing, objections, and the question the searcher needs to answer on the first meeting.
Economics
Search fund pricing belongs on meetings and closed deals.
A search can run long, and the best owner conversations may mature slowly. Coseek's model keeps the activity fee tied to qualified owner meetings and the larger upside tied to closed deals.
$750
Per qualified meeting
Paid when the owner meeting meets the written search 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 the model worth tracking on smaller lower middle market acquisitions.
No retainer
No monthly access fee
No monthly fee for a sourcing pod, list access, or call capacity.
Qualification
A qualified search fund meeting is owner-level, search-fit, and scheduled.
The billable standard stays objective. The briefing carries the deal nuance: owner timing, company context, management transition, fit signals, objections, and the next question for the searcher.
Qualified-meeting standard
- The owner, founder, CEO, or executive decision-maker matches the agreed contact criteria.
- The company matches the agreed sector, size band, EBITDA range, geography, ownership profile, and exclusion list.
- The call captures owner timing, openness, succession context, or another reason the searcher conversation belongs.
- A specific date and time is confirmed, and a calendar invite is sent.
Sample owner briefing
- Owner
- Founder and CEO of a regional industrial services company.
- Company context
- Second-generation owner, 80 employees, recurring commercial customers, strong operations manager in place.
- Search fit
- Matches agreed B2B services thesis, geography, employee range, and management-transition criteria.
- Timing signal
- Owner is not running a process but wants to reduce day-to-day involvement over the next 18 months.
- Why the meeting belongs
- Owner controls the decision, company fits the search criteria, and the owner agreed to meet the searcher directly.
Proof
Search fund proof stays grounded.
Coseek can name real private equity and search fund context, show lifetime qualified meetings across all partnerships, and explain the operating model. Public closed-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
Named context stays brief unless a client authorizes a fuller story.
Alternatives
Where Coseek fits in a searcher's sourcing stack.
Keep your investor network, advisor relationships, industry calls, lender conversations, personal owner relationships, and CRM. Coseek gives you qualified first-call coverage inside the search criteria.
Searcher makes every first call
High learning value, but hard to maintain while managing investors, diligence, lenders, and warm owner conversations.
Coseek handles first-call coverage and routes only qualified owner meetings to the searcher.
Intern or associate calling team
Can increase activity, but requires training, QA, and judgment the searcher still has to manage.
Coseek uses a written meeting standard, call briefings, and performance pricing instead of unmanaged activity.
Sourcing platform
Good for discovery and CRM structure, but it does not replace owner conversations.
Coseek turns the target universe into owner calls, qualified meetings, and meeting briefings.
All-in-one search platform
Useful if you want tooling, capital workflows, and search administration in one place. Less useful if the gap is owner phone coverage.
Coseek stays narrow: first-call owner coverage, qualification, calendar booking, and briefing context.
Retainer sourcing vendor
Monthly spend starts before qualified owner meetings exist.
$750 per qualified meeting plus a success fee only if a Coseek-originated deal closes.
Keep the search. Let Coseek make the first calls.
$750 per qualified meeting. 1% success fee on closed deals. $35,000 minimum. No retainer.
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