Best Deal Sourcing Resources

Member resources:

Frequent asked questions:

What is Searchfunder.com?

Searchfunder.com is an online community of searchers, investors, lenders, brokers and other professionals. Over 80% of those involved in searchfunds maintain a Searchfunder account to help them network, hire, and mentor others.

What are the benefits of membership?

In addition to accessing the most active online network of business buyers, Searchfunder licenses research that is simply not cost effective for individuals. Access over 15,000 industry reports and 50,000 transaction financials. You also get monthly credits for contact information for your company sourcing campaign with the option to purchase more at drastically discounted rates. Searchfunder has pre-purchased access from these data providers in order to empower individual buyers and to help searchers level the playing field versus private equity.

Do you have deals?

While we are primarily a buy-side network, we do have hundreds of brokers that regularly post deals to the community.

Can I find an internship on Searchfunder?

Absolutely! We have the industry's largest intern job board. If you are considering a search, the first step is to help another business buyer so you can hit the ground running.

What does it cost?

Searchfunder is a subscription service. We offer flexible monthly, annual and lifetime memberships.

Monthly

$79 / month

Annual

$19 / month

Lifetime

$432 / once

Those who maintain an account with us for over 4 continuous years are permanently added to the community without the need for a membership.

Do I need an MBA to join?

While a large number of our members come from dedicated programs at Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Chicago Booth, and other top programs, searching is no longer reserved for the elite. With the current abundance of dry powder in private equity, and an increasing number of business owners reaching retirement age, good deals rarely go unfunded.

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by a searcher from Rice University - Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business
in Houston, TX, USA

2yrs ago

Best Deal Sourcing Resources

Hi Everyone,

Curious as to what you feel has been worth it when sourcing your deals? It could be software, cold outreaches, etc., however, I'd love to understand more in depth what has been worth your time and what hasn't in detail. If you searched for items off market, how did you get those emails/lists? If you went on market, did you work on relationships with brokers and sent them materials (could you share the materials?). Thanks in advance!

1 Like

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reply by a searcher 2yrs ago
from Gonzaga University in Seattle, WA, USA

Hey Alexa, personally for me, i use referenceUSA, which is a free resource from public library. You can export information about the owner contact information. From there I either send out a direct email or sometime I mail out a letter which has a higher chance of them opening it.

reply by a searcher 2yrs ago
from The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA

I ran a traditional, industry-focused search and spent 90%+ of my sourcing time on direct outreach and/or warm intros through network/river guides. For direct outreach, I primarily used LinkedIn, conference/industry association websites, and PPP loan data to find companies. For contact info I used a combination of RocketReach and freelancers on Upwork to find/scrub. Many more recent searchers use Grata, and some traditional search investors can get you a discount, but I'm not as familiar with that tool.