Create website/business email or use personal email?

March 15, 2024

by a searcher from Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business in Burlington, NC, USA

Does anyone have advice on whether there is a greater response rate from business owners in reaching out from a personal email address (e.g., Gmail), which may seem less PE-like, or from a business email address you created, which may seem more professional? This is in context of a self-funded search.

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Reply by a professional
from University of Michigan in Detroit, MI, USA

No quantitative data to back it up, but my instinctive response (based on my experience in the space) would be to say it depends on the audience. A lot of sellers have built their companies from scratch, and proudly run them as a small family owned business. They may be more open to selling them to someone standing in their own image--i.e., not a PE type, but a human. Conversely, other sellers may be fixated on the bottom line and a quick sale. Perhaps they just want to sell and don't care who takes over. When working through your list of targets, try to get a feel for the type of owner behind the business (easier said then done, I know). Good luck! P.S. I always recommend that my clients form business entities to conduct their search--please don't take anything in this post to construe advice on that front one way or the other. Feel free to DM me with questions.

Reply by a searcher
from California State Polytechnic University in Columbus, OH, USA

Did you figure this out? My inclination is that as a self-funded searcher and someone who wants to convey to sellers that their business will be in good hands and operated by just one person rather than a firm, personal email - with a link to a website, would resonate better. Rather than coming up with a search name that seems to often end up having a word like "Capital" in, and just makes you seem too much like an investor/business.

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