Deal source statistics for search funds?

July 31, 2024
by an investor from Columbia University - Columbia Business School in Hanover, NH, USA
Any stats out in the universe for the source of deals closed by search funds. Proprietary sourcing is preached as the gospel, but my hunch is that most closed deals are sourced via intermediaries. Especially in recent years as search funds have proliferated and PE has moved down market.
Anybody with actual data? Thought Stanford would have it but didn't see anything there.
from University of Mysore in Seattle, WA, USA
1. Total # of searchers (looking for deals, completed deals, in process, etc.) - 375K
2. # of deals completed in###-###-#### ,500
3. Source of deals (as mentioned by searchers###-###-#### Brokers - 29%, 2. Referrals from non brokers 21%, 3. Proprietary database 19% 4. Don't know, can't remember - 31%
Would others be interested in a full report? It won't be paid but I'd ask for folks to get on an email newsletter for entire report.
from Aalto University in San Francisco, CA, USA